# Short Fiction — Character guide

> Key figures in Short Fiction by Guy de Maupassant.

- [Doctor Heraclius Gloss](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/doctor_heraclius_gloss.md): Gloss moves through the world as a respected man of science whose curiosity has quietly outgrown the limits of his profession. The manuscript he pursues promises proof of a doctrine the church and the academy would both 
- [Monsieur Parent](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/monsieur_parent.md): Parent is a respectable bourgeois whose identity rests on his household, his wife, and his small son Georges. When doubt about his marriage enters his mind, it spreads through every ordinary gesture until the home he tru
- [Boule de Suif](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/boule_de_suif.md): Boule de Suif shares a coach out of Rouen with merchants, nobles, and nuns who treat her as beneath them yet gladly accept her provisions. Her patriotism and easy kindness stand in sharp contrast to their calculated resp
- [Madame Tellier](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/madame_tellier.md): Madame Tellier runs her establishment with the efficiency of a household manager, keeping order among her girls and her clients alike. When she decides to attend her niece's first communion in the countryside, she packs 
- [Yvette](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/yvette.md): Yvette has grown up in a Parisian milieu where charm is currency and love is a transaction, and she has learned to wield her beauty without yet understanding its cost. Her mother, a courtesan, wants her to marry respecta
- [Joseph Renardet](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/joseph_renardet.md): Renardet commands deference in his provincial district as a man of property, influence, and apparent integrity. Beneath that surface lies an old transgression he has spent years outrunning, and the arrival of a stranger 
- [Miss Harriet](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/miss_harriet.md): Miss Harriet lodges at the same Normandy inn as a French painter, climbing the same cliff each day to sit motionless in her red plaid shawl and dream. When he sketches her beloved rock and she blurts out, 'Oh! Monsieur, 
- [Paul Pavilly](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/paul_pavilly.md): Paul recounts the evening he dined beside Henriette, their hands and feet meeting under the tablecloth while her uncle and Rivet argued ahead of them on the moonlit path. When a telegram keeps her aunt away until morning
- [Duc de Servigny](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/the_duc_de_servigny.md): Servigny moves through the fashionable world as a man of importance, the kind whose ceremonious questions can reduce a sea captain to dry impatience. He watches the dramas of his set—elopements, betrayals, family scandal
- [Monsieur Saval](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/monsieur_saval.md): Monsieur Saval, a distinguished notary and baron, is so flattered by an invitation to meet celebrated guests that he pays both cabaret bills and follows the painter Romantin home. Instead of a glittering housewarming, he
- [Guy de Maupassant](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/guy_de_maupassant.md): At seventeen, the narrator—Maupassant's stand-in—lives on the Bertillon estate with his widowed mother and the orphaned little Santèze, a boy who dreams in the elm avenue and begs for love stories at his aunt's knee. The
- [Simon Bombard](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/simon_bombard.md): Simon grows up hearing his father ask, at every returning steamer, 'What a surprise it would be if Jules were on that one!' The family's gospel is Uncle Jules's letter promising to return with a fortune, and every plan—e
- [Walter Schnaffs](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/walter_schnaffs.md): Walter Schnaffs is a reluctant conscript in the invading Prussian army, a man of appetite and comfort who dreads battle far more than he dreads shame. His consuming desire is to be taken prisoner, and his comic desperati
- [Madame Loisel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/madame_loisel.md): Madame Loisel moves through a modest Parisian household while dreaming of salons, silks, and admiration she believes she was born for. When an invitation to a grand ball arrives, her vanity and her husband's small saving
- [M. Lesable](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/m_le_sable.md): M. Lesable is a minor functionary in a government office, timid, proud, and acutely conscious of his own mediocrity. His marriage to a woman with grander connections exposes him to the condescension of colleagues and the
- [Maître Chicot](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/maitre_chicot.md): Maître Chicot is a prosperous, calculating peasant-innkeeper who understands exactly how much a thirsty old woman will pay for a free drink. He plies his neighbor with brandy, feigns pity for her decline, and waits patie
- [Madame Lefèvre](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/madame_lefevre.md): Madame Lefèvre runs a tight, orderly farm where every hen and every coin is accounted for. When she acquires a dog named Cocotte to protect her chickens, the animal becomes both a practical investment and an unexpected s
- [Césaire Houlbrèque](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/cesaire_houlbreque.md): Césaire Houlbrèque is a seafaring man whose long absences have left his home in the hands of others. He comes back expecting warmth and familiarity, but finds that time, habit, and other people's needs have reshaped the 
- [M. Cachelin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/m_cachelin.md): Old Antoine Boitelle's father is a small-holding Norman farmer who measures the world by soil, custom, and the approval of neighbors. When his son's happiness threatens to cross the color line, he becomes the voice of a 
- [Mademoiselle Henriette](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/mademoiselle_henriette.md): Henriette has spent years as an irreproachable wife and mother, her heart quietly starving beneath the routine of a snoring husband and two children. She engineers a solo trip to Paris and drifts through boulevards, café
- [Old Levas](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/old_levas.md): An old man whose death becomes a source of morbid curiosity and family conflict.
