# P. N. Flaherty — The Cream of the Jest character guide

> P. N. Flaherty in The Cream of the Jest by James Branch Cabell.

**Role:** supporting

**First appearance:** 0043-xxxvi-sundry-disclosures-of-the-press

## Snapshot

A newspaperman who knew Felix Kennaston in ordinary life, and who pieces together the strange account of the sigil with mounting personal unease.

## Who they are

Flaherty is the narrator's stand-in: a reporter of the shallow country intimacy that chance imposes on neighbors, who listened while Kennaston spoke of the sigil with what struck him as indecent unconcern. He takes notes, marvels, and slowly realizes that Kennaston's standard of values had ceased to be human. His skepticism and his willingness to follow the dream anyway make him the reader's guide into Poictesme, lending the fantastic frame its air of reported fact.

## In the story

### [XL: Which Mr. Flaherty Does Not Quite Explain](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_cream_of_the_jest_se/chapters/xl-which-mr-flaherty-does-not-quite-explain)

The artist who designed the cold cream jar top, unknowingly creating the 'sigil'.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_cream_of_the_jest_se/characters/p_n_flaherty
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_cream_of_the_jest_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_cream_of_the_jest_se/characters