# The Luck of Barry Lyndon — Character guide

> Key figures in The Luck of Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray.

- [Barry Lyndon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/barry_lyndon.md): Barry narrates his own memoirs with swagger and selective memory, styling himself a gentleman of honour while the editor's footnotes quietly expose the borrowed money, the doubtful duels, and the wife he bullies and betr
- [Lady Lyndon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/lady_lyndon.md): A widow of fortune and fragile nerves, she drifts through Dublin and London while Barry bribes servants, reads her correspondence, and stages coincidences until she feels hunted by fate itself. She writes of his serpent-
- [Nora Brady](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/nora_brady.md): Nora is the first tender passion of Barry's memoir, a girl whose family weighs suitors by their incomes, and Captain Quin's fifteen hundred a year outweighs a landless cousin's ardour. The duel that follows is staged, th
- [Captain Quin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/captain_quin.md): Quin is the rival whose income makes him irresistible to the Brady family, and the duel with Barry is quietly arranged so that no one need die and the inconvenient cousin can be got out of Ireland. He recovers, marries N
- [Captain Fagan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/captain_fagan.md): Fagan is the friendly face that makes army life bearable for a humiliated Barry, exchanging into his company and quietly writing to his mother on his behalf. He is the one who tells Barry that Nora has married Quin, that
- [Lord Bullingdon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/lord_bullingdon.md): Young Bullingdon watches his mother's new husband spend her income, bully her into signing away her property, and parade his infidelities, and he learns to hate with patience. Barry dismisses him as a scoundrel and a pla
- [Bryan Lyndon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/bryan_lyndon.md): Barry and Lady Lyndon's adored young son, whose existence becomes both the proudest boast and the most precarious stake in his father's climb.
- [Ulick Brady](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/ulick_brady.md): Barry's hot-blooded cousin and Nora's brother, a soldier whose reckless pride drags the family name into scandal and sets Barry's own fortunes moving.
- [Michael Brady](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/michael_brady.md): Barry's uncle and the Bradys' threadbare squire, a decent man whose small estate and smaller prospects make his nephew's grand airs both comic and dangerous.
- [Chevalier de Magny](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/chevalier_de_magny.md): A quick-tempered French gambler and court favorite whose easy money and fatal carelessness make him Barry's rival at the faro table and pawn of the police.
- [George Poynings](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/george_poynings.md): A young English lord whose friendship and fortune open doors for Barry across Europe, and whose fate tests how far Barry's loyalty actually reaches.
- [Countess Ida](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/countess_ida.md): A guarded German countess at the court of X⸺, whose fortune and melancholy make her the object of Barry's scheming courtship and the court's watchful gossip.
- [Princess Olivia](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/princess_olivia.md): A German princess whose tenderness turns to contempt between one Mall stroll and the next, and whose fortune Barry means to spend.
- [Sir Charles Lyndon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/sir_charles_lyndon.md): Sir Charles Lyndon holds the title, the estate, and the wife that Barry Lyndon covets, and he holds them badly: he bullies Lady Lyndon into signing away her property, spends the proceeds in taverns, and keeps his childre
- [Mrs. Barry](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/mrs_barry.md): Mrs. Barry is the voice in Redmond's ear that keeps his self-regard polished, insisting on the family's ancient claims and the greatness he is owed. Her pride is both a gift and a poison: she feeds his ambition when prud
- [Rev. Mr. Runt](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/rev_mr_runt.md): The Reverend Mr. Runt occupies the modest, respectable place in Lady Lyndon's household that Barry means to displace, serving as chaplain and as tutor to young Bullingdon. He is fussy, anxious, and easily cowed, which ma
- [Captain Fitzsimons](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/captain_fitzsimons.md): Irish officer and associate of Barry in the gambling world.
- [Monsieur de Balibari](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/monsieur_de_balibari.md): Mysterious gambler and possible relative of Barry at European courts.
- [Prince Victor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/prince_victor.md): German prince who employs Barry as a secret agent.
- [Monsieur de Potzdorff](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/monsieur_de_potzdorff.md): German officer and rival of Barry in gambling and love.
- [Madame de Liliengarten](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/madame_de_liliengarten.md): Mistress of a German prince who befriends Barry at court.
- [Count Alessandro Pippi](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/count_alessandro_pippi.md): Italian adventurer and gambler who crosses paths with Barry.
- [Roaring Harry Barry](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/roaring_harry_barry.md): Barry's legendary father, a reckless Irish gentleman killed in a duel.
- [Lord Tiptoff](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/tiptoff.md): English nobleman and relative of Lady Lyndon who opposes Barry.
- [Phil Purcell](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/phil_purcell.md): Irish friend of Barry who accompanies him in his early adventures.
- [Stoney Bowes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/stoney_bowes.md): Notorious Irish fortune-hunter and contemporary of Barry.
- [Old Fritz](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/old_fritz.md): German soldier and veteran who befriends Barry in the army.
- [Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/prince_ferdinand.md): Prussian general under whom Barry serves during the Seven Years' War.
- [Mrs. Brady](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/mrs_brady.md): Barry's aunt and mother of Nora and Ulick Brady.
- [Princess Frederica Amelia](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/princess_frederica_amelia.md): German princess who takes an interest in Barry at court.
- [Lord Deuceace](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/lord_deuceace.md): Young English nobleman and gambler who associates with Barry.
- [Lord Bagwig](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/lord_bagwig.md): English nobleman whose table Barry frequents in London.
- [Nick the Huntsman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/nick_the_huntsman.md): Huntsman at Castle Brady in Barry's youth.
- [Lieutenant Rawson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_luck_of_barry_lyndon_se/characters/lieutenant_rawson.md): British officer who serves with Barry in the army.

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