# Kipps — Character guide

> Key figures in Kipps by H. G. Wells.

- [Arthur Kipps](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/kipps_se/characters/arthur_kipps.md): 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
- [Ann Pornick](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/kipps_se/characters/ann_pornick.md): 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 
- [Helen Walshingham](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/kipps_se/characters/helen_walshingham.md): 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 cal
- [Chester Coote](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/kipps_se/characters/chester_coote.md): 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 a
- [Sid Pornick](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/kipps_se/characters/sid_pornick.md): 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 li
- [Harry Chitterlow](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/kipps_se/characters/harry_chitterlow.md): 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 socia
- [Masterman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/kipps_se/characters/masterman.md): 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 hi
- [Mrs. Kipps](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/kipps_se/characters/mrs_kipps.md): Kipps's mother, a simple woman from the working class who appears briefly in his early life.
- [Buggins](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/kipps_se/characters/buggins.md): A fellow draper's assistant at Shalford's emporium and friend of Kipps.
- [Pierce](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/kipps_se/characters/pierce.md): Another draper's assistant at Shalford's who works alongside Kipps.
- [Mr. Shalford](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/kipps_se/characters/mr_shalford.md): The owner of the draper's emporium where Kipps works as an apprentice.
- [Carshot](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/kipps_se/characters/carshot.md): A fellow apprentice at Shalford's emporium who interacts with Kipps.
- [Miss Coote](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/kipps_se/characters/miss_coote.md): Chester Coote's sister, a minor figure in the social circle.
- [Woodrow](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/kipps_se/characters/woodrow.md): A minor acquaintance in Kipps's social circle after his inheritance.
- [Bean](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/kipps_se/characters/bean.md): An elderly man from New Romney who knows Kipps's family.
- [Miss Mergle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/kipps_se/characters/miss_mergle.md): A teacher at the woodcarving class Kipps attends.
- [Mrs. Walshingham](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/kipps_se/characters/mrs_walshingham.md): Helen Walshingham's mother, a social-climbing widow.
- [Mrs. Chitterlow](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/kipps_se/characters/mrs_chitterlow.md): Harry Chitterlow's wife, who appears briefly.
- [Old Methusaleh](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/kipps_se/characters/old_methusaleh.md): A nickname for a character or a reference in the narrative.

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