# Modeste Mignon — Character guide

> Key figures in Modeste Mignon by Honoré de Balzac.

- [Modeste Mignon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/modeste_mignon_se/characters/modeste_mignon.md): Modeste is the cosseted only daughter of a returned exile, watched over by a notary, a steward, and a mother who all scheme to marry her well. Restless under provincial surveillance, she pours her hunger for a grand pass
- [Melchior de Canalis](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/modeste_mignon_se/characters/canalis.md): Canalis is the literary lion of Paris, a man whose name alone makes provincial hearts flutter and whose letters are polished as carefully as his odes. Accustomed to admiration, he is vain, calculating, and slow to commit
- [Ernest de la Brière](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/modeste_mignon_se/characters/ernest_de_la_briere.md): Ernest serves as the brilliant poet's shadow, drafting correspondence, managing affairs, and living on modest means while his employer basks in glory. Sensitive and honorable, he finds himself genuinely moved by the unkn
- [Charles Mignon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/modeste_mignon_se/characters/charles_mignon.md): Charles Mignon is a weathered man of action who lost everything under the Empire, made a new fortune abroad, and came back to Le Havre to secure his family's place. Proud, shrewd, and fiercely protective, he distrusts th
- [Madame Mignon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/modeste_mignon_se/characters/madame_mignon.md): Madame Mignon is a subdued, devout woman whose health and spirits were broken by years of exile and anxiety, leaving her largely in the background of family decisions. She loves her daughter deeply but lacks the force to
- [Dumay](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/modeste_mignon_se/characters/dumay.md): Dumay is a former soldier who followed Charles Mignon through exile and now manages his household with military discipline and absolute devotion. Gruff, watchful, and suspicious of strangers, he joins the notary Latourne
- [Jean Butscha](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/modeste_mignon_se/characters/jean_butscha.md): Butscha is the head-clerk of the Latournelle household, a man whose grotesque appearance and humble origins have taught him to live under the gaze of pity since childhood. Silent, reserved, and fiercely intelligent, he c
- [Madame Latournelle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/modeste_mignon_se/characters/madame_latournelle.md): Madame Latournelle is the wife of the notary Babylas Latournelle and a woman whose maternal mania for her son Exupère borders on the comic. As Modeste's chaperon for three years, she is part of the well-meaning circle at
- [Comte de la Bastie](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/modeste_mignon_se/characters/comte_de_la_bastie.md): The Comte de la Bastie moves in the provincial aristocracy that surrounds Modeste, a world of notaries, duchesses, and poets. As a suitor, he represents one of the respectable but uninspiring possibilities that the Migno
- [Duchesse de Chaulieu](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/modeste_mignon_se/characters/duchesse_de_chaulieu.md): The Duchesse de Chaulieu is a grande dame of the Faubourg Saint-Germain, a woman of influence whose favor can make or break a literary reputation. She takes an interest in Canalis, the celebrated poet, and her advice and
- [Gobenheim](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/modeste_mignon_se/characters/gobenheim.md): A banker and business associate of Charles Mignon.
- [Anne Dumay](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/modeste_mignon_se/characters/anne_dumay.md): Dumay's daughter and Modeste's childhood companion.
- [Duc de Verneuil](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/modeste_mignon_se/characters/duc_de_verneuil.md): A nobleman mentioned in social circles.

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