Character guide

Mr. Villiers

major

Also known as Villiers

Villiers moves easily through Piccadilly and the clubland of men who know things, but it is a beggar in the street he cannot forget: Herbert, ruined, who said his wife had destroyed him body and soul. Where his friend Austin counsels caution and Clarke's letter begs him to burn the portrait and blot out the story, Villiers reads both as dares. His restless curiosity is the engine that drags polite society toward the abyss it would rather ignore.

Mr. Dyson

supporting

Also known as Dyson

Dyson is the kind of man who notices a name above a shop and a lamppost's lettering at the same moment, and who enjoys watching perplexity dawn on a stranger's face. He wields a phrase about grass and lasses and maple-trees like a weapon, invoking a shadowy figure called Q until the terrified Travers surrenders a brown-paper parcel. His appetite for the queer and the hidden makes him a useful ally — and a man who cannot leave a locked box unopened.

Mr. Clarke

major

Also known as Clarke

Clarke's character is an odd mingling of caution and curiosity: he repudiates the occult in his sober hours, yet pines for the unseen and secretly compiles his Memoirs to Prove the Existence of the Devil. The horrors of Raymond's laboratory left him clinging to the commonplace for years, but the old passion reasserts itself, and on a foggy December night he cannot resist the bureau. His letter of warning to Villiers reveals a man who has peered over an abyss and drawn back in terror.

Mary

supporting

Also known as Aunt Marian, Marian

Mary sits hand in hand with Darnell in the dusk, and as the ugly walls of Shepherd's Bush dissolve into shadow, she seems to know something of the secret of the wood and the valley shut in by high hills. Her relations share the modern world's instinctive horror of the true country, so her knowledge comes from no experience but from some deeper intuition. In her eyes Darnell sees water-pools in the still forest and hears the music of the winding river — she is the human anchor of his visions.

Mrs. Darnell

minor

Also known as Darnell

A character involved in the domestic life of the Darnell family.

Edward Darnell

major

Also known as Darnell, Edward

Darnell is an English City clerk flourishing toward the end of the nineteenth century, equipped with a commercial education that left him unable to articulate any thought worth thinking. Yet on certain mornings he grows certain that common sense is the smallest item in an ant's equipment, and that he and his fellow-workers are like fair stones of an altar serving as a pigsty wall. He knows, dimly but certainly, that man is made for mysteries and visions — and he is preparing himself for a great experiment.

Mr. and Mrs. Merritt

minor

Also known as Merritt, Mr. Merritt, the foolish Merritt

A couple who encounter strange phenomena during the Terror.

Dr. Lewis

supporting

Also known as Lewis, the Unknown Tree Dr. Lewis

Lewis is a man of normal temperature and a pint of Graves with dinner, which makes the tree in his garden all the more disturbing: he is not delirious, not drunk, not poisoned, and yet the impossible pine stands against the sky with quivering leafage. He conceals the truth from Remnant because he dreads the Z-Ray doctrine that would inevitably follow, and because he hopes he has heard the last of it. His private perplexity — questions with no answer — makes him the story's most credible witness to the incredible.

Alice

minor

A young woman who appears in the narrative of the White People.

Austin

minor

A character who interacts with the supernatural in the story.

Mr. Remnant

supporting

Also known as Remnant, Now Remnant

Remnant moves through the Welsh countryside as a man of apparatus and explanation, hearing the wailing darkness dismissed by neighbours as Judgment Day while he coolly attributes it to a blowhole in the Tredonoc woods. His instinct to reduce the supernatural to mechanism sets him apart from the farmers and chapel-goers around him, yet the dog that haunts the lanes and begs at gates refuses every rational reading. As the Terror tightens, Remnant's inventions and his stubbornly materialist habits make him the story's hinge between old dread and modern contrivance.