- [Pierre Martel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/pierre_martel.md): A man who recounts a strange and haunting story from his past.
- [Boitelle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/boitelle.md): Antoine Boitelle is a sturdy peasant son who falls hard for a Black woman he meets in town, seeing only her kindness and beauty where his family sees scandal. Caught between filial duty and his own desires, he becomes th
- [Hector de Gribelin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/hector_de_gribelin.md): Hector de Gribelin moves through society with the easy vanity of a man who has never truly been tested, until a quarrel forces him to name seconds and choose weapons. What follows is a long, queasy night of self-interrog
- [Lormerin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/lormerin.md): Lormerin has spent decades as a self-satisfied man about town, keeping a small altar in his heart for Lise de Vance, the one woman he believes he truly loved. When an invitation arrives, he dresses with a woman's care an
- [Cornudet](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/cornudet.md): Cornudet is the self-appointed conscience of the carriage, forever invoking the Republic and the rights of man while the other passengers eye him with irritation and amusement. His rhetoric is grand, his appetites ordina
- [Marroca](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/marroca.md): Marroca is the wife of a busy French civil servant in an Algerian town, and she spends her husband's working hours in the narrator's house, sleeping, laughing, and loving with animal directness. Her body and her will are
- [Mohammed ben Lam'har](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/mohammed_ben_lamhar.md): An Arab man whose story of love and betrayal is told in a North African setting.
- [Baron Mordiane](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/baron_mordiane.md): A cynical and worldly baron who enjoys manipulating others for his amusement.
- [Mister Belhomme](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/mister_belhomme.md): A man who becomes entangled in a bizarre legal and marital situation.
- [Hautot](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/hautot.md): Hautot is a wealthy, autocratic farmer — half peasant, half gentleman — who boasts of his game, lifts cartloads of apples, and cut short his son César's schooling for fear of raising a gentleman. He is generous, respecte
- [Denis Marambot](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/denis_marambot.md): A man who discovers a disturbing truth about his wife's past.
- [Saint Anthony](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/saint_anthony.md): The saint appears in a story about a man who makes a pact with the devil.
- [Old Amable](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/old_amable.md): Old Amable is a stubborn man of the fields, set in his ways and slow to see what his family sees. One night, candle in hand, he passes the big looking-glass and finds an old man with grey hair staring back — a wreckage h
- [Jacques Parent](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/jacques_parent.md): A man whose life is overshadowed by his more famous and successful brother.
- [Sabot](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/sabot.md): A peasant who builds a privy and becomes the subject of a humorous local scandal.
- [Marquise Obardi](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/the_marquise_obardi.md): The Marquise Obardi presides over an elegant Parisian table where guests trade stories, and it is in her company that the legend of the Marquis d'Arville and his hatred of hunting is unfolded. She is a woman of fashion a
- [Mademoiselle Pearl](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/mademoiselle_pearl.md): Mademoiselle Pearl — called Mademoiselle Source in the household — raises a frail, bookish boy with patient, jealous love, watching him drift from her knee to his chair by the fire. As he grows silent and unreachable, sh
- [Rosa la Rosse](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/rosa_la_rosse.md): A prostitute who works in Madame Tellier's establishment.
- [Paul Limousin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/paul_limousin.md): A young man who becomes involved in a tragic love triangle.
- [Madeleine](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/madeleine.md): A woman whose past catches up with her in a surprising way.
- [Isidore Paturon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/isidore_paturon.md): A young man who is tricked into a marriage by a clever matchmaker.
- [Pierre de Marchas](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/pierre_de_marchas.md): A journalist and friend who accompanies the narrator on various adventures.
- [Joseph Rivet](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/joseph_rivet.md): A Norman farmer who becomes involved in a local scandal.
- [Father Matthew](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/father_matthew.md): A priest who offers counsel and performs a memorable exorcism.
- [Philip Remy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/philip_remy.md): A friend of the narrator who shares a strange and unsettling experience.
- [Labouise](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/labouise.md): A soldier who tells a grim story about a comrade's fate during the war.
