# Old Cooper — Short Fiction character guide

> Old Cooper in Short Fiction by J. Sheridan Le Fanu.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** old Cooper, Cooper, Tom Cooper

**First appearance:** 0012-the-quare-gander

## Snapshot

An aging bachelor who sits by his fire with a glass of port and lets memory unroll its strange and mournful histories before him.

## Who they are

Old Cooper is the frame narrator of these tales—a man who has not handled a pistol in anger for five-and-thirty years and prizes his obscurity above literary honors. He confesses that memory calls up the loved and the ruined, the changed and the dead, with the vividness of a Prospero's pageant. His reluctance to name names and his fear of scandal give the stories their peculiar intimacy, as if the reader were overhearing secrets too dangerous to publish.

## Relationships

### [Squire Toby](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_31_se/characters/squire_toby)

_professional_

Old Cooper serves as a loyal retainer or estate manager to Squire Toby, handling his affairs with deference.

### [Squire Toby](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_31_se/characters/squire_toby)

_professional_

Old Cooper serves as a loyal retainer or estate manager to Squire Toby, handling his affairs with deference.

### [Squire Toby](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_31_se/characters/squire_toby)

_professional_

Old Cooper serves as a loyal retainer or estate manager to Squire Toby, handling his affairs with deference.

## In the story

### [IV: The Light in the Bell Tower](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_31_se/chapters/iv-the-light-in-the-bell-tower)

Referenced as old Laurence, the faithful retainer who investigates the light.

### [V: The Man with the Claret Mark](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_31_se/chapters/v-the-man-with-the-claret-mark)

Laurence, the trusted servant who sees the figure and fires a pistol at it, missing as the figure dissolves.

### [Squire Toby's Will](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_31_se/chapters/squire-toby-s-will)

The loyal butler who shares dreams about the old master and assists Charles in his later years.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_31_se/characters/old_cooper
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_31_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_31_se/characters