# Short Fiction — Character guide

> Key figures in Short Fiction by Clark Ashton Smith.

- [James Roverton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/james_roverton.md): Roverton is one of three mutineers aboard Volmar's space-flier, a man of rigorous intellect and prime physical fitness who has spent years enduring the vertiginous horror of the interstellar deep. Unlike the fanatical Vo
- [Jonas McGillicuddy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/jonas_mcgillicuddy.md): Jonas McGillicuddy is a failed vineyard-keeper and drifting laborer, thin, stoop-shouldered, and so tramp-like in appearance that the countryside is suspicious of him. He left his wife Matilda and three children abruptly
- [Bently](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/bently.md): Bently is a guest at the abbey of the learned Hilaire, a young man full of desires and curiosities, exactly the temperament his host warns is most vulnerable to the occult peril lurking in a few sheets of old French parc
- [Malygris](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/malygris.md): Malygris is a master of all knowledge and arcane power, a sorcerer whose necromancy can call back the dead, yet he is tormented by age, despair, and the death of his evanescent hope. When he summons the shade of Nylissa,
- [Herbert Albert Adams](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/herbert_albert_adams.md): Adams is one of three mutineers—along with Chester Deming and James Roverton—aboard Volmar's flier, a man of proven intellectual ability and flawless constitution who volunteered for a voyage no ordinary man would dare. 
- [John Hawley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/john_hawley.md): John Hawley moves through the same parched, fire-prone country that Jonas McGillicuddy tramps, a world of isolated ranches, yellow pines, and the spectral snows of the Sierras in the distance. His presence is tied to the
- [Raja](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/raja.md): Raja is the ceremonial elephant who carries the Maharaja of Jizapur through the streets during the great wedding procession, draped in gold and watched by thousands. Yet before the festivities, an English traveler glimps
- [Sultan Sujah Ali](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/sultan_sujah_ali.md): Sujah Ali abandoned a minor royal birth to carve an empire from the sea, terrorizing Dutch and Chinese shipping until the British broke his fleet and drove him into jungle hiding. There his infatuation with a village gir
- [Gerard de Venteillon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/gerard_de_venteillon.md): Gerard de Venteillon, called Jonas McGillicuddy in the backwoods tale, returns at sunset to see his wife and children on the cabin steps — then everything erupts in flame, and he wakes to cold ashes and a neighbor's clai
- [Chester Deming](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/chester_deming.md): Deming is one of the mutineers marooned on a strange planet, staggering beside Roverton across a reeking, rubbery plain after their escape from a carnivorous jungle. Even parched, half-conscious, and stripped of everythi
- [Captain Volmar](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/captain_volmar.md): Captain Volmar commands the vessel from which three mutineers are to be deposited on the first world the ship encounters, and his cold deliberation — sapphire-sharp eyes, tightened lips — makes the sentence feel less lik
- [Ali Bagh](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/ali_bagh.md): A character with a minor but notable role.
- [Nicholson Sahib](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/nicholson_sahib.md): A sahib who appears in the story.
- [Hilaire](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/hilaire.md): A character with a limited but defined presence.
- [Mohammed Din](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/mohammed_din.md): A character referenced in a ghost story.
- [Chumbu Singh](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/chumbu_singh.md): A named individual with a minor role.
- [Krishna Singh](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/krishna_singh.md): A character appearing briefly in the story.
- [Amina](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/amina.md): A female character with a small part.
- [Arthur Merton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/arthur_merton.md): A mahout who appears in the story.
- [Nylissa](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/nylissa.md): A named character with limited appearances.
- [Matilda](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/matilda.md): A character mentioned in the text.
- [Alton Jasper](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/alton_jasper.md): A minor character with a few mentions.
- [Rankling Sahib](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/rankling_sahib.md): A sahib appearing briefly in the story.
- [Christophe Morand](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/christophe_morand.md): A character with a minor role.
- [Yussuf Ali Borah](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/yussuf_ali_borah.md): A named individual with a small part.
- [Mallek Khan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/mallek_khan.md): A character mentioned in the narrative.
- [Viper](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/viper.md): A character or entity with a minor presence.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters