Character guide

Lambert Strether

major

Also known as Strether, Mr. Strether, Lewis Lambert Strether

Strether arrives in Europe as Mrs. Newsome's trusted envoy, tasked with bringing her son Chad home from what Woollett assumes is moral ruin. Yet the freedom of Paris — and the company of Maria Gostrey — awakens in him a hunger he had long since buried, and he begins to suspect his own errand. His slow, self-questioning drift from duty toward delight is the engine of the novel's central drama.

Chad Newsome

major

Also known as Chad, Mr. Chad

Chad is the young American whose European education has remade him into a figure of puzzling polish, and whose relationship with Madame de Vionnet gives his mother's emissaries something far more complicated than a scandal to confront. He is courteous, evasive, and quietly sovereign in his own life, refusing to be either rescued or explained. His composure forces Strether — and the reader — to ask what 'saving' him would even mean.

Maria Gostrey

major

Also known as Miss Gostrey, Gostrey, Mamie, Marie

Maria Gostrey is the worldly, witty friend who meets Strether at Chester and becomes his guide through the social labyrinth of Paris, explaining customs, decoding motives, and offering a companionship that is warmer than she lets on. Her pleasure in watching him awaken is genuine, but so is her sense of privation as he is drawn toward others. She matters because she gives Strether the vocabulary for his own transformation — and because her unspoken feelings shadow every choice he makes.

Madame de Vionnet

major

Also known as Marie de Vionnet, de Vionnet

Madame de Vionnet is the elegant, intelligent woman whose influence has remade Chad and whose presence in his life confounds every Woollett assumption about what is happening in Paris. She is gracious, self-possessed, and impossible to reduce to either seductress or victim, and her relationship with Chad resists every moral category Strether brought with him. Her gravity and charm are what make the novel's central question — what is owed to whom — genuinely unanswerable.

Sarah Pocock

supporting

Also known as Sarah, Sally, Pocock

Sarah Pocock comes to Paris as her mother's authorized voice, prepared to assess the situation, reclaim her brother, and pass judgment on everything European. She is principled, imperious, and utterly unimpressed by the charms that have softened Strether, and her arrival forces the novel's central confrontation between two irreconcilable ways of living. Her presence raises the stakes of Strether's stay: he must now justify not only Chad but himself.

Waymarsh

supporting

Also known as Mr. Waymarsh, poor Waymarsh

Waymarsh is the solid, uneasy American who arrives in Europe as Strether's companion and remains a kind of moral barometer — restless, suspicious of pleasure, and increasingly alienated from his friend's drift. His blunt judgments and visible suffering in the face of Parisian ease throw Strether's own changes into relief. He matters because he embodies the Woollett perspective Strether is quietly leaving behind, and because his friendship is one of the ties Strether must weigh against everything he is discovering.

Mrs. Newsome

supporting

Also known as Newsome

Chad's formidable mother in Woollett, who sends Strether to Paris as her envoy and watches his every move from across the Atlantic.

Little Bilham

supporting

Also known as John Little Bilham, Bilham, Mr. Bilham

A young American painter lingering in Paris, Chad's loyal friend and apologist, whose cheerful candor both charms Strether and complicates his mission.

Jim Pocock

supporting

Also known as Jim, Pocock, poor Jim

Sarah's husband, a bluff, good-natured American businessman who tags along to Paris and takes everything far less seriously than his wife.

Miss Barrace

supporting

Also known as Barrace, brilliant Miss Barrace

A sharp-tongued American expatriate who has made Paris her stage, delighting in watching and commenting on the dramas of others.

Jeanne de Vionnet

supporting

Also known as Jeanne, Little Jeanne, Miss Jeanne

Madame de Vionnet's young daughter, a sheltered, luminous girl whose freshness stirs both Strether's admiration and Little Bilham's hopeless longing.

Mamie Pocock

minor

Also known as Mamie, Maria

Jim's sister, a sweet-natured young woman from America.

Gloriani

minor

Also known as Madame Gloriani

Famous sculptor who hosts a key garden party in Paris.

Mr. Newsome

minor

Also known as the late Mr. Newsome

Deceased husband of Mrs. Newsome, mentioned as a past figure.

Monsieur de Vionnet

minor

Estranged husband of Madame de Vionnet, rarely appears.

Baptiste

minor

Madame de Vionnet's loyal butler.

Monsieur de Montbron

minor

French nobleman mentioned in social circles.

Countess

minor

Unnamed aristocratic woman in Parisian society.