Dr. Raymond

major

Also known as Raymond

Dr. Raymond moves among theories that his friend Clarke privately dismisses as the wildest nonsense, yet he commands enough gravity to draw a reluctant observer into his dreary laboratory. His confidence in experiment as a route to the recondite is both his genius and his flaw, and the horror he unleashes leaves Clarke clinging to the commonplace for years. Raymond matters because his invitation sets the whole arc in motion, turning curiosity into consequence before the reader has time to look away.

Mr. Salisbury

supporting

Also known as II Mr. Salisbury, III Salisbury, Mr. Charles Salisbury, Charles

Salisbury lives among green rep, oleographs, and gilt-framed mirrors, a man of ordinary habits whose morning novel suddenly loses its power to hold him. The rhyme he found in an archway lodges in his head like a music-hall burden, and he paces deserted byways trying to fix meaning to phrases that seem meaningless. His visit to Dyson's lamplit, incense-scented rooms shows a man reaching past his own dull respectability, which makes him the reader's natural companion into the city's quieter terrors.

Cotgrave

supporting

Cotgrave moves through clubs and quiet rooms collecting stories that others would rather leave untold, and he listens to Herbert's narrative as proof rather than hearsay. His habit of thinking in nested boxes, each opening onto quainter craft, marks him as a man who expects the uncanny to keep unfolding rather than resolve. That appetite for the next layer is what carries the reader deeper into the occult territory the story is mapping.

Dr. Black

minor

Also known as Black, Dr. Black of Harlesden, Harlesden

A doctor involved in the strange events of Harlesden.

Mrs. Nixon

minor

Also known as Nixon

A woman who appears in the story of the Terror.

Charles Herbert

minor

Also known as Herbert, Mrs. Charles Herbert, Mrs. Herbert

A character involved in the events of the Terror.

Ambrose

minor

Also known as Ambrose the recluse

A reclusive man who writes about the occult.

Mrs. Beaumont

minor

Also known as Beaumont

A woman connected to the supernatural in the story.

Lord Argentine

minor

Also known as Argentine

A nobleman who commits suicide under mysterious circumstances.

Mrs. Wilson

minor

Also known as Wilson

A character in the story of the Terror.

Professor Huvelius

minor

Also known as Huvelius

A scholar who studies the occult and the White People.

Mr. Darnell

minor

Also known as old Mr. Darnell, Darnell

The father of Edward Darnell, a figure in the family.

Johnnie Roberts

minor

Also known as little Johnnie, Johnnie, Roberts

A young boy who encounters strange events.

Mr. Williams

minor

Also known as Williams, old Mr. Trevor Williams

A man involved in the events of the Great Return.

Helen V.

minor

Also known as Helen

A woman who appears in the narrative of the White People.

Tom Griffith

minor

Also known as Thomas Griffith, Griffith, poor Griffith, Thomas

A man who dies mysteriously during the Terror.

Mr. Secretan

minor

Also known as Secretan

A man who leaves a final message about the Terror.

Uncle Robert

minor

Also known as Herbert, Robert

An uncle figure in the narrative of the White People.

Helen Vaughan

major

Also known as Helen

Helen arrives at Mr. R.'s farm as a girl of twelve, reticent about her past and unlike anyone in the hamlet, with a foreign cast to her features and a guardian who lets her do as she chooses. She spends whole days in the forest and winters shut in her room, a solitude that unsettles the neighbours even before the singular incidents begin. Her strangeness and the freedom granted her make her the still centre around which the story's dread gathers, long before anyone can name what she is.

Mr. Sidney Crashaw

minor

Also known as Mr. Crashaw, Crashaw

A man who encounters the supernatural in the city.

Mrs. Black

minor

Also known as Black

The wife of Dr. Black, involved in the Harlesden events.

Mrs. Griffith

minor

Also known as old Griffith, poor old Griffith, young Griffith, Griffith

A woman affected by the Terror.

Dr. Phillips

minor

Also known as Phillips

A doctor who appears in the endnotes.

