Character guide

Lily Bart

major

Also known as Miss Lily Bart, Miss Bart, Lily, Miss Lily

Lily Bart moves through New York and the Riviera on borrowed invitations, borrowing money and admiration in equal measure while her aunt's allowance never quite covers the life she was raised to expect. She is drawn to Lawrence Selden's detached honesty yet repelled by his modest means, and the gap between what she feels and what she can afford keeps widening. Her triumphs abroad and her small social cruelties at home quietly set the debts and resentments that will define the novel's middle stretch.

Lawrence Selden

major

Also known as Selden, Mr. Selden, Lawrence

Selden circulates through drawing rooms and Monte Carlo as an amused spectator, prized for his detachment and his knack for seeing through the very society he frequents. His inherited contempt for the sumptuary side of life collides with his attraction to Lily, whom he reads as both a woman and a symptom of her world. His refusal to accept a love that appeals to pity but leaves the understanding untouched makes him the moral mirror against which Lily's choices are measured.

Simon Rosedale

supporting

Also known as Mr. Rosedale, Rosedale, Mr. Simon Rosedale

Rosedale collects social capital the way other men collect art, studying the manners of old New York with the diligence of a man who intends to own a piece of it. Lily's casual slights register on him with a precision she never bothers to notice, and his mixture of blunt ambition and genuine shrewdness makes him both a threat and an unexpected ally. His pursuit of Lily and his willingness to trade respectability for access quietly expose how the marriage market really operates.

Gerty Farish

supporting

Also known as Gertrude Farish, Miss Farish, Miss Gertrude Farish

Gerty lives on the unfashionable edge of the city, spending her days finding work for genteel women whose husbands and brothers have gambled away their futures. She adores Lily without illusions and forgives her without conditions, and her modest sitting-room becomes the novel's conscience, where the human cost of the marriage market is tallied in other people's debts. Her loyalty to Lily, and her quiet friendship with Selden, gives the story its moral counterweight.

Bertha Dorset

supporting

Also known as Bertha, Mrs. Bertha Dorset, Bertha Dorset

Bertha Dorset rules her set through a mixture of languor and ruthless calculation, keeping her husband in the dark and her rivals off balance. She resents Lily's triumphs, particularly the attention of the Crown Princess and of Selden, and her hospitality always comes with invisible strings. Her talent for arranging appearances, and her willingness to sacrifice a guest's reputation to protect her own, drives the novel's central crisis.

Mrs. Peniston

supporting

Also known as Mrs. Peniston, Aunt Julia, Julia

Mrs. Peniston provides Lily with a Fifth Avenue address and a small allowance, but her real currency is respectability, which she guards with the vigilance of a woman who has read every scandal and understood none of them. She leans helplessly on her niece in social matters while remaining genuinely horrified by any hint of impropriety attaching to the family name. Her rare dinners, her safe-deposit silver, and her horrified reaction to rumor make her the gatekeeper of Lily's precarious position.

Carry Fisher

supporting

Also known as Mrs. Fisher, Carry, Fisher

Carry occupies the precarious ledge between guest and dependent: clever enough to be indispensable at Bellomont, compromised enough that the Wetheralls refuse to meet her. Her specialty is devoting herself to bores, a niche that keeps her invited and lets her borrow money from men like Gus Trenor. She matters because she shows Lily a possible future — the woman who stays afloat on wit and favors, and who always overdoes things.

Percy Gryce

supporting

Also known as Mr. Percy Gryce, Mr. Gryce, Gryce, Percy

Gryce arrives at Bellomont trailing Americana collections and a horror of impropriety, exactly the kind of heavy, passive fortune Lily has been trained to pursue. His shyness makes him manageable and his wealth makes him worth managing, but his conventional sensibilities are a trap as much as a target. He matters because the campaign to secure him forces Lily to weigh what she wants against what she is willing to perform.

Gus Trenor

supporting

Also known as Trenor, Gus, Charles Augustus Trenor

Trenor is Judy's husband, master of Bellomont's stables and dinners, and a man whose conviviality curdles into something more dangerous when he drinks. He believes himself shrewd about women and generous with money, and both beliefs make him careless about the difference between a favor and a claim. His dealings with Lily — casual, flattering, and increasingly expectant — set the quiet machinery of her ruin in motion.

George Dorset

supporting

Also known as Mr. George Dorset, George, Dorset, Mr. Dorset

Dorset is the barometer Judy Trenor watches: his sullen manner telegraphs Bertha's next mischief before anyone else sees it. Long-suffering and not especially perceptive, he nonetheless becomes fixated on Lily, drawn to her as an antidote to his marriage. His unhappiness matters because it makes him both a possible ally and a liability, and because Bertha's treatment of him is the clearest measure of what she is capable of.

