Character guide

Arthur Kipps

major

Also known as Kipps, Artie, Art, old Kipps, young Kipps, little Kipps, the fortunate Kipps, Art Kipps, Arthur Waddy Kipps

Kipps begins as a shop-boy whose world is collars, cribs, and the dread of the 'key of the street,' until an inheritance lifts him into a society whose manners he can only ape. His central struggle is the gap between the self he knows and the gentleman he is told to become, a tension sharpened by his awkward loyalties to Buggins, Sid, and the people who knew him before. Watching him fumble toward respectability is the engine of the early and middle book, since every new acquaintance offers a different answer to what he should be.

Ann Pornick

major

Also known as Ann, young Ann, Pornick, Mary

Ann re-enters Kipps's life as a servant on holiday, unimpressed by fortune and quietly certain about what a good life looks like: a small house, a sink upstairs, no basement stairs to wear a woman out. Her easy intimacy with Kipps exposes how much of his new refinement is performance, and her refusal to want servants or art or anything 'stuck-up' sets her against Helen's ambitions. She matters because she keeps alive the possibility that Kipps's happiness lies in his old world rather than the one he is being groomed for.

Helen Walshingham

supporting

Also known as Miss Walshingham, young Walshingham, Helen, Miss Helen Walshingham, Walshingham

Helen moves in the genteel circles of Folkestone, reads serious books, and treats Kipps's rougher habits as a project to be corrected with gentle insistence and promises extracted. Her engagement to him is tender and calculated at once, and her discomfort with Chitterlow shows how carefully she guards the respectability she is building. She matters because she embodies the promise and the cost of Kipps's ascent, forcing him to choose between being remade and being himself.

Chester Coote

supporting

Also known as Mr. Chester Coote, Mr. Coote, Coote, Chester, the exemplary Coote

Coote presides over a bedroom of autotypes, phrenological busts, and the Encyclopaedia Britannica, dispensing rules about One Serious Book and One Novel and the virtue of Travel and Books. His mentorship is genuine and absurd in equal measure, since his own taste runs to Mrs. Twaddletome and the Hundred Best Books, and his approval comes with a quiet snobbery Kipps can feel but not name. He matters because he is the gatekeeper of the society Kipps is trying to enter, and his lessons shape both Kipps's manners and his mounting self-doubt.

Sid Pornick

supporting

Also known as Sid, Pornick, Sidney, young Pornick, Mrs. Sid, Mrs. Sidney Pornick

Sid has climbed by his own labour into a shop of his own and looks at Kipps's inheritance with a mixture of old affection and political skepticism. His refusal to be dazzled, and his pointed silences about Kipps's new life, keep the novel honest about class and about what Kipps has abandoned. He matters because he is the living reminder of the world Kipps came from, and his judgments quietly test whether the fortune has bought anything worth having.

Harry Chitterlow

supporting

Also known as Chitterlow, Harry, old Harry, little Harry, Mrs. Chitterlow

Chitterlow is all enthusiasm, theatrical anecdote, and grand schemes for plays that have not yet reached the stage, and he treats Kipps as a fellow spirit rather than a mark. His friendship is warm, indiscreet, and socially embarrassing, which is precisely why Helen wants him dropped and why Kipps cannot quite do it. He matters because he is the accidental author of Kipps's luck and the standing test of whether Kipps will be loyal to the people who knew him before the money.

Masterman

supporting

Also known as Mr. Masterman

Masterman arrives among Sid and Mrs. Sid's circle as the sort of guest who lifts a glass and pronounces on Hope, the Light of the World, while everyone else eats. His magnificent self-pity and rhetorical flourish make him both absurd and genuinely stirring, especially to young Kipps, who has never met anyone who talks about society and destiny as if they mattered. He plants the first seeds of Kipps's vague longing for something beyond shopkeeping, and his talk of hope and life echoes through the early chapters as Kipps stumbles toward his inheritance.

Mrs. Kipps

minor

Also known as young Artie, Artie, Art Kipps, old Kipps, Arthur

Kipps's mother, a simple woman from the working class who appears briefly in his early life.

Buggins

minor

Also known as Poor old Buggins, old Buggins

A fellow draper's assistant at Shalford's emporium and friend of Kipps.

Pierce

minor

Another draper's assistant at Shalford's who works alongside Kipps.

Mr. Shalford

minor

Also known as Shalford, old Shalford

The owner of the draper's emporium where Kipps works as an apprentice.

Carshot

minor

A fellow apprentice at Shalford's emporium who interacts with Kipps.

Miss Coote

minor

Also known as Coote

Chester Coote's sister, a minor figure in the social circle.

Woodrow

minor

Also known as Mr. Woodrow

A minor acquaintance in Kipps's social circle after his inheritance.

Bean

minor

Also known as old Bean, Mr. Bean, O ' Bean

An elderly man from New Romney who knows Kipps's family.

Miss Mergle

minor

A teacher at the woodcarving class Kipps attends.

Mrs. Walshingham

minor

Also known as Walshingham, young Walshingham

Helen Walshingham's mother, a social-climbing widow.

Mrs. Chitterlow

minor

Also known as Chitterlow

Harry Chitterlow's wife, who appears briefly.

Old Methusaleh

minor

Also known as Methusaleh, good old Methusaleh, old Methusaleh Four Stars

A nickname for a character or a reference in the narrative.

Gwendolen

minor

A young woman who briefly catches Kipps's attention during his social ascent.

Mr. Revel

minor

Also known as Revel

A minor character involved in Kipps's social and business dealings.

Flo Bates

minor

Also known as Flo

A young woman from Kipps's past in New Romney.

Mrs. Bindon Botting

minor

Also known as Mrs. Botting, old Kipps

A relative of Kipps who appears after his inheritance.

Lady Punnet

minor

A minor aristocratic figure in Kipps's social circle.

Jane

minor

Also known as Lady Jane

A servant or minor acquaintance in the story.

Booch

minor

Also known as old Booch, Mr. Booch

A minor character from Kipps's early life.

Mrs. Wace

minor

Also known as Mrs. Raymond Wace

A minor social acquaintance of the Walshinghams.

Maud Charteris

minor

A minor character mentioned in passing.

Thomas Norgate

minor

Also known as the Hon. Thomas Norgate

A minor aristocratic figure mentioned in the story.

Mrs. Cuyps

minor

Also known as Cuyps

A minor character in Kipps's social orbit.

Biddy Murphy

minor

A minor character from Kipps's past.

Arthur Cuyps

minor

Also known as Arthur, Artie, Cuyps

A minor character possibly related to Mrs. Cuyps.

Little Mr. Wace

minor

A minor character, possibly related to Mrs. Wace.