# The Mystery of Edwin Drood — Character guide

> Key figures in The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens.

- [John Jasper](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mystery_of_edwin_drood_se/characters/john_jasper.md): Cloisterham's choirmaster, whose angelic music and tender devotion to his nephew Ned conceal an opium-fed hunger for his own sister's child.
- [Rosa Bud](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mystery_of_edwin_drood_se/characters/rosa_bud.md): Orphaned, pretty, and betrothed since childhood to Edwin Drood, Rosa is the bright Rosebud of Cloisterham — and the object of a grown man's unwanted, watchful desire.
- [Edwin Drood](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mystery_of_edwin_drood_se/characters/edwin_drood.md): Easygoing young engineer bound for Egypt and an inherited share in a firm, Edwin is engaged to Rosa less by love than by a promise made over his cradle.
- [Neville Landless](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mystery_of_edwin_drood_se/characters/neville_landless.md): Raised in Ceylon and burning with a temper he cannot govern, Neville arrives in Cloisterham already half in love with Rosa and half at war with Edwin.
- [Helena Landless](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mystery_of_edwin_drood_se/characters/helena_landless.md): Neville's twin sister, dark-eyed and fearless, who has survived more than she says and answers Jasper's pleasantries with a coolness that unsettles him.
- [Mr. Grewgious](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mystery_of_edwin_drood_se/characters/hiram_grewgious.md): A dry, angular London lawyer who guards Rosa's interests with rigid honesty, Mr. Grewgious takes seriously what others in Cloisterham would rather leave vague.
- [Septimus Crisparkle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mystery_of_edwin_drood_se/characters/septimus_crisparkle.md): Crisparkle is the good clergyman of Cloisterham, a muscular Christian who takes the hot-tempered Neville Landless under his roof and defends him against suspicion. His loyalty is his virtue and his vulnerability: he cann
- [Thomas Sapsea](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mystery_of_edwin_drood_se/characters/thomas_sapsea.md): Sapsea is the self-satisfied civic dignitary of Cloisterham, an auctioneer whose vanity is matched only by his love of hearing himself speak. His absurd epitaph for the late Mrs. Sapsea — demanding that strangers blush i
- [Durdles](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mystery_of_edwin_drood_se/characters/durdles.md): Durdles is Cloisterham's chartered libertine of the burial ground, a stonemason and tomb-maker so steeped in graves that he seems half-dead himself. He drinks to keep his spirits up — both kinds — and lets a ragged boy p
- [Mr. Datchery](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mystery_of_edwin_drood_se/characters/mr_datchery.md): Datchery arrives in Cloisterham as an idle man of means, renting rooms at the gatehouse and cultivating the acquaintance of the verger's wife and a sharp-eyed boy named Deputy. He pleads confusion about the town's recent
- [Miss Twinkleton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mystery_of_edwin_drood_se/characters/miss_twinkleton.md): Miss Twinkleton presides over the Nuns' House with a scholar's air and a spinster's theatrical sighs, especially when the subject is Rosa Bud's arranged engagement to Edwin Drood. Her girls unanimously dismiss her as a p
- [Mr. Tartar](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mystery_of_edwin_drood_se/characters/mr_tartar.md): Tartar is the retired sailor who lives in the chambers above Neville Landless in London, a man so genial that he offers to extend his flower garden to a stranger's windows. When Grewgious needs a discreet place for Rosa 
- [Bazzard](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mystery_of_edwin_drood_se/characters/bazzard.md): Clerk to Mr. Grewgious, with literary aspirations; appears at the office and later in Cloisterham.
- [Mrs. Billickin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mystery_of_edwin_drood_se/characters/mrs_billickin.md): Landlady of a lodging house in London, where Rosa and Helena stay; quarrelsome but protective.
- [Mr. Honeythunder](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mystery_of_edwin_drood_se/characters/mr_honeythunder.md): Loud, self-righteous philanthropist and guardian of the Landless twins; later a magistrate.
- [Mr. Tope](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mystery_of_edwin_drood_se/characters/tope.md): Cathedral verger and his wife; minor servants of the cathedral community.
- [Deputy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mystery_of_edwin_drood_se/characters/deputy.md): Street urchin who taunts Durdles and Jasper; appears around the cathedral and graveyard.
- [Jack Chinaman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mystery_of_edwin_drood_se/characters/jack_chinaman.md): Opium dealer in London, where Jasper has his visions; appears in the opening scene.
- [Kimber](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mystery_of_edwin_drood_se/characters/kimber.md): Jailer or officer in Cloisterham, involved in the arrest of Neville Landless.
- [Mrs. Tisher](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mystery_of_edwin_drood_se/characters/mrs_tisher.md): Companion or assistant at Miss Twinkleton's school; mentioned as having departed.
- [Miss Brobity](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mystery_of_edwin_drood_se/characters/miss_brobity.md): Mentioned as a