# The Moonstone — Character guide

> Key figures in The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.

- [Franklin Blake](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moonstone_se/characters/franklin_blake.md): Franklin Blake returns from abroad with European polish, a taste for experiments, and the unlucky errand of carrying the Diamond to Rachel's birthday. He is fond of Rachel, distrusted by her after the theft, and tormente
- [Rachel Verinder](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moonstone_se/characters/rachel_verinder.md): Rachel Verinder is the daughter whose coming-of-age gift sets the whole catastrophe in motion, and whose refusal to explain herself baffles family, police, and suitors alike. She cuts Franklin cold, dismisses the investi
- [Godfrey Ablewhite](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moonstone_se/characters/godfrey_ablewhite.md): Godfrey Ablewhite is the family favorite: handsome, eloquent, endlessly useful on committees, and perpetually short of money. He courts Rachel with the blessing of half the neighborhood while quietly juggling obligations
- [Sergeant Cuff](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moonstone_se/characters/sergeant_cuff.md): Sergeant Cuff arrives at the Verinder house with a reputation, a melancholy manner, and an infuriating habit of announcing the truth before he can prove it. He reads the household like a garden bed, suspects the least li
- [Ezra Jennings](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moonstone_se/characters/ezra_jennings.md): Ezra Jennings is the outcast of the neighborhood: a man with a mysterious past, a worn face, and a medical training that nobody wants to consult. He is devoted to Mr. Candy, tolerated by almost no one, and quietly in pos
- [Gabriel Betteredge](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moonstone_se/characters/gabriel_betteredge.md): Gabriel Betteredge has served the family for decades, knows every servant, every habit, and every grudge at the house, and opens his account of the Diamond with the confidence of a man who has seen everything. He is devo
- [Rosanna Spearman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moonstone_se/characters/rosanna_spearman.md): Lady Verinder plucked Rosanna from prison and reformatory on the matron's word that she was 'one in a thousand,' and the girl repaid the trust with quiet, careful work. Plain, solitary, and marked by a faint air of somet
- [Mr. Bruff](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moonstone_se/characters/mr_bruff.md): Bruff claims a prescriptive right to the Moonstone's romance: he knew Herncastle's fears, drew the will leaving the jewel to Rachel, and pushed Franklin Blake to carry it to Yorkshire. When a grave, European-dressed Indi
- [Lady Verinder](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moonstone_se/characters/lady_verinder.md): Lady Verinder is the estate's moral center: she consults her steward Betteredge on most things, gives Rosanna a fair chance no other household would, and keeps her daughter's world ordered and gracious. She is wary of th
- [Penelope Betteredge](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moonstone_se/characters/penelope_betteredge.md): Penelope moves easily among the servants and shares her father's plain-spoken, observant temperament, but she is never quite intimate with anyone, including Rosanna. She is the only woman in the house who treats the refo
- [Mr. Candy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moonstone_se/characters/mr_candy.md): Mr. Candy is the kind of country physician who knows everyone's business and is not shy about sharing his opinions, a fixture at Frizinghall and in the Verinder sickroom. His habit of speaking too freely, and his collaps
- [Miss Clack](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moonstone_se/characters/miss_clack.md): Drusilla Clack is a poor relation whose chief pleasures are distributing religious Extracts, correcting others' morals, and recording her own good deeds for posterity. When Franklin Blake asks her to stick to her persona
- [Mr. Murthwaite](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moonstone_se/characters/mr_murthwaite.md): Murthwaite is the family solicitor whose professional life has been entangled with the Moonstone since India: he drafted the will, received Herncastle's letters, and urged Franklin Blake to carry the gem to Yorkshire. Wh
- [John Herncastle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moonstone_se/characters/john_herncastle.md): Herncastle is the family's shameful connection: a cousin and fellow officer whose frenzy in the armoury at Seringapatam left an Indian dead and a curse spoken over the stolen gem. He denies everything, exchanges regiment
- [The Indians](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moonstone_se/characters/the_indians.md): They are the diamond's rightful guardians, sworn to return it to the temple from which Herncastle tore it, and they pursue it with quiet, methodical devotion. One visits Murthwaite disguised as a client, offering a jewel
- [Mr. Septimus Luker](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moonstone_se/characters/mr_septimus_luker.md): Luker is the professional lender to whom the disguised Indian is referred, a man cautious enough to send a stranger to Murthwaite rather than advance money himself on such suspicious security. His name on the card links 
- [Mrs. Yolland](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moonstone_se/characters/yolland.md): Kindly cottager who shelters Rosanna Spearman and knows her secrets.
- [Gooseberry](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moonstone_se/characters/gooseberry.md): Street-smart boy who assists Sergeant Cuff in his investigation.
- [Sir John Verinder](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moonstone_se/characters/john_verinder.md): Deceased husband of Lady Verinder and father of Rachel.
- [Superintendent Seegrave](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moonstone_se/characters/superintendent_seegrave.md): Inept local police superintendent who initially investigates the theft.
- [Aunt Ablewhite](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moonstone_se/characters/aunt_ablewhite.md): Aunt of Rachel and mother of Godfrey Ablewhite, a gossipy relative.
- [Limping Lucy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moonstone_se/characters/limping_lucy.md): Lame servant girl and close friend of Rosanna Spearman.
- [General Baird](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moonstone_se/characters/general_baird.md): Historical figure mentioned in connection with the Moonstone's origin.

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