Character guide

James Rodman

major

Also known as Rodman, young Rodman

James Rodman moves through Wodehouse's world of romantic mix-ups and social embarrassments, forever dodging the long arm of old family authority. His particular dread is the nurse who once disciplined him and still treats him as a schoolboy, a tension that makes every polite invitation feel like a trap. He matters because his flustered negotiations between desire and duty drive the early comic machinery of the Mulliner stories.

William Mulliner

major

Also known as William

William Mulliner belongs to the sprawling clan whose misadventures Mr. Mulliner recounts with relish, and he carries the family's knack for dignified disaster. Caught between social obligation and personal preference, he embodies the Wodehouse hero who would rather flee than face an elderly nurse's tea. His struggles anchor the early arc, showing how Mulliner pride collides with absurd domestic tyranny.

Augustine Mulliner

major

Also known as Augustine

Augustine Mulliner boards quietly in a country village, keeping a diary in which he frets about whether he is sufficiently meek. A dose of his Uncle Wilfred's Buck-U-Uppo flips him into a blustering bully who berates his housekeeper over eggs and hot-water bottles, then repents by candlelight. His seesawing temperament makes him the perfect vehicle for Wodehouse's satire of self-improvement and the perils of tonics.

George Mulliner

major

Also known as Young George Mulliner, George

George Mulliner sets out on a train journey resolved to practise the art of conversation, only to be derailed by a fierce fellow traveller with a stutter and a platform encounter with a man in pyjamas and a top hat. His earnestness and his family's celebrated presence of mind are both put to the test. He matters because his misadventures show how Wodehouse turns ordinary social ambition into escalating farce.

Frederick Mulliner

major

Also known as Eric, Freddie, A Mulliner

Frederick Mulliner is dragged from London by his brother George, a doctor, to pay a duty call on Wilks, the family nurse whose heart is weak and whose authority is undiminished. He resents every mile of the journey and every remembered childhood punishment, yet noblesse oblige keeps him in his seat. His reluctant compliance sets up the central tension of the story: grown men reduced to boys by the women who once raised them.

Clarence Mulliner

major

Also known as Clarence

Clarence Mulliner inhabits the same comic territory as his relatives, where a quiet morning can turn into a running bishop and a breakfast egg can become a moral crisis. He is the sort of young man whose diary entries swing from pious self-reproach to gleeful defiance within a single dose of medicine. His function in the early arc is to embody the family's genius for turning minor domestic friction into full-blown absurdity.

Wilfred Mulliner

major

Also known as Fiercely Wilfred

Wilfred is the family chemist whose concoctions act forcefully upon the red corpuscles, as his nephew Augustine discovers when a dose turns him from meek diarist into a browbeating terror over hot-water bottles and cremated eggs. His tonic is the engine of the story's comedy, converting quiet men into rampaging ones. He never appears directly, yet his invention drives the household chaos that follows.

Lancelot Mulliner

supporting

Also known as Lancelot

Lancelot belongs to the younger Mulliner generation, the sort of man whose romantic and adventurous inclinations land him in scrapes his elders recount with relish. He moves through a world where old family nurses still treat grown men as knickerbocker-stage charges, and where past spankings linger as social embarrassments. His entanglements give the stories their youthful forward motion and their sense of inherited absurdity.

Mr. Mulliner

major

Also known as a Mulliner, No Mulliner

Mr. Mulliner presides over the Angler's Rest, a pint at his elbow, ready to answer any conversational opening with a tale about a relative. He winces at old wounds — a nurse's hairbrush, a nephew's gloom — yet cannot resist the pull of family gossip, insisting he will not bore you even as he begins. His voice frames every story, lending the clan's follies the authority of scripture and the warmth of a man who loves them all.

Jane Oliphant

supporting

Also known as Miss Jane Oliphant, Miss Oliphant, Jane

Jane was the Oliphants' charge under Nurse Wilks, the pretty child for whom a twelve-year-old Frederick risked his neck after a rook's egg. Grown up a beauty, she broke her engagement to Frederick by letter from the Ponderbys' without explanation, leaving him to insist he is bubbling over with cheerfulness. Her offstage absence haunts the early arc, turning a tea visit into an ordeal and a quiet town into a torment.

Andrew McKinnon

minor

Also known as Mr. Andrew McKinnon, McKinnon, Mr. McKinnon

A Scottish character involved in a Mulliner plot.