- [Monsieur Boivin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/monsieur_boivin.md): A man whose wife's obsession with a dog leads to a tragic accident.
- [Madame Berthe Vilers](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/madame_berthe_vilers.md): A woman who writes a letter revealing her innermost feelings.
- [Henri Fontal](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/henri_fontal.md): A man who recounts a bizarre and haunting tale of a haunted house.
- [Maître Hauchecorne](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/maitre_hauchecorne.md): Maître Hauchecorne is a small, careful man of the Norman countryside, the sort whose good name is his only capital. When a pocketbook is found and he is accused of having taken it, his protests, his gestures, and his ver
- [Mother Magloire](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/mother_magloire.md): An old woman who outwits a greedy notary with a clever trick.
- [Irma](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/irma.md): A beautiful young woman who becomes the object of a soldier's affection.
- [Luc Le Ganidec](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/luc_le_ganidec.md): A Breton sailor who tells a story of a supernatural encounter at sea.
- [Comte de Mascaret](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/the_comte_de_mascaret.md): The Comte de Mascaret belongs to a lineage where thwarted desire and dramatic revenge are hereditary legends, told and retold at the family table. He carries the weight of ancestors who hanged themselves over faithless l
- [Madame Savage](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/madame_savage.md): Madame Savage lives a life of monotonous respectability, her days spent managing a household and raising two children while her imagination devours scandalous newspaper columns about Parisian vice. She is consumed by the
- [Jeanne Cordier](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/jeanne_cordier.md): A young woman who defies her father to marry the man she loves.
- [Honoré Bontemps](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/honore_bontemps.md): A man whose wife's infidelity is revealed in a public and humiliating way.
- [Mademoiselle Francesca Rondoli](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/mademoiselle_francesca_rondoli.md): Francesca Rondoli enters the story as a fleeting presence on a train, a young Italian woman whose beauty and manner immediately captivate a fellow passenger. She represents the allure of the unknown, the possibility of r
- [Monsieur Loiseau](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/monsieur_loiseau.md): Monsieur Loiseau is a wine merchant traveling with his wife in the coach alongside Boule de Suif and other passengers, a man whose eye is always on the main chance. He embodies the hypocritical respectability of the prov
- [Bertha](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/bertha.md): A woman whose secret correspondence leads to a dramatic confrontation.
- [De Garelle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/de_garelle.md): A young man who is the lover of the Marquise Obardi.
- [Madame Husson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/madame_husson.md): Madame Husson is a solitary, eccentric woman who manages her own affairs with masculine practicality, keeping relatives at arm's length and tolerating no interference. Her scheme to institute a 'May King' festival honori
- [Monsieur Morissot](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/monsieur_morissot.md): Monsieur Morissot is a quiet, unassuming man whose passion for angling predates the siege of Paris, a hobby that once connected him to simpler days and a friend named Sauvage. With the city under Prussian occupation, he 
- [Madame Dufour](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/madame_dufour.md): A mother who takes her family on a country excursion where her daughter is seduced.
- [Sorieul](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/sorieul.md): A Norman farmer who tells a story about a clever trick played on a neighbor.
- [Maillochon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/maillochon.md): A soldier who participates in a grim and humorous prank.
- [Coco](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/coco_zidore.md): A neglected old horse that becomes the focus of a poignant story about cruelty.
- [Muscade](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/muscade.md): Muscade belongs to Doctor Heraclius Gloss, and the monkey's sly tricks and counterfeit devotion make him a small engine of disruption in an otherwise ordered world. Where the doctor's household runs on routine, Muscade r
- [Clochette](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/clochette.md): An old nun who tells a story of a tragic love from her youth.
- [Old Boniface](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/old_boniface.md): A postman who becomes the victim of a cruel practical joke.
- [Polyte](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/polyte.md): A farmhand who has a secret affair with a farmer's wife.
- [Bel-Ami](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/bel_ami.md): A pet dog whose fate is tied to a story of love and loss.
- [Mouche](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/the_mouche.md): Mouche shares a cramped, waterborne life with three men, a household whose intimacy breeds both dependence and unspoken rivalry. Her secret gives her a private gravity that the men around her can sense but not name, and 
- [Gaspard Hari](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/gaspard_hari.md): An old Norman peasant whose life is marked by a terrible secret.
- [Madame Lecacheur](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/madame_lecacheur.md): A shrewd innkeeper who hosts a memorable dinner party.
- [Morin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/morin.md): A man who is arrested for assaulting a woman on a train and must face the consequences.

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