Character guide

Vernon Deyre

major

Also known as Master Vernon, Lieutenant Vernon Deyre, Mrs. Vernon Deyre

Vernon Deyre is the last of the Deyres of Abbots Puissants, a boy who invents imaginary playmates and grows into a composer whose music seems to arrive from somewhere beyond his own will. He is unambitious in the ordinary sense yet utterly possessed by his art, and the women who love him — Nell, Jane, his mother — keep discovering that they cannot hold what the music claims first. His early life sets the whole arc in motion: a sensitive heir caught between family decline, first love, and a talent that will demand everything.

Nell Vereker

major

Also known as Nell, Miss Nell, Adorable Nell

Nell Vereker is the daughter of a woman who has fought her way through life on credit and nerve, dressing her girl beautifully so that she will marry well and repay the campaign. Nell is lovely, young, and seemingly defenceless, but she has learned her mother's lessons about what a man is worth. Vernon Deyre dances well and is frightfully useful — yet he is hopeless as a parti, and her mother warns her against foolishness. Her divided feelings about Vernon set the emotional stakes of his early manhood.

Jane Harding

major

Also known as Jane, Poor Jane

Jane Harding is a musician who knows exactly what she wants and goes for it, in contrast to Vernon, who does not know what he wants but is driven anyway. She tells Sebastian that music will be the power that drives Vernon, and that whatever It is will be served no matter the cost — a prophecy that hangs over the whole story. Her flat, her playing, and her unsparing honesty make her the one person who understands both the gift and its price.

Sebastian Levinne

major

Also known as Levinne, Mr. Levinne, the great Sebastian Levinne

Sebastian Levinne begins as the lonely boy next door whom Vernon and Joe first besiege and then befriend, and grows into a celebrated composer and Vernon's most devoted ally. He is the one who recognizes Vernon when everyone else has given him up, coaxing memory back with patience and a stiff drink. His friendship is the spine of Vernon's musical life, and his knowledge of the whole story makes him the keeper of its secrets.

Joe Waite

supporting

Also known as Joe, dear Joe, the staunch Joe

Joe Waite is Vernon's playmate at Abbots Puissants, a girl who climbs trees with tomatoes in her pockets and refuses to pelt a boy who looks as though he is simply hating things. It is Joe who proposes the white flag and the parley that turns Sebastian Levinne from enemy into lifelong friend. Her instinct for kindness over victory gives the early chapters their moral center and shapes the trio that the rest of the book depends on.

George Green

supporting

Also known as Green, Book V George Green, II George Green

George Green is the kind of man others call good — reliable, unremarkable, and quietly devoted — and his presence in the novel's later movement forces every question about love, loyalty, and what a person owes to the past. He is tied to Vernon both by the war and by Nell, and his decency makes the complications that follow harder rather than easier to bear. He matters because he is the ordinary good man against whom Vernon's extraordinary, destructive gift is measured.

Nurse Frances

supporting

Also known as Frances, old Nurse, Nurse Frances

Nurse Frances takes charge of Vernon's sickroom with orange juice in a spouted cup and a counting game that ends in sleep, and she treats his imaginary world of Mr. Green and the hundred children as a serious matter worth discussing. Myra Deyre, wild with jealousy of 'the paid nurse,' fights pitched battles she always loses, while Vernon remembers only happy days. Her quiet victory over Myra quietly establishes the emotional fault lines of Vernon's childhood.

Uncle Sydney

supporting

Also known as Sydney, Syd, Bother Uncle Sydney

Uncle Sydney presides over family evenings with facetiousness Vernon privately finds stupid and boring, and over Myra's marital collapse with a businessman's patience for women who harp on things. He advises her to forgive Walter and take a broadminded view, then pivots cheerfully to his wife Carrie's swollen legs and hopes for a son. His cheerful pragmatism exposes the gap between the family's sentimental self-image and its actual arrangements.

Myra Deyre

supporting

Also known as Myra, Aunt Myra

Myra declares she never wants to see Walter again, then weeps into her brother's business advice until she settles comfortably into the role of the woman who forgives again and again. She tells Vernon his father was the best man in the world and that they were the happiest of families, and he watches her believe it. Her self-dramatizing loyalty shapes Vernon's childhood and his growing, unspoken distrust of what people say.

Mr. Chetwynd

supporting

Also known as Chetwynd, George Chetwynd, Mr. George Chetwynd

Mr. Chetwynd lingers by a doorway after the evening's end, musing to Levinne that heredity shapes the instrument, environment polishes it, sex wakens it — but something more feeds the Giant. He suspects Groen has fed his creation with his own flesh and blood, and he asks Levinne to tell him the beginning. His questions frame the novel's central mystery: what makes a genius, and what does it cost.

