Point Counter Point · Character

Lord Edward Tantamount

A wealthy aristocrat who has abandoned politics for the laboratory, Lord Edward Tantamount pursues obscure biological research with the same ferocity he once aimed at the world.

supporting

Also known as Lord Edward, Edward, a Tantamount

First appearance: iv

As a supporting figure in Point Counter Point, Lord Edward Tantamount is not background color—the story leans on what they do once the chapter opens.

Described as a fossil child, intellectually understanding sex but emotionally timid and apologetic in his love for Hilda, embodying mid-Victorian taboos.

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Lord Edward Tantamount is Lucy's father and a man of immense fortune who has retreated from public life into a private world of scientific obsession, cultivating a reputation for ferocity to keep intruders at bay. His marriage to the much younger Lady Edward is a study in mutual incomprehension — she mocks him publicly while he buries himself in experiments. His household at Tantamount House, with its strange blend of aristocratic grandeur and laboratory eccentricity, provides one of the novel's richest settings and a window onto the collision of old England and modern ideas.

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See Lord Edward Tantamount in iv

Character Web

24 connections

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Relationship types

Other

Character groups

Minor acquaintances and staff
Minor characters and extras
Central characters and lovers

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Narrative arc

Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Exposition.

Setup
Escalation
Breaking point
Aftermath
Closing

In this excerpt, the narrative climax occurs as the psychological and emotional peak of Sidney Quarles’s hypoc…

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In the story

Lord Edward Tantamount appears across 4 companion beats. Open any chapter in the free preview to see the notes beside the text.

II
Described as a fossil child, intellectually understanding sex but emotionally timid and apologetic in his love for Hilda, embodying mid-Victorian taboos.
III
Experiences a transformative epiphany upon reading Claude Bernard's words, leading him to abandon politics and pursue science; later appears at the party, awkward and absorbed in his work.
V
Mentored by Illidge; his scientific work on asymmetrical tadpoles is enabled by wealth, which Illidge resents despite genuine fondness.
XXXIII
Absent-mindedly greets Illidge at Tantamount House, asking him to do arithmetic, unaware of the murder.

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See Lord Edward Tantamount in iv

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