Fantômas · Characters
Character guide
Key figures in Fantômas by Pierre Souvestre.
Skim names here — open a free preview to see character cards and Character Web beside the page as you read.
Inspector Juve
major
Also known as Juve, M. Juve, Detective Juve, Detective-Inspector Juve
The Criminal Investigation Department's most relentless inspector, who has sworn to take Fantômas body and soul — though his quarry is everywhere and nowhere at once.
Fantômas
major
Also known as Fantômas
A living person who is impossible to catch or identify, he wears the faces of the famous and the obscure alike, and his shadow falls across the most inexplicable crimes.
Jérôme Fandor
major
Also known as Fandor, the Lancaster Jérôme Fandor
A young man so consumed by the Fantômas affair that he shadowed Inspector Juve for days, convinced the detective himself might be the master criminal.
Lady Beltham
major
Also known as Beltham, this Lady Beltham
A beautiful, charitable English widow whose composure in the witness-box cannot quite hide the whispers that she knows more about her husband's murder than she will say.
Princess Sonia Danidoff
supporting
Also known as Princess Sonia, Sonia Danidoff, Princess
A Russian princess alone in a grand hotel, whose quiet evening with an old folk-tale is shattered by a well-dressed stranger reading over her shoulder.
Etienne Rambert
supporting
Also known as Rambert, M. Etienne Rambert, M. Rambert
A first-class passenger listed aboard a doomed liner, whose name on the manifest becomes a knot of grief, doubt, and unanswered questions for those left ashore.
Charles Rambert
supporting
Also known as Young Charles Rambert, Charles, M. Charles Rambert, young Rambert
Charles Rambert arrives in Paris already tangled in suspicion — the Langrune affair, the Danidoff robbery, and a brawl at a hotel where he fought a man over Mademoiselle Jeanne. Juve clears him not through testimony but through anthropometric records and a strength test that proves his weakness, a strange kind of exoneration that leaves him still half a prisoner. His panic and his disguises make him a moving target in a case where identity itself is the crime scene.
Thérèse Auvernois
supporting
Also known as Thérèse, Mademoiselle Thérèse, Mademoiselle, little Thérèse
Thérèse Auvernois sits in the Cahors courtroom in a long mourning veil, the ward of Mme. de Vibray and the temporary charge of President Bonnet, watching the man accused in the Langrune affair take his seat. She is the emotional center of the gallery — pointed out with sympathy, pale, refusing to leave even when the Baronne offers to take her outside. Her grief and her attachment to Charles Rambert make the trial not just a legal spectacle but a private wound.
M. Gurn
supporting
Also known as Gurn, Moodily Gurn
Gurn sits in his cell weighing whether to confide in the old warder Siegenthal, then finds himself summoned to the barristers' room and handed over to Roger de Seras, a dandyish young licentiate who cannot decide whether to shake his hand. He has retained Maître Barberoux but has no intention of letting the case become a sensation — the flatter it falls, the better for whatever he is protecting. His caution, his amusement, and his refusal to be a spectacle make him one of the novel's most controlled and least readable men.
Valgrand
supporting
Also known as M. Valgrand, the admirable Valgrand
Valgrand holds court in his dressing-room after a performance, promising locks of his beard to the Baronne de Vibray and Simone Holbord, sighing about Love, and teasing his dresser Charlot about the violet-inked letters waiting in his pile. He is charming, vain, and entirely at ease in the theatrical world where appearance is profession. That ease is exactly what makes him useful to a criminal who needs a face, a voice, and a reputation that no one would question.
Lord Beltham
supporting
Also known as Beltham
Lord Beltham, formerly of the English Embassy in Paris and a veteran of the Transvaal with his courageous wife, has vanished from the social world that knew him at Neuilly-sur-Seine. Juve tells La Capitale that a crime lies behind the disappearance and that Fantômas may be responsible, a claim that chills the dinner party where it is repeated. His absence is the novel's first great hole in the social fabric — a man of standing erased, and no one yet able to say how or why.
Bouzille
supporting
Bouzille moves through the market with the anonymity of a working man, exactly the kind of figure a detective needs when the criminal is a master of disguise. He is not a theorist of crime or a man of society; he is a pair of hands and a memory in the places where information actually changes hands. His usefulness to Juve lies precisely in how unremarkable he is — the opposite of Fantômas, and therefore the harder kind of asset to counterfeit.
M. Henri Verbier
minor
Also known as M. Verbier, Henri Verbier, Verbier
An enterprising man whose advances scandalize Thérèse.
Nibet
minor
Also known as M. Nibet, the warder Nibet
A prison warder involved in the case.
Charlot
minor
Also known as the bewildered Charlot
A bewildered character caught up in events.
Mme. Rambert
minor
Also known as Mme, Rambert
Wife of Etienne Rambert, mother of Charles.
Hogshead Geoffroy
minor
Also known as Geoffroy, the Hogshead, Hogshead
A sturdy, rough character in the criminal milieu.
