# Downstream — Character guide

> Key figures in Downstream by Sigfrid Siwertz.

- [Laura](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/downstream_se/characters/laura.md): Laura rebuilt her social position after the divorce by posing as a deserted mother, then discovered that the ladies bored her and that she preferred men, cards, and financiers to mothers' circles. Her dressing table is a
- [Peter Selamb](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/downstream_se/characters/peter.md): Peter has just failed to be promoted and spends his summer holidays grinding at algebra in the dilapidated room once used by Old Hök to surveil the estate. He cannot concentrate, cannot look anything straight in the face
- [Hedvig](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/downstream_se/characters/hedvig.md): Raised on old Kristin's threats about the sugar box and the Bogey Man, Hedvig grew up fearing a God who punishes incendiaries and watches brownies, and she never escaped those first impressions. Now a trained nurse, she 
- [Stellan Selamb](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/downstream_se/characters/stellan.md): Stellan lives on an inborn conviction that the best belongs to him and his kind, which is precisely why he stays afloat while his finances rot. He shrugs off his debts as a way of keeping from getting fat, dodges his col
- [Tord Selamb](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/downstream_se/characters/tord.md): Tord has withdrawn to his log castle on the dark hill of Järnö, where he fires warning shots at boats and is pursued by the provincial governor for neglect. The family tells stories about him at dinner with a mixture of 
- [Percy Hill](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/downstream_se/characters/percy.md): Percy is dissatisfied with his nurse and desperate for a face and temperament worth an artist's attention, so Stellan promises him his sister Hedvig and casually collects Percy's signature on a bill before leaving. Percy
- [Herman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/downstream_se/characters/herman.md): Herman is the eligible young man of Ekbacken, the household where Laura Selamb performs her most flattering self, and his father secretly delights in the pair's walks together. He is at once shy and hurt in the neglected
- [Jacob Levy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/downstream_se/characters/jacob_levy.md): Levy is the outsider who talks his way past Hedvig's defences, mocking her moss-grown fortune as a fund for widows and orphans while offering her six percent instead of three and a half. His quick, purposeful assurance f
- [Dagmar Selamb](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/downstream_se/characters/dagmar_selamb.md): Dagmar lives in the wind-shaken house at Selambshof, grey-complexioned and ragged, so isolated she has not spoken to a woman in years. When Laura and Stellan arrive with boxes of food, she dives into a wardrobe to make h
- [Manne von Strelert](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/downstream_se/characters/manne_von_strelert.md): Manne moves easily among the uniforms and quadrille riders at the tennis pavilion, protesting gallantly that charming ladies should not be tempted into the clouds. His teasing about the cavalry being outdistanced by the 
- [Herman Hermansson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/downstream_se/characters/herman_hermansson.md): Old Hermansson rose by marrying his employer's daughter, and he still regards Selambshof as an old distinguished place, secretly flattered that Laura walks with Herman. He nods pensively at her complaints about Peter, wh
- [Frida Öberg](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/downstream_se/characters/frida.md): Frida arrives with a bundle of starched shirts and the memory of a night Peter once glimpsed her behind a blind, and she defends herself laughingly when he seizes her for a grotesque dance. She is worldly enough to stop 
- [Georg Hermansson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/downstream_se/characters/georg_hermansson.md): Georg is the child Laura once displayed as a deserted mother's baby and now hides away as a reminder of her age, handed off to changing nurses and strangers whenever she travels or entertains. He lies awake in the dark l
- [Kristin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/downstream_se/characters/kristin.md): An elderly servant or family member, often in the background.
- [Oskar Selamb](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/downstream_se/characters/oskar_selamb.md): An older Selamb family member, possibly a patriarch figure.
- [Mr. Brundin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/downstream_se/characters/brundin.md): A formidable character, possibly a rival or authority figure.
- [Elvira Lähnfeldt](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/downstream_se/characters/elvira_lahnfeldt.md): A woman from the Lähnfeldt family, involved in social circles.
- [Count Lähnfeldt](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/downstream_se/characters/count_lahnfeldt.md): A count and head of the Lähnfeldt family, a noble figure.
- [Bernhard](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/downstream_se/characters/bernhard.md): A young boy, possibly a child in the story.
- [Ohlesson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/downstream_se/characters/ohlesson.md): A minor character, possibly a local or worker.

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