Mrs. Roberts

minor

A woman in the story of the Terror.

Trevor M.

minor

Also known as Trevor

A character in the narrative.

Miss Mary Reynolds

minor

Also known as Miss Marian Reynolds, Mary

A woman who appears in the story.

Rachel M.

minor

Also known as Rachel

A woman who appears in the narrative.

Olwen Phillips

minor

Also known as Croeswen, Olwen Phillips of Croeswen, Olwen, Phillips

A woman who has a dream of the Sangraal.

Young Griffith

minor

Also known as Griffith

A young man affected by the Terror.

Mr. Evans

minor

Also known as old Mr. Evans

An old man in the narrative.

Philip James

minor

A character in the narrative.

Sir Oliver Lodge

minor

Also known as Sir Oliver, Sir Noll

A real-life scientist mentioned in the narrative.

Mrs. Morgan

minor

A woman in the narrative.

Lewis Prothero

minor

Also known as Prothero

A character in the Great Return.

David Williams

minor

Also known as David, Williams

A character in the narrative.

Mrs. Cradock

minor

Also known as Cradock

A woman involved in the events of the Terror.

Karl Heinz

minor

Also known as Karl

A German character involved in the Terror.

Mr. Llewelyn

minor

Also known as Take Llewelyn, Mr. Payne Llewelyn, Llewelyn

A character in the story of the Great Return.

Mr. Robert Nixon

minor

Also known as Mr. Nixon, Robert Nixon, Nixon, Robert

A man involved in the events of the Terror.

Mrs. Murry

minor

Also known as old Mrs. Murry, old Murry, the insidious Mrs. Murry

A woman involved in the events of the Terror.

George Murry

minor

Also known as George

A character in the story of the Terror.

Delamere Smith

minor

Also known as Smith

A man who investigates the occult.

Mrs. Parry

minor

Also known as a Mrs. Parry, Deaf Mrs. Parry

A deaf woman who appears in the story.

Treff Loyne

minor

Also known as the Treff Loyne

A location personified or a character associated with a farm.

Arthur Meyrick

minor

A man who dies under mysterious circumstances.

Lady Avelin

minor

Also known as the Lady Avelin

A noblewoman who appears in the narrative.

Garcia

minor

A character mentioned in the story.

Joseph Cradock

minor

Also known as Cradock

A man involved in the events of the Terror.

Dr. Harding

minor

A doctor who appears in the story.

Jim

minor

Also known as Jams, James

A character in the narrative.

Dickenson

minor

A character in the story.

Dr. James Lewis

minor

Also known as Lewis

A doctor involved in the events of the Terror.

Dr. Robert Matheson

minor

Also known as Dr. Matheson, Robert Matheson, Robert, Dr. Somebody

A doctor who investigates the Terror.

Mr. R.

minor

A mysterious figure in the narrative.

Joseph W.

minor

A character in the story.

Mr. Blank

minor

Also known as Blank

A placeholder name for a character.

Mr. Charles Aubernoun

minor

Also known as Aubernoun

A man who appears in the story.

Mrs. Phillips

minor

A woman in the story of the Great Return.

Edward Davies

minor

Also known as Ned, Davies

A character in the narrative.

Redman

minor

A character in the story.

Meirion

minor

A character in the Great Return.

Harvey

minor

A character in the narrative.

Wallis

minor

A character in the story.

Thomas Evans

minor

Also known as Evans

A character in the Great Return.

Travers

minor

A character in the story.

Sir Rowland

minor

A nobleman in the story.

Sir Dickon

minor

A character in the narrative.

Mr. Bill

minor

Also known as Bill, Willie

A character in the story.

Dick Whittington

minor

Also known as Dick

A legendary figure mentioned in the narrative.

Joseph Kleist

minor

A character in the story.

Oswald Crollius

minor

A historical alchemist mentioned in the story.

Enid Vivian

minor

Also known as Enid

A woman who appears in the narrative.