# Fred Pickering — Short Fiction character guide

> Fred Pickering in Short Fiction by Anthony Trollope.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** Fred, young Pickering, Pickering, poor Fred

**First appearance:** 0033-the-adventures-of-fred-pickering

## Snapshot

A proud, hardworking scholar in threadbare clothes who would surrender a third of his income just to change the nature of his labour.

## Who they are

Fred Pickering arrives in distress but carries himself without supplication, his keen intellect and dry humour intact despite a wife and children depending on him. He throws himself into scholarly work with real discipline, yet a terrible skeleton refuses to stay in the cupboard: his wife's demands and behaviour threaten everything he builds. His struggle between respectability and ruin gives the story its anxious, sympathetic pull.

## In the story

### [The Adventures of Fred Pickering](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_4_se/chapters/the-adventures-of-fred-pickering)

The protagonist, a young man who marries impulsively and struggles to establish a literary career in London, facing severe poverty and humiliation.

### [Mary Gresley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_4_se/chapters/mary-gresley)

Mentioned as the literary gentleman from Yorkshire who recommended Mary to the editor.

### [Alice Dugdale](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_4_se/chapters/alice-dugdale)

A young man with romantic interest in Alice, representing ambition and social mobility.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_4_se/characters/fred_pickering
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_4_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_4_se/characters