Walter Deyre

supporting

Also known as Walter, III Walter Deyre

Walter Deyre lingers with his son by the water, speaking of the old monks catching fish, and finds in the boy a shared dislike of saying things. He dreads the emotional leavetaking Myra will stage, half hopes he won't come back, and feels a traitorous pang at deserting Vernon. His quiet recognition of the marriage's bargain gives Vernon's childhood its unspoken grief.

Mrs. Vereker

minor

Also known as III Mrs. Vereker

Nell's mother, a figure in the social circle.

Aunt Nina

minor

Also known as Annie, Nina, Pretty Aunt Nina

Vernon's lively and artistic aunt.

Freda

minor

Also known as Winnie, Fred, Poor Freda

A friend of the family with a tragic story.

Mrs. Levinne

minor

Also known as old Levinne, Funny fat old Mrs. Levinne

Sebastian Levinne's mother, a comedic presence.

Mr. Bleibner

minor

Also known as Bleibner, old Bleibner

A music publisher and acquaintance of Sebastian.

Herr Radmaager

minor

Also known as Radmaager

A German musician and colleague of Sebastian.

Isabel

minor

Also known as Susan, Susan Isabel

A friend of Jane's from her school days.

Josephine

minor

Also known as Dearest Josephine

A friend or acquaintance of the main characters.

Father Cuthbert

minor

Also known as Father, handsome Father Cuthbert

A priest who appears in the narrative.

Enid

minor

A young woman who appears in the social scenes.

Aunt Carrie

minor

Also known as Carrie

Another aunt of Vernon's, part of the family circle.

Dr. Coles

minor

A doctor who attends to characters in the novel.

Poodle

minor

A pet dog belonging to one of the characters.

Mr. Flemming

minor

A minor character, possibly a business associate.

Katie

minor

Also known as Kate

A servant or maid in the household.

Miss Robbins

minor

Also known as a Miss Robbins

A minor character, possibly a governess or visitor.

Aunt Ethel

minor

Also known as Ethel

Another aunt of Vernon's, part of the extended family.

La Marre

minor

A French name mentioned in passing.

Major Dacre

minor

Also known as Dacre

A military officer in the war sections.

Reverend Mother

minor

Also known as Mother

The head of a convent where Jane stays.

Amelie King

minor

Also known as Amelie

A young woman who interacts with Vernon in London.

Mrs. Curtis

minor

Also known as old Curtis

A housekeeper or servant in the Deyre household.

Sister Margaret

minor

Also known as Sister

A nun at the convent hospital.

Sister Westhaven

minor

Also known as Sister

A nurse during the war sections.

Carl Bowerman

minor

Also known as Bowerman

A fellow soldier and friend of George Green.

Mr. Hill

minor

A minor character, possibly a tutor or official.

Mr. Bent

minor

Also known as Bent

A servant or employee in the Deyre household.

Solveig

minor

A character from the Peer Gynt opera, referenced in the story.

Sister Carr

minor

Also known as little Carr

A nurse in the hospital scenes.

Boris Groen

minor

Also known as Groen

A foreign musician or acquaintance of Sebastian.

Mary Cardner

minor

Also known as Mary

A friend of Jane's from her past.

Phillis Deacon

minor

A young woman who appears in the social scenes.

Miss Crabtree

minor

A teacher or schoolmistress.

Anna Schlieder

minor

Also known as Anna

A German woman connected to the music world.

Colonel Anstey

minor

Also known as Anstey

A military officer and acquaintance of the family.

Sister Jenkins

minor

Also known as the monumental Sister Jenkins

A pessimistic nurse in the hospital.

Mrs. Somers West

minor

Also known as Mrs. Somers

A society woman who hosts gatherings.

Captain Vereker

minor

Nell's father, a military man.

Jack Horton

minor

Also known as Jack

A friend of Vernon's from his school days.

Corporal Green

minor

Also known as Corporal George Green

A soldier under George Green's command.

Mrs. Pascal

minor

A minor character, possibly a landlady or neighbor.

Dr. Bury

minor

A doctor who treats characters in the story.

Dr. Keen

minor

Also known as young Dr. Keen

A young doctor in the hospital.

Gladys Potts

minor

Also known as Gladys, Little Potts, Potts

A minor character, possibly a servant or child.

Catford

minor

A minor character, possibly a servant.

Sister Norris

minor

A nurse in the hospital.

Sam

minor

A minor character, possibly a servant.

Sir Charles Alington

minor

Also known as old Sir Charles Alington, Sir Charles

A local baronet and acquaintance of the Deyres.

Major Waite

minor

Joe Waite's father, a military man.

Old Jeffries

minor

Also known as Jeffries

A servant or old retainer in the household.

Boris Androv

minor

Also known as Androv

A Russian musician or acquaintance.

Mary Lloyd

minor

A minor character, possibly a friend of Jane's.

Dr. Meadows

minor

A doctor who appears in the narrative.

Evans

minor

A minor character, possibly a servant or soldier.

Miss Harding

minor

A relative of Jane Harding.