Sir Jasper ffinch-ffarrowmere

minor

Also known as Sir Jasper Finch-Farrowmere, Sir Jasper

An eccentric baronet with a long hyphenated name.

Angela Purdue

minor

Also known as Miss Angela Purdue, Miss Purdue

A young woman courted by a Mulliner.

Wilks

minor

Also known as Nurse Wilks

A nurse or domestic servant in a Mulliner household.

Colonel Carteret

minor

A military man who appears in a Mulliner story.

Leila Pinckney

minor

Also known as Leila J. Pinckney, Another Pinckney

A woman with a romantic subplot involving a Mulliner.

Myrtle Banks

minor

Also known as Myrtle

A young woman in a romantic entanglement.

Desmond Franklyn

minor

Also known as Franklyn, that perisher Franklyn

A rival or antagonist in a Mulliner story.

Susan Blake

minor

Also known as Susie

A young woman involved in a romantic plot.

Rose Maynard

minor

Also known as Rose

A love interest or relative in a Mulliner tale.

Mrs. Wardle

minor

A matronly figure in a Mulliner story.

Lady Monica Southbourne

minor

Also known as Lady Monica

An aristocratic woman in a Mulliner plot.

Bish

minor

A minor character, possibly a nickname.

The Headmaster

minor

Also known as headmaster

A stern school authority figure in a Mulliner story.

Master Frederick

minor

Also known as Frederick

A young boy, possibly a student or relative.

Angela Mulliner

minor

Also known as Angela Mulliner P.S.

A female member of the Mulliner family.

The General

minor

Also known as The general

A military figure appearing in a Mulliner anecdote.

Fotheringay

minor

A character with a minor role in a Mulliner story.

Jeremiah Briggs

minor

Also known as Briggs, Genial old Jeremiah Briggs

An older man, possibly a businessman or relative.

Fatty Hemel

minor

Also known as Fatty, old Fatty Hemel

A portly character, possibly a schoolmate or friend.

Toto

minor

A minor character, possibly a child or pet.

Dr. George Mulliner

minor

Also known as George

A medical professional and member of the Mulliner family.

Uncle Henry

minor

Also known as the seventh Henry

An elderly relative of the Mulliners.

Dr. Brady

minor

A doctor appearing in a Mulliner story.

Murgatroyd

minor

A character with a brief appearance.

Rev. Stanley Brandon

minor

Also known as The Rev. Stanley Brandon, Brandon

A clergyman involved in a Mulliner story.

The Colonel

minor

Also known as the colonel

A military man appearing in an anecdote.

Mr. Briggs

minor

Also known as Briggs

A businessman or neighbor of the Mulliners.

Lord Biddlecombe

minor

An aristocrat in a Mulliner story.

General Bloodenough

minor

Also known as General Sir Hector Bloodenough

A military figure with a colorful name.

Mike

minor

A minor character, possibly a servant or friend.

Biggs

minor

A character involved in a legal or business matter.

Miss Postlethwaite

minor

Also known as Billy, William Miss Postlethwaite

A schoolteacher or governess figure.

Trevor Entwhistle

minor

Also known as Rev. Trevor Entwhistle

A clergyman with a role in a Mulliner story.

Ma Purvis

minor

Also known as Purvis, this Purvis

A matronly or lower-class character.

Elmer

minor

A minor character, possibly an American.

Miss Pinckney

minor

A relative or acquaintance of Leila Pinckney.

Straker

minor

A servant or employee in a Mulliner household.

Young Pieface

minor

Also known as Pieface

A young character with a nickname.

Young Catsmeat Entwhistle

minor

Also known as Catsmeat

A young man with an unusual nickname.

Nanna

minor

Also known as Poor Nanna

An elderly nurse or grandmother figure.

Wiggs

minor

A minor character, possibly a servant.

Boko Bickerton

minor

Also known as old Boko Bickerton

An older character with a nickname.

Sir Joseph Bodger

minor

Also known as Sir Joseph

A knighted gentleman in a Mulliner story.

Lester Gage

minor

A minor character, possibly an artist or writer.

Rupert

minor

A minor character, possibly a relative.

Lord Hemel of Hempstead

minor

An aristocrat with a title.

Dillingwater

minor

Also known as Mrs. Dillingwater, a Dillingwater

A family or individual with a brief appearance.

Gladys

minor

A minor female character.

Gooch

minor

Also known as Mr. Gooch

A servant or employee.