Character guide

Bertram Wooster

major

Also known as Bertie, young Bertie, Bertram, Wooster, Bertie Wooster, old Bertram

Bertie drifts through country-house weekends and London clubs with impeccable tailoring and almost no grasp of psychology, yet he cannot resist taking charge whenever a pal needs romantic assistance. His running battle with Jeeves over who really solves these problems is the engine of the comedy, especially once Bertie dismisses his valet's methods as obsolete. His confident, catastrophically wrong schemes set the plot in motion and keep the reader rooting for the man who means well and understands nothing.

Jeeves

major

Also known as Mr. Jeeves, Trust Jeeves, This Jeeves

Jeeves observes his employer's tangled love affairs with the calm of a man who has already calculated three moves ahead, offering advice in the mildest possible tone. When Bertie dismisses him as out of form and takes over personally, the valet's patient faith in psychology, costume, and timing becomes the story's hidden architecture. His schemes, however eccentric, prove the only reliable force in a house full of people determined to ruin their own romances.

Gussie Fink-Nottle

major

Also known as Gussie, Fink-Nottle, young Gussie, Augustus Fink-Nottle, Augustus

Gussie arrives at Brinkley Court disguised, miserable, and hopelessly in love with Madeline Bassett, a girl who regards him as a joke. His terror of proposing is matched only by his devotion to newts, and Bertie's conviction that strong drink and forceful methods will cure him drives some of the book's finest comedy. His paralysis is the central romantic knot the entire household is trying, and failing, to untie.

Aunt Dahlia

major

Also known as Dahlia

Aunt Dahlia presides over Brinkley Court with a hunter's energy, juggling a failing magazine, a furious husband, and a house full of guests whose romances are all collapsing at once. Her exasperation with Bertie is matched only by her willingness to enlist him, and her running battle with Uncle Tom over money gives the country scenes their anxious undertow. She matters because Brinkley is her stage, and every scheme Bertie concocts must survive her scrutiny.

Tuppy Glossop

supporting

Also known as young Tuppy Glossop, Tuppy, Glossop, young Glossop, poor old Tuppy

Tuppy and Angela have quarreled, and his refusal to grovel first has left both of them miserable and too stubborn to reconcile. He is genuinely devoted to food, a fact he hotly denies, which makes Bertie's advice that he push away a dinner cooked by Anatole both hilarious and agonizing. His standoff with Angela gives the Brinkley scenes their romantic counterpoint and tests Bertie's talent for well-meant interference.

Angela

supporting

Also known as Miss Angela, young Angela

Angela loves Tuppy still, but she will not be the one to yield, and her wrinkled nose and cold looks reduce him to elaborate schemes of indirect apology. She is sharp, proud, and entirely her mother's daughter, which makes her a formidable opponent in any domestic negotiation. Her estrangement from Tuppy is one of the romantic tangles Bertie is determined to resolve, with predictably mixed results.

Madeline Bassett

supporting

Also known as Miss Bassett, Madeline, the Bassett

Madeline drifts through Brinkley Court in a haze of sentiment, addressing Bertie as though he were a Galahad and speaking in pauses so long they resemble a dropped telephone line. She is earnest, ethereal, and utterly convinced of her own delicate sensibility, which makes her both a romantic prize and a conversational ordeal. Her habit of demanding chivalrous sacrifice from a man who cannot follow her meaning keeps the engagement plot spinning and gives Bertie some of his most panicked moments.

Uncle Tom

supporting

Also known as Thomas, Tom, poor old Tom, old Tom Travers, Travers

Uncle Tom Travers presides over Brinkley Court with the air of a man who would rather be at his club, forever caught between his wife's schemes and his own appetite. His fondness for the larder and his weakness for being managed make him a comic fixture in the household's romantic entanglements. When midnight raids on steak-and-kidney pie become social occasions, Tom's domestic world proves as chaotic as any of Bertie's plans.

Anatole

supporting

Also known as Monsieur Anatole, Good old Anatole

Anatole never appears on the page, yet his cuisine governs the entire household's moods and loyalties, making him the most powerful absent presence at Brinkley Court. Aunt Dahlia's terror of losing him to Aunt Agatha drives her to enlist Bertie in ever more desperate stratagems. His reputation as a culinary genius turns dinner into a diplomatic battlefield, and his temperamental genius hovers over every scheme like a sauce about to reduce.

Pongo Twistleton

minor

Also known as Pongo

A friend of Bertie's mentioned in passing.

Bosher

minor

Also known as Alfred, Major-General Sir Wilfred Bosher, Sir Wilfred Bosher, General Bosher

A general who appears at the fancy dress ball.

Cyril

minor

Also known as Uncle Cyril

Bertie's uncle who appears briefly at Brinkley Court.

Seppings

minor

Also known as Mr. Seppings

The butler at Brinkley Court.

Aunt Agatha

minor

Also known as Agatha, My Aunt Agatha

Bertie's stern aunt who disapproves of his lifestyle.

Mr. Glossop

minor

Also known as Whereupon Mr. Glossop

Tuppy's father, a doctor who appears briefly.

G. G. Simmons

minor

Also known as Simmons, Master G. G. Simmons, Master Simmons

A schoolboy who wins a prize at the fancy dress ball.

Old Sippy

minor

Also known as Mr. Sipperley, Sipperley

An old friend of Bertie's who appears at the Drones Club.

P. K. Purvis

minor

A minor character mentioned at the Drones Club.

Freddie Widgeon

minor

A Drones Club member and friend of Bertie's.

Biffy

minor

A friend of Bertie's mentioned in conversation.

Attila

minor

Also known as dear old Attila

Bertie's dog, mentioned affectionately.

Mrs. Travers

minor

Also known as Travers

Aunt Dahlia's full name, used occasionally.

Nicholls

minor

A servant at Brinkley Court.

Jackson

minor

A minor servant mentioned briefly.