# Nonsense Books — Character guide

> Key figures in Nonsense Books by Edward Lear.

- [Mr. Lear](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/mr_lear.md): Lear is the book's presiding spirit and its most unreliable narrator: a self-described spherical man with a hideous visage, a wig-like beard, and a fondness for Marsala that never tips him. Some find him ill-tempered and
- [The Jumblies](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_jumblies.md): The Jumblies are the book's great optimists, sailing off in a sieve despite every warning that they will drown. Their heads are green, their hands are blue, and their lands are far and few, yet they sing as they go. Thei
- [The Akond of Swat](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_akond_of_swat.md): The Akond rules Swat from a distance so total that no one can agree whether he is thin or fat, young or old, alive or dead. The poem's chorus of speculation turns him into a mirror for the gossips who describe him. He ma
- [The Pobble Who Has No Toes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_pobble.md): The Pobble sets out to swim the Bristol Channel with his toes carefully wrapped, only to lose them to nobody knows whom. His Aunt Jobiska takes him home and insists that Pobbles are happier without their toes. His cheerf
- [The Dong](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_dong.md): Once happy and gay, the Dong fell in love with a Jumbly Girl who came ashore with the sieve-sailing Jumblies and then sailed away. Now he roams the dark with a light strapped to his nose, playing a silvery pipe and singi
- [The Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_yonghy_bonghy_bo.md): The Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò lives on the coast of Coromandel and loves Lady Jingly Jones, offering her his jug without a handle and his three Dorkings. She cannot return his affection and asks him, kindly, to go away. He flees 
- [Lady Jingly Jones](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/lady_jingly_jones.md): The lady on the Coast of Coromandel whose refusal sends the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò fleeing across the sea, leaving her to mourn among her Dorking hens.
- [The Quangle Wangle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_quangle_wangle.md): A solitary creature on the Crumpetty Tree whose enormous beaver hat becomes a village for every wandering bird and beast that needs a home.
- [The Owl and the Pussycat](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_owl_and_the_pussycat.md): A besotted Owl and his elegant Pussy, who sail a pea-green boat for a year and a day to marry in the land where the Bong-tree grows.
- [The Duck and the Kangaroo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_duck_and_the_kangaroo.md): A bored pond-duck who begs a kangaroo for a ride around the world, and the cautious hopper who agrees once his wet feet are solved.
- [Mr. Daddy Long-legs](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/mr_daddy_long_legs.md): A brown-and-gray insect whose six legs have grown so long they press his bosom with despair and silence the songs he once sang so well.
- [Mr. Floppy Fly](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/mr_floppy_fly.md): A gold-and-blue fly whose legs are far too short for court, trading complaints with his long-legged friend until the sea offers a stranger route.
- [The Nutcrackers and the Sugar Tongs](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_nutcrackers_and_sugar_tongs.md): The Nutcrackers and the Sugar-Tongs sit idle beside a plate, weary of a life spent cracking and snapping while everyone else rides off to pleasure. Their answer is a sudden, gleeful mutiny: downstairs, out the stable doo
- [Mr. and Mrs. Spikky Sparrow](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/mr_and_mrs_spikky_sparrow.md): Mr. and Mrs. Spikky Sparrow preside over a nest full of ordinary domestic bustle until a feast draws every wading bird on the Nile, including the King of the Cranes in pea-green trousers. When he falls for their daughter
- [The Broom, Shovel, Poker, and Tongs](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_broom_shovel_poker_tongs.md): Mrs. Broom, Miss Shovel, Mr. Poker, and Mr. Tongs leave their posts by the fire to take the air as a group, each with a distinct temperament that surfaces in their chatter. Their excursion mirrors the book's recurring fa
- [The Table and the Chair](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_table_and_chair.md): The Table complains of heat and chilblains and proposes a walk; the Chair objects that they cannot possibly walk, then relents when the Table points out they have equal legs. Off they toddle through the streets to the de
- [Mr. and Mrs. Discobbolos](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/mr_and_mrs_discobbolos.md): Mr. and Mrs. Discobbolos settle atop a wall with a roll and camomile tea, as happy as happy could be, until Mrs. Discobbolos blurts out the thought that they might never come down. Her anxiety about broken bones and ruin
- [The Pelican Chorus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_pelican_chorus.md): The Pelican Chorus narrates the great feast thrown for Daughter Dell, where herons, gulls, flamingoes, and the King of the Cranes in his blue dress-coat all gather on the shore. Their buoyant song of self-congratulation—
