# Eustace — Short Fiction character guide

> Eustace in Short Fiction by E. M. Forster.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** a Panic I Eustace, Mr. Eustace, Signor Eustace

**First appearance:** 0008-the-story-of-a-panic

## Snapshot

A pale, listless fourteen-year-old boy who refuses every invitation to walk, swim, or exert himself, until something in the chestnut woods above Ravello changes him utterly.

## Who they are

Eustace lodges at a Ravello hotel with his two aunts, who think him delicate; the narrator, a plain, self-assured Englishman, finds him indescribably repellent and blames his aunts for coddling him. He neither plays nor studies, only lounges on the terrace and shuffles along the high road, and his tutor Sandbach is trying to prepare him for a public school. On the day of the picnic in the chestnut woods, his refusal to join the others sets in motion the strange events that give his life its peculiar career.

## Relationships

### [Gennaro](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_13_se/characters/gennaro)

_friendship_

Eustace and Gennaro are friends or companions, possibly with a bond formed during travel or adventure.

### [Gennaro](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_13_se/characters/gennaro)

_friendship_

Eustace and Gennaro are friends or companions, possibly with a bond formed during travel or adventure.

### [Gennaro](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_13_se/characters/gennaro)

_friendship_

Eustace and Gennaro are friends or companions, possibly with a bond formed during travel or adventure.

## In the story

### [The Story of a Panic](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_13_se/chapters/the-story-of-a-panic)

The young boy who undergoes a mysterious transformation after the panic, becoming wild and attuned to nature.

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_13_se/chapters/i)

A sullen, disobedient boy of about fourteen, whose whistling disrupts the picnic and who is later central to the panic.

### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_13_se/chapters/ii)

Found lying motionless after the panic, but unharmed; displays a new, disquieting smile and increasingly erratic behavior, including kissing an old woman and embracing Gennaro.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_13_se/chapters/iii)

Captured and confined to his room after a mystical experience; expresses despair at losing his vision.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_13_se/characters/eustace
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_13_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_13_se/characters