# The Crowd — Character guide

> Key figures in The Crowd by Gustave Le Bon.

- [Napoleon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/napoleon.md): Le Bon returns to Napoleon as the supreme technician of prestige, the man who understood that crowds are led through their imagination and not their reason. He became a god to his followers for fifteen years, sending men
- [The Speaker](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/the_speaker.md): This is the treatise's guiding intelligence, a nineteenth-century observer who distinguishes the everyday crowd from the psychological crowd formed when individual personalities dissolve into one collective mind. He argu
- [Unknown Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/unknown_narrator.md): Speaking as "I," this narrator frames the inquiry as a deliberate psychological study, warning that only in novels do people keep an unvarying character. He moves between examples — the French Convention, a theatre audie
- [Augereau](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/augereau.md): Augereau belongs to Le Bon's gallery of figures whose characters shift with circumstance, evidence that even the fiercest revolutionaries resume quiet, law-abiding lives once the storm passes. He stands beside the notari
- [Taine](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/taine.md): Taine appears as an intellectual touchstone, cited and occasionally disputed as Le Bon stakes out his own account of collective behavior. His presence signals that this is a book in conversation with nineteenth-century h
- [Robespierre](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/robespierre.md): Robespierre and the Jacobins of the Reign of Terror are held up as proof that political conviction and religious faith share the same fierce, intolerant root. Le Bon argues that the Terror's cruelty sprang from the same 
- [Ferdinand de Lesseps](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/de_lesseps.md): In Le Bon's gallery of crowd leaders, de Lesseps stands as the type whose renown alone once commanded obedience, proof that prestige can substitute for argument. Le Bon notes that such leaders often seek only personal in
- [Crowds](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/crowds.md): Le Bon's true protagonist is the organised crowd: any gathering, or even a whole nation, in which conscious personality vanishes and sentiments turn in one direction. It is easily heroic and easily criminal, intolerant y
- [The Hero](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/the_hero.md): Le Bon's hero is less a person than a projection — the amplified image a crowd insists on, whether in a play or a revolution. Because crowds feel only in extremes, they exact from their heroes a morality and daring no or
- [Barras](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/barras.md): French revolutionary politician mentioned in context of crowd dynamics.
- [Mr. Davey](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/mr_davey.md): A specific individual cited in an example of crowd suggestibility.
- [Caesar](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/caesar.md): Roman leader used as a historical example of prestige and crowd control.
- [Maret](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/maret.md): French statesman and diplomat referenced in discussions of leadership.
- [M. Lachaud](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/lachaud.md): Lawyer cited as an example of oratorical influence on juries.
- [Muhammad](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/muhammad.md): Prophet used as an example of religious prestige swaying crowds.
- [M. C⸺](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/m_c.md): Anonymous figure used in a hypothetical example of crowd behavior.
- [Buddha](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/buddha.md): Religious founder cited to illustrate the power of belief over crowds.
- [Herbert Spencer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/herbert_spencer.md): Philosopher whose views on society and education are critiqued.
- [Davoust](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/davoust.md): Napoleonic marshal mentioned in context of military leadership.
- [Ghengis Khan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/ghengis_khan.md): Conqueror used as an example of destructive crowd-led power.
- [Alexander](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/alexander.md): Ancient leader cited to illustrate the role of prestige in leadership.
- [Saint Bartholomew](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/saint_bartholomew.md): Historical figure referenced in discussions of religious crowd violence.
- [M. Jules Simon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/m_jules_simon.md): French politician mentioned in analysis of parliamentary crowds.
- [Felix Pyat](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/felix_pyat.md): Revolutionary writer cited as an example of crowd-influenced rhetoric.
- [Beugnot](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/beugnot.md): French administrator used in an anecdote about crowd behavior.
- [Voltaire](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/voltaire.md): Philosopher cited as an example of intellectual influence on crowds.
- [St. George](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/st_george.md): Saint mentioned in context of religious crowd psychology.
- [Julian Felix](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/julian_felix.md): Historical figure used in an example of crowd suggestibility.
- [Filibert Chavandret](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/chavandret.md): Individual cited in a case study of crowd credulity.
- [Fustel de Coulanges](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/fustel_de_coulanges.md): Historian cited for his views on the role of tradition in crowds.
- [Jesus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/jesus.md): Religious figure cited to illustrate the power of faith over crowds.
- [Tiberius](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/tiberius.md): Roman emperor used as an example of despotic crowd manipulation.
- [M. Berard des Glajeux](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/m_berard_des_glajeux.md): French official cited in a case study of crowd psychology.
- [Victor Hugo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/victor_hugo.md): Writer referenced in discussions of the imagination of crowds.

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