# Béatrix — Character guide

> Key figures in Béatrix by Honoré de Balzac.

- [Calyste du Guénic](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/b_atrix_se/characters/calyste_du_guenic.md): Young Breton nobleman, central character torn between love and duty.
- [Camille Maupin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/b_atrix_se/characters/camille_maupin.md): Renowned writer and intellectual, a key figure in the social circle.
- [Béatrix de Rochefide](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/b_atrix_se/characters/beatrix_de_rochefide.md): Beautiful and ambitious marquise, object of Calyste's infatuation.
- [Félicité des Touches](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/b_atrix_se/characters/felicite_des_touches.md): Wealthy patroness of the arts and friend to Camille Maupin.
- [Sabine du Guénic](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/b_atrix_se/characters/sabine_du_guenic.md): Calyste's wife, a duchess's daughter who suffers from his infidelity.
- [Madame Schontz](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/b_atrix_se/characters/madame_schontz.md): Clever courtesan and friend to several characters in Paris.
- [Maxime de Trailles](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/b_atrix_se/characters/maxime_de_trailles.md): Maxime de Trailles moves through aristocratic salons as a man of fashion whose wit and polish mask a predatory instinct for pleasure and profit. He embodies the cynical Parisian type Balzac returns to across the Comédie 
- [Marquise de Rochefide (elder)](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/b_atrix_se/characters/marquise_de_rochefide_elder.md): As the keeper of aristocratic tradition, the old Marquise represents the Faubourg Saint-Germain's unforgiving standards of honor and propriety. Her disapproval hangs over the Rochefide household, sharpening the contrast 
- [Gennaro Conti](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/b_atrix_se/characters/gennaro_conti.md): Conti is the celebrated musician whose genius and Mediterranean fire draw Béatrix away from her dull husband and into the dangerous territory of adulterous love. He represents the artist as seducer — a figure Balzac trea
- [Claude Vignon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/b_atrix_se/characters/claude_vignon.md): Claude Vignon is the celebrated critic whose analytical mind sees through everyone around him, including Camille Maupin, who has taken him as a companion at Les Touches. His devastating midnight speech to Camille exposes
- [Mademoiselle de Pen-Hoël](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/b_atrix_se/characters/mademoiselle_de_pen_hoel.md): Mademoiselle de Pen-Hoël belongs to the closed, devout world of Guérande, where lineage, land, and Catholic observance define a person's worth. She watches over Calyste's family interests with a suspicious eye, particula
- [Arthur de Rochefide](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/b_atrix_se/characters/arthur_de_rochefide.md): Arthur de Rochefide is the decent but ineffectual aristocrat whose marriage to the beautiful, restless Béatrix becomes a slow humiliation. Lacking the force of character to command his wife's respect or restrain her pass
- [Charlotte de Kergarouët](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/b_atrix_se/characters/charlotte_de_kergarouet.md): Charlotte belongs to the provincial world of Guérande, where marriage is a matter of family arrangement and quiet suitability. She represents the path Calyste's mother would approve — a match without the fever of Parisia
- [Gasselin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/b_atrix_se/characters/gasselin.md): Loyal servant and groom to the du Guénic family.
- [Baronne du Guénic](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/b_atrix_se/characters/baronne_du_guenic.md): Calyste's mother, a pious and loving Breton noblewoman.
- [La Palférine](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/b_atrix_se/characters/la_palferine.md): Eccentric and impoverished nobleman, a friend of Maxime.
- [Thisbe](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/b_atrix_se/characters/thisbe.md): Dog belonging to Mademoiselle des Touches.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/b_atrix_se/characters