Character guide

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.