# Countess de Montevesso — Suspense character guide

> Countess de Montevesso in Suspense by Joseph Conrad.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** the Countess Montevesso, Countess of Montevesso, Madame la Comtesse

**First appearance:** 0001-suspense

## Snapshot

Once the fair-haired child Adèle d'Armand at Latham Hall, now a young ambassadress whose tragic history Cosmo Latham approaches as a stranger he half-remembers.

## Who they are

Cosmo knew her only as a fair head hovering near his father's armchair, one of the two girls glimpsed in the Park during school holidays, and he cannot picture her grown, married for years, the daughter of an ambassador. She remembers his home and his parents far better than he does, having lived at Latham Hall for three years while he was away at intervals. She matters because her return into Cosmo's life is the hinge on which the novel's Genoese present opens onto its buried past, and because the gap between the child he recalls and the woman he is about to meet is itself the story's central question.

## In the story

### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/suspense_se/chapters/part-i-ii)

Mentioned as the Marquise d'Armand, whose health is declining and who is cared for in London.

### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/suspense_se/chapters/part-ii-v)

Reveals the story of her marriage, her sacrifice, and her husband's jealousy.

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/suspense_se/chapters/part-iii-i)

Thought of by the doctor and Cosmo; the object of the Count's lifelong jealousy.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/suspense_se/characters/countess_de_montevesso
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/suspense_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/suspense_se/characters