# Hester — Character guide

> Key figures in Hester by Margaret Oliphant.

- [Hester Vernon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hester_se/characters/hester_vernon.md): Hester moves through the Vernonry and the Merridew parties as a young woman whose beauty and composure make her suddenly visible, yet she remains unsure whether Edward Vernon's attentions reflect love or merely proximity
- [Catherine Vernon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hester_se/characters/catherine_vernon.md): Catherine has spent decades as the family's benefactress and undisputed authority, dispensing money and attention with a sovereign's instinct for who deserves what. But her hold on Edward — her chosen heir, her boy — beg
- [Edward Vernon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hester_se/characters/edward_vernon.md): Edward moves between Catherine's expectations and his own restless ambitions, dancing at the Merridews' until he loses his head, then returning to breakfast to face his aunt's gentle, probing questions with a temper he c
- [Harry Vernon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hester_se/characters/harry_vernon.md): Harry is the son of a respectable Redborough solicitor who married above himself and has never quite gotten over the promotion of being connected to Catherine Vernon — a veneration his pretty wife Ellen mocks. He defends
- [John Vernon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hester_se/characters/john_vernon.md): John Vernon never came back to England, having declared that when ladies meddle with business everything goes wrong — a sentiment his widow repeats with a nervous glance at the White House. His death left Mrs. John in de
- [Emma Ashton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hester_se/characters/emma_ashton.md): Emma, thrown into Hester's company by propinquity, is refreshingly free of Hester's romantic uncertainty: she knows exactly what she wants and why, and she resents any suggestion that old Mr. Merridew might make an eldes
- [Roland Ashton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hester_se/characters/roland_ashton.md): Roland drifts through Redborough drawing rooms as the kind of guest whose attention every young woman half-expects and half-fears, and Hester finds her own mind rearranged simply by his being in the room. He is the test 
- [Ellen Vernon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hester_se/characters/ellen_vernon.md): Ellen Vernon has become Ellen Merridew, a tall, well-dressed hostess whose Chinese lanterns and careless extravagance set the social weather for the young set around Redborough. Her marriage to Algernon Merridew gives he
- [Captain Morgan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hester_se/characters/captain_morgan.md): Old Captain Morgan is the Vernonry's most unassuming fixture, a man whose company Hester seeks out precisely because he makes no claims on her. Walking with him is her small rebellion against the communal assumption that
- [Mr. Mildmay Vernon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hester_se/characters/mr_mildmay_vernon.md): A Vernon relative with a distinct presence.
- [Ellen Merridew](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hester_se/characters/ellen_merridew.md): A member of the Merridew family.
- [Mr. Rule](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hester_se/characters/mr_rule.md): A poor old man connected to the Vernon household.
- [Mrs. Morgan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hester_se/characters/mrs_morgan.md): The wife of Captain Morgan.
- [Miss Matilda Vernon-Ridgway](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hester_se/characters/miss_matilda_vernon_ridgway.md): A Vernon-Ridgway relation.
- [Algernon Merridew](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hester_se/characters/algernon_merridew.md): A member of the Merridew family.
- [Miss Martha Vernon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hester_se/characters/miss_martha_vernon.md): A Vernon family member.
- [Marshall](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hester_se/characters/marshall.md): A minor character, possibly a villain.
- [Mr. Pounce](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hester_se/characters/mr_pounce.md): A minor character.

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