Mademoiselle Jeanne
minor
Also known as Jeanne, Jean
A young woman who appears in a chapter titled after her.
M. Dollon
minor
Also known as Dollon
A magistrate or official involved in the investigation.
Detective M. Fuselier
minor
Also known as M. Fuselier, Fuselier, Germain Fuselier
A detective colleague of Juve.
Baronne de Vibray
minor
Also known as the Baronne de Vibray, the Baronne
A noblewoman involved in the social circle.
Muller
minor
Also known as M. Muller
A character associated with the criminal underworld.
Marquise de Langrune
minor
Also known as the Marquise de Langrune, Marquise, la Marquise
A noblewoman, possibly related to Mme. de Langrune.
M. de Presles
minor
Also known as the Man M. de Presles, de Presles
A man of some standing involved in the plot.
Mme. Doulenques
minor
Also known as Mme, Doulenques
A woman in the story, possibly a housekeeper.
Mother Chiquard
minor
Also known as old mother Chiquard, Mother Chiquard
An old woman who peels potatoes and serves soup.
President Bonnet
minor
Also known as President
A president of the court or tribunal.
Mealy Benoît
minor
Also known as Benoît, Mealy
A character with a nickname, likely a criminal.
Julot
minor
Also known as M. Julot
A minor character in the criminal world.
Roger de Seras
minor
Also known as Maître Roger de Seras, young Roger de Seras
A young lawyer or nobleman.
M. Louis
minor
Also known as Louis
A minor character, possibly a servant.
Old Siegenthal
minor
Also known as Siegenthal
An older character, possibly a servant or local.
Lisbeth
minor
Also known as Miss Lisbeth
A young woman, possibly a maid.
Susannah
minor
A minor female character.
Maître Barberoux
minor
A lawyer or notary.
Mme. de Langrune
minor
Also known as Mme, de Langrune
A noblewoman, possibly the Marquise de Langrune.
Dr. Biron
minor
A doctor who appears in the story.
Professor Swelding
minor
Also known as Swelding, Professor
A professor, possibly a scientist or academic.
M. Deibler
minor
Also known as Deibler
The executioner, associated with the scaffold.
Walter
minor
A minor character, possibly a servant.
François Paul
minor
Also known as Paul
A minor character, possibly a servant or worker.
M. Gervais Aventin
minor
Also known as Gervais Aventin
A character with a brief appearance.
Hervé
minor
Also known as Hervé Paul Etienne Rambert, Paul
A variant name for Etienne Rambert or a relative.
Mr. Wooland
minor
A minor character, possibly English.
Louise
minor
Also known as the dismayed Louise, Mme, Mme . Louise
A dismayed servant or housekeeper.
Mme. Van den Rosen
minor
Also known as Mme, Van den Rosen
A woman of some social standing.
Mr. William Hope
minor
Also known as Mr. Hope, dear Mr. Hope
A reverend or gentleman, possibly English.
Morand
minor
Also known as M'sieu Morand
A minor character, possibly a criminal.
Marie
minor
A minor female character.
M. Barbey
minor
Also known as Barbey
A minor character, possibly a police officer.
Mme. Simone Holbord
minor
Also known as Mme . Holbord, Simone, Holbord, Simone Holbord
A woman, possibly related to Colonel Holbord.
Michu
minor
Also known as old Michu
An old man, possibly a servant or local.
M. Perret
minor
Also known as Perret
A minor character.
Comte de Baral
minor
Also known as the Comte de Baral, Comte
A count, husband of the Comtesse de Baral.
Comtesse Marcelline de Baral
minor
Also known as the Comtesse de Baral, de Baral, Comtesse Marcelline de Baral
A countess, wife of the Comte de Baral.
Sembadel
minor
A minor character.
Ernestine
minor
A minor female character.
Silbertown
minor
A minor character, possibly a location name used as a person.
Nadine
minor
A minor female character.
François Bonbonne
minor
Also known as Bonbonne
A minor character.
Colonel Holbord
minor
Also known as Colonel
A colonel, possibly related to Simone Holbord.
Baronne Van den Rosen
minor
A baroness, possibly related to Mme. Van den Rosen.
Jean
minor
Also known as Poor Jean, Jeanne
A minor character, possibly a servant.
Gad
minor
A minor character.
Sergeant Doucet
minor
Also known as sergeant Doucet
A police sergeant.
M. Havard
minor
A minor character, possibly a police officer.
M. Morin
minor
Also known as old Morin
An old man, possibly a servant or local.
Colas
minor
A minor character.
Frantz
minor
A minor character, possibly a servant.
Alice Rambert
minor
Also known as Alice
A member of the Rambert family.
M. Geoffroy
minor
Also known as Geoffroy
A minor character, possibly distinct from Hogshead Geoffroy.
Billy Tom
minor
A minor character, possibly English.
Jacques
minor
A minor character.
Abbé Sicot
minor
Also known as the Abbé Sicot
A priest or clergyman.
Maud
minor
A minor female character.