# Rose — Germinie Lacerteux character guide

> Rose in Germinie Lacerteux by Edmond de Goncourt.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Poor Rose

**First appearance:** 0005-iii

## Snapshot

A longtime servant of the household, faithful for twenty-five years, whose death leaves a void no habit can fill.

## Who they are

Rose is the devoted servant who kept the keys, opened the letters, tucked the children into bed, and knew every mistress and every sorrow of the family she served. Cheerful and hopeful even in her hospital bed, planning her return to the garden and asking after the child, she dies within days of a visit that seemed full of life. Her death is a wrench in the household's daily existence—a piece of their life, part of the furniture of the apartment, gone—and it registers the novel's steady attention to the lives of servants as fully felt, fully mourned.

## Relationships

### [Germinie Lacerteux](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/germinie_lacerteux_se/characters/germinie_lacerteux)

_friendship_

Rose is a fellow servant and friend of Germinie, sharing her daily life and minor confidences.

### [Joseph](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/germinie_lacerteux_se/characters/joseph)

_social_

Joseph and Rose are acquaintances through Germinie, with no deep personal connection.

## In the story

### [Second Preface](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/germinie_lacerteux_se/chapters/second-preface)

The servant whose secret life of passion, theft, and illness is revealed after her death.

### [LX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/germinie_lacerteux_se/chapters/lx)

Mentioned as the cook who is involved in a romantic affair with the manservant.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/germinie_lacerteux_se/characters/rose
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/germinie_lacerteux_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/germinie_lacerteux_se/characters