# The History of Mr. Polly — Character guide

> Key figures in The History of Mr. Polly by H. G. Wells.

- [Mr. Polly](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_history_of_mr_polly_se/characters/mr_polly.md): Mr. Polly drifts into the drapery trade, into marriage, and into a failing shop in Fishbourne, none of it chosen so much as allowed to happen. His real life runs underneath: a hunger for beauty, adventure, and meaning th
- [Miriam](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_history_of_mr_polly_se/characters/miriam.md): Miriam enters Mr. Polly's life as one of the cheerful Larkins cousins and settles into it as a wife who manages the shop, the kitchen, and the household accounts without ever quite seeing the man beside her. She is not c
- [Uncle Jim](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_history_of_mr_polly_se/characters/uncle_jim.md): Uncle Jim is the shadow that falls across the Potwell Inn, a nephew and a menace whose reputation for scooting strangers precedes him. He is not handsome, not kind, and not above teaching a nine-year-old to swear and spi
- [Parsons](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_history_of_mr_polly_se/characters/parsons.md): Parsons is Mr. Polly's fellow apprentice in the drapery shop, a bellowing, enthusiastic young man who knows Milton and Shakespeare by heart and reads aloud whether anyone wants him to or not. Through him Mr. Polly gets h
- [Johnson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_history_of_mr_polly_se/characters/johnson.md): Mr. Johnson is the kind of neighbor who walks slowly down the garden path explaining the management of peas, wrinkles neatly applied and difficulties wisely overcome. He is decent, unremarkable, and entirely at home in t
- [Mr. Voules](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_history_of_mr_polly_se/characters/mr_voules.md): Mr. Voules belongs to the wider Larkins connection, the sort of relative who turns up, holds forth, and makes himself comfortable in someone else's house. He is not a villain, only one more voice in the chorus of people 
- [Mrs. Larkins](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_history_of_mr_polly_se/characters/larkins.md): Mrs. Larkins presides over the Larkins household with a mix of shrewdness and slapdash hospitality, sizing up Mr. Polly's matrimonial prospects while forgetting the butter. She boasts of having kept Larkins hesitating tw
- [Uncle Pentstemon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_history_of_mr_polly_se/characters/uncle_pentstemon.md): Mr. Polly's eccentric uncle who leaves him a small inheritance.
- [Mr. Rusper](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_history_of_mr_polly_se/characters/mr_rusper.md): A rival shopkeeper in Fishbourne.
- [Annie](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_history_of_mr_polly_se/characters/annie.md): Miriam's sister, who marries Mr. Voules.
- [Wintershed](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_history_of_mr_polly_se/characters/wintershed.md): A fellow apprentice at Mr. Polly's first job.
- [Rumbold](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_history_of_mr_polly_se/characters/rumbold.md): A draper and Mr. Polly's early employer.
- [Platt](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_history_of_mr_polly_se/characters/platt.md): A fellow apprentice at Rumbold's.
- [The Young Lady](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_history_of_mr_polly_se/characters/the_young_lady.md): A romantic interest of Mr. Polly's youth.
- [Mr. Garvace](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_history_of_mr_polly_se/characters/mr_garvace.md): Mr. Polly's employer at the drapery shop.
- [Morrison](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_history_of_mr_polly_se/characters/morrison.md): A colleague of Mr. Polly at Garvace's.
- [Elfrid](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_history_of_mr_polly_se/characters/elfrid.md): Miriam's brother, a lazy and pretentious young man.
- [Hinks](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_history_of_mr_polly_se/characters/hinks.md): A friend of Parsons involved in a bicycle accident.
- [Mrs. Polly](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_history_of_mr_polly_se/characters/mrs_polly.md): Mr. Polly's mother, a minor figure in his past.
- [Boomer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_history_of_mr_polly_se/characters/boomer.md): A customer at the Potwell Inn.
- [Christabel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_history_of_mr_polly_se/characters/christabel.md): A young woman Mr. Polly meets during his travels.
- [Gambell](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_history_of_mr_polly_se/characters/gambell.md): A customer at the Potwell Inn.
- [Little Clamp](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_history_of_mr_polly_se/characters/little_clamp.md): A small boy who torments Mr. Polly.
- [Mrs. Rusper](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_history_of_mr_polly_se/characters/mrs_rusper.md): Mr. Rusper's wife.
- [Warspite](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_history_of_mr_polly_se/characters/warspite.md): A customer at the Potwell Inn.
- [Mansfield](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_history_of_mr_polly_se/characters/mansfield.md): A customer at the Potwell Inn.

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