- [The Two Old Bachelors](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_two_old_bachelors.md): They belong to the wandering tribe of Lear's old men and women, figures whose small domestic quests — a handful of herbs, a meal — swell into absurd adventure. Their partnership suggests a long, bickering companionship, 
- [The Cummerbund](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_cummerbund.md): The cummerbund sits at the center of a poem about loss and recovery, a humble garment treated with the gravity of a missing treasure. Its owner's distress gives the piece its emotional engine, while the cummerbund itself
- [Papa](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/papa.md): Papa appears across several nonsense verses as the nominal authority in a household where authority means very little. He is the straight man to a world of runaway noses, burning grandmothers, and implausible accidents —
- [Jobiska](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_pobble_s_friends.md): A friend of the Pobble who advises him about his toes.
- [The Piggy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_piggy.md): A pig who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
- [The Melodious Meritorious Mouse](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_melodious_meritorious_mouse.md): A musical mouse who appears in a nonsense poem.
- [An Old Man of the Cape](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_old_man_of_the_cape.md): An old man who wishes he had never been born.
- [A Young Lady of Russia](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_young_lady_of_russia.md): A young lady who screams with a scream that blisters the sea.
- [A Young Lady of Dorking](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_young_lady_of_dorking.md): A young lady who buys a bonnet that bedazzles her eyes.
- [An Old Person of Blythe](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_old_person_of_blythe.md): An old person who cuts up his meat with a scythe.
- [King Xerxes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/king_xerxes.md): A historical king mentioned in a nonsense rhyme about fury.
- [Lord Derby](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/lord_derby.md): A nobleman to whom Lear dedicated some works.
- [The Guinea Pigs](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_guinea_pigs.md): Guinea pigs who appear in a nonsense rhyme.
- [The Cats](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_cats.md): Cats who appear in a nonsense rhyme.
- [The Mice](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_mice.md): Mice who appear in a nonsense rhyme.
- [The Fishes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_fishes.md): Fishes who appear in a nonsense rhyme.
- [The Geese](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_geese.md): Geese who appear in a nonsense rhyme.
- [The Storks](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_storks.md): Storks who appear in a nonsense rhyme.
- [The Parrots](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_parrots.md): Parrots who appear in a nonsense rhyme.
- [The Owls](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_owls.md): Owls who appear in a nonsense rhyme.
- [The Beetle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_beetle.md): A beetle who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
- [The Turtle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_turtle.md): A turtle who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
- [The Pussycat](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_pussycat.md): A pussycat who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
- [The Little Fish](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_little_fish.md): A little fish who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
- [Echo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/echo.md): Echo who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
- [The Clangle-Wangle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_clangle_wangle.md): A creature who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
- [The Boss-Woss](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_boss_woss.md): A creature who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
- [The Plum-pudding Flea](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_plum_pudding_flea.md): A flea who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
- [The Bee](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_bee.md): A bee who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
- [Lady Fair](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_lady_fair.md): A lady who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
- [The Leetle Browny-Mousy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/the_leetle_browny_mousy.md): A little brown mouse who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
- [Slingsby](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/slingsby.md): A character who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
- [Violet](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/violet.md): A character who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
- [Guy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/guy.md): A character who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
- [Lionel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/lionel.md): A character who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
- [Mr. Jones](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nonsense_books_se/characters/mr_jones.md): A character who appears in a nonsense rhyme.

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