Character guide

Edward Ashburnham

major

Also known as Edward, Teddy Ashburnham, Ashburnham, Teddy, poor Edward, the silent Edward

Edward Ashburnham looks like the ideal English gentleman: well-built, temperate, punctual, admired by his regiment and his wife. Yet his real life runs on a private current of romantic pity — he cannot resist a woman who seems darkly sorrowful, and his affairs are sandwiched into the odd hours between polo and duty. He matters because the novel's whole tragedy turns on whether such a man is a pathological case or merely, as Dowell insists, a normal sentimentalist.

Leonora Ashburnham

major

Also known as Leonora, poor Leonora, the miserable Leonora, Miss Lupton

Leonora enters the marriage as a convent girl handed over like a patient medieval virgin, adoring Edward and expecting to obey. Within a few years she is running Branshaw's finances, watching his largesse and his mistresses, and discovering a desire for mastery she never knew she had. Her disciplined silence — and the one shocking moment she breaks it — makes her the story's most formidable and least legible witness.

Florence Dowell

major

Also known as poor Florence, Florence, poor dear Florence, Miss Florence Hurlbird, Miss Florence, Hurlbird, old Hurlbird

Florence marries John Dowell after a whirlwind courtship that scandalizes her aunts, and settles into a European life of spas, social evenings, and carefully arranged appearances. Beneath the charm lies something harder: a family history of flirtations, a weak heart she uses as a shield, and an interest in Edward Ashburnham that her husband mistakes for friendship. She is the hinge on which the novel's famous unreliability swings.

John Dowell

major

Also known as Unknown, myself, me

John Dowell drifts through the Ashburnhams' world of Nauheim and Branshaw as a courteous, well-meaning outsider, married to Florence and oddly at home in other people's marriages. He confesses himself an unreliable witness — passive, unjealous, prone to first impressions — yet his very blindness is the lens through which the tragedy is refracted. His slow, reluctant reconstruction of what happened is the book's central act.

Nancy Rufford

major

Also known as Nancy, Annie, III Nancy, Aden Nancy, Aden

Nancy arrives at Branshaw as a child abandoned by a drinking mother and an absent soldier father, and grows up cheerful, fragile, and utterly trusting of Edward and Leonora. By eighteen she is startlingly beautiful — 'like the sail of a ship' — and still half a daughter to the household. Her presence forces the Ashburnhams' marriage to its breaking point, because she is the one person Edward's pity cannot safely reach.

Maisie Maidan

supporting

Also known as poor Maisie, Maisie, Maidan, young Maidan

Maisie Maidan is barely twenty-three, married to a boy husband in Chitral, and so gentle that even Dowell remembers her as something wrapped in lavender. Edward's pursuit of her — sincere, he insists — becomes the scandal that first draws Florence and Leonora into their strange intimacy, after Leonora slaps her in a hotel corridor. Her death is the story's first quiet casualty, and the pattern for what follows.

La Dolciquita

minor

Also known as the Dolciquita

A Spanish courtesan with whom Edward has a brief, expensive affair in Monte Carlo.

Mrs. Maidan

minor

Also known as Little Mrs. Maidan, boxing Mrs. Maidan, poor Mrs. Maidan, little Mrs. Maidan

Maisie Maidan's mother, who accompanies her daughter to India.

Mr. Hurlbird

minor

Also known as old Mr. Hurlbird

Florence's wealthy, eccentric uncle from whom she inherits a fortune.

Mrs. Ashburnham

minor

Also known as Branshaw, Mrs. Ashburnham of Branshaw Teleragh, Branshaw Teleragh

Edward's mother, who lives at the family estate Branshaw Teleragh.

Mrs. Basil

minor

A friend of the Ashburnhams, mentioned in social contexts.

Jimmy

minor

Also known as Mr. Jimmy

A young man who accompanies Florence on a trip to Europe before her marriage.

Colonel Powys

minor

Also known as a Powys, Colonel, old Colonel Powys

A military friend of Edward's, part of the social circle in India.

Rodney Bayham

minor

Also known as Bayham, Mr. Rodney Bayham

A man who eventually marries Nancy Rufford after the novel's events.

Bagshawe

minor

Also known as Mr. Bagshawe

A man who exposes Florence's past indiscretions to Leonora.

Mrs. Powys

minor

Wife of Colonel Powys, part of the social circle in India.

Colonel Rufford

minor

Nancy Rufford's father, a military officer stationed abroad.

Carter

minor

Also known as young Carter

A young man who works for the Ashburnhams at Branshaw.

Colonel Hervey

minor

Also known as a Colonel Hervey

A military acquaintance of Edward's, mentioned in passing.

Major Basil

minor

A military officer and husband of Mrs. Basil.

Mrs. Rufford

minor

Nancy Rufford's mother, who lives apart from her husband.

Mumford

minor

Also known as old Mr. Mumford

An elderly neighbor of the Ashburnhams in England.

Julius

minor

A historical figure briefly mentioned in the narrative.

Uncle John

minor

Also known as John

Florence's uncle, mentioned in her family background.

Reggie Hurlbird

minor

A relative of Florence's, briefly mentioned.

Selmes

minor

Also known as young Selmes

A young man who shows interest in Nancy Rufford.

Mrs. Colonel Whelan

minor

Also known as A Mrs. Colonel Whelan

A social acquaintance mentioned in the narrative.

Colonel Ashburnham

minor

Edward's father, a military man mentioned in family history.

Miss Lupton

minor

A woman Leonora is compared to in her youth.