# Mr. Brisher — Short Fiction character guide

> Mr. Brisher in Short Fiction by H. G. Wells.

**Role:** supporting

**First appearance:** 0058-mr-brisher-s-treasure

## Snapshot

A mild, rotund clergyman-schoolmaster whose holiday boast about adventure leads him into a moonlit temptation he is not built to resist.

## Who they are

Mr. Brisher — Ledbetter in the tale's own telling — is a schoolmaster in orders, dishevelled, bespectacled, and quietly astonished at his own life, taking a summer rest at Hithergate-on-Sea. Over whisky he joins a talkative stranger in lamenting that courage and adventure have vanished from a policed and railwayed world, then walks out alone to test the boast against his own nerve. His gap between professed daring and actual timidity is the comic engine of the story, and the treasure he stumbles toward tests exactly the bravery he claimed to miss.

## In the story

### [Mr. Brisher's Treasure](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_25_se/chapters/mr-brisher-s-treasure)

The narrator and protagonist, a heavy-set, cautious man who recalls his youthful engagement and discovery of a buried treasure.

### [The Valley of Spiders](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_25_se/chapters/the-valley-of-spiders)

The gaunt man with the scarred lip; he is attacked and killed by spiders during the chase.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_25_se/characters/mr-brisher
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_25_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_25_se/characters