# Short Fiction — Character guide

> Key figures in Short Fiction by Stanley G. Weinbaum.

- [Unknown](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_51_se/characters/unknown_narrator.md): He's the first-person voice of the van Manderpootz tales, a rich man's son who can't reach his desk on time but can be counted on to volunteer for any device that scrambles perception. Twice burned by inventions — once l
- [Dan Burke](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_51_se/characters/dan_burke.md): Dan is the narrator of the Paracosma sequence, a man whose initial suspicion — 'A swindle!' — dissolves the moment the electrolyzed story floods his eyes with an unearthly forest, elfin music, and a girl named Galatea. T
- [Van Manderpootz](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_51_se/characters/van_manderpootz.md): Van Manderpootz is the genius at the center of the Dixon Wells stories, a man who treats his own mind as a natural wonder and his assistant's offhand remarks as seeds of epoch-making discovery. His flaw is not incompeten
- [Tweel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_51_se/characters/tweel.md): Tweel is the companion Dick Jarvis picks up on the Martian plain, a creature whose piping speech, hopping gait, and baffling intelligence make him both ally and puzzle. What sets him apart is his alienness: he reasons by
- [Dick Jarvis](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_51_se/characters/dick_jarvis.md): Jarvis is the narrator of 'A Martian Odyssey,' a practical, good-humored scientist who stretches out in the cramped quarters of the Ares and spins the tale of his solo scouting flight south. His resourcefulness — and his
- [Galatea](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_51_se/characters/galatea.md): Galatea is Dan's guide into Paracosma, a world she calls 'Land-beyond-the-world,' where she speaks a language he somehow understands and moves with a warmth that feels more real than the hotel carpet under his feet. Her 
- [Leroy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_51_se/characters/leroy.md): Leroy is one of the four Academy-selected scientists crewing the Ares, a man whose dapper composure and proven courage earned him a seat on humanity's first Martian voyage. After days alone in the southern wilderness wit
- [Harrison](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_51_se/characters/harrison.md): Harrison commands the Ares and its four-man crew, a man whose dry humor and blunt manner keep the expedition grounded even as Jarvis and Leroy radio back reports he dismisses as screwy. He listens to Jarvis's account of 
- [Denise d'Agrion](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_51_se/characters/denise_dagrion.md): Denise d'Agrion belongs to the strange aftermath of van Manderpootz's subjunctivisor and idealizator experiments, a woman whose existence Dixon Wells can neither fully confirm nor dismiss. She is bound up with Dixon's su
- [Carter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_51_se/characters/carter.md): Carter serves among the expedition's supporting crew, a humble presence whose reliability contrasts with the more volatile temperaments around him. He is the sort of man whose steadiness matters most when the environment
- [Dixon Wells](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_51_se/characters/dixon_wells.md): Dixon Wells narrates his own misadventures as a reluctant engineer and full-time heir, forever arriving late to the office and forever falling for dancers, singers, and women who may not exist. His father tolerates his t
- [The Captain](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_51_se/characters/the_captain.md): The Captain leads the four-man Academy expedition aboard the Ares, a man whose blunt demands for straight answers cut through his crew's evasions and half-finished radio reports. He assumes a gruffness with the returning
- [Putz](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_51_se/characters/putz.md): A minor character, possibly a servant or assistant.
- [Professor Ludwig](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_51_se/characters/professor_ludwig.md): An elderly scientist or academic figure.
- [Leucon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_51_se/characters/leucon.md): An ancient or wise figure encountered in a story.
- [Miss Fitch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_51_se/characters/miss_fitch.md): A woman who undergoes a transformation or is courted.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_51_se/characters