Judy Trenor

supporting

Also known as Judy, Mrs. Trenor

Judy runs the social machinery that Lily depends on, and she runs it with an eye to amusement rather than affection — fond of dangerous people because they are safer to know. Her letters, her lists, and her grudges determine who rises and who is quietly dropped. She matters because her house is Lily's stage, and because her casual calculations reveal how little loyalty underwrites any of it.

Grace Stepney

supporting

Also known as Grace, Miss Stepney, Grace Stepney

Grace runs in to sit with Mrs. Peniston when Lily is out, playing bezique and sincerely admiring the purple satin curtains. She is useful in the small ways Lily disdains, and her quiet competence makes her a natural alternative in the old woman's affections. She matters because she embodies the dingy, dependent future Lily sees waiting for her, and because her patient proximity gives her a claim Lily's brilliance cannot match.

Norma Hatch

minor

Also known as Mrs. Norma Hatch, Mrs. Hatch

A wealthy but vulgar woman from the West who seeks social acceptance.

Jack Stepney

minor

Also known as Jack, Stepney, Mr. Stepney

A society man and cousin to Lily and Grace Stepney.

Lord Hubert Dacey

minor

Also known as Lord Hubert, Dacey

An English aristocrat who visits New York society.

Mrs. Hudson Bart

minor

Also known as Mrs. Bart, Hudson

Lily's mother, who raised her to value wealth and social position.

Nettie Struther

minor

Also known as Nettie

A poor young woman whom Lily once helped, offering kindness in return.

Mrs. Wellington Bry

minor

Also known as Mrs. Bry, Louisa Bry, Louisa

A wealthy social climber who hosts lavish parties.

Ned Silverton

minor

Also known as Silverton, Ned, young Silverton

A young man of good family but no money, part of the social set.

Freddy Van Osburgh

minor

Also known as Freddy

A young man from a wealthy family, part of the social circle.

Melville Stancy

minor

Also known as Mr. Stancy, Stancy

A minor character mentioned in social contexts.

Duchess of Beltshire

minor

Also known as Beltshire

An English duchess visiting New York.

Mrs. Haffen

minor

Also known as Haffen

A charwoman who tries to blackmail Lily with incriminating letters.

Lady Cressida Raith

minor

Also known as Lady Cressida

An English noblewoman visiting New York society.

Ned Van Alstyne

minor

Also known as Mr. Ned Van Alstyne, Van Alstyne, old Ned Van Alstyne

An older gentleman and gossip in New York society.

Evie Van Osburgh

minor

Also known as Evie, Van Osburgh

A young heiress who marries Percy Gryce.

Mattie Gormer

minor

Also known as Mattie, Mrs. Gormer

A wealthy but vulgar woman who befriends Lily for a time.

Mrs. Percy Gryce

minor

Also known as Mrs. Gryce

Percy Gryce's mother, a devout and conservative woman.

Lulu Melson

minor

Also known as Louisa

A minor society figure mentioned in passing.

Mme. Regina

minor

Also known as Regina

A milliner who employs Lily briefly.

Molly Van Alstyne

minor

Also known as Molly

A minor society figure, possibly Ned's relative.

Mrs. Van Osburgh

minor

Also known as Van Osburgh

A society matron and mother of many daughters.

Gwen Van Osburgh

minor

Also known as Gwen

One of the Van Osburgh daughters.

Paul Morpeth

minor

Also known as Morpeth

A painter and friend of Selden's.

Mr. Wellington Bry

minor

Also known as Mr. Bry, Welly Bry

A wealthy businessman and husband of Mrs. Bry.

Miss Jane Silverton

minor

Also known as Miss Jane

Ned Silverton's sister, a poor relation in society.

Alice Wetherall

minor

Also known as Wetherall

A minor society figure.

Miss Kilroy

minor

A minor character mentioned in social scenes.

Herbert Melson

minor

Also known as Melson

A minor society figure.

Miss Haines

minor

A milliner who employs Lily briefly.

Lady Skiddaw

minor

An English aristocrat mentioned in society gossip.

Kate Corby

minor

Also known as Miss Corby

A young woman in the social set, friend of Carry Fisher.

Mme. Céleste

minor

Also known as Céleste

A dressmaker patronized by Lily.

Mr. Dabham

minor

Also known as Dabham, little Dabham

A gossip columnist for a society paper.

Dillworth

minor

A minor character mentioned in passing.

Jefferson Gryce

minor

Also known as old Jefferson Gryce

Percy Gryce's deceased father, a collector of Americana.

Mrs. Wetherall

minor

A minor society matron.

Mrs. Selden

minor

Lawrence Selden's mother, mentioned as deceased.

Mr. Peniston

minor

Also known as the late Mr. Peniston

Mrs. Peniston's deceased husband.

Muriel

minor

A minor character, possibly a servant or child.

Hilda

minor

A minor character, possibly a servant.

Gwen Stepney

minor

A relative of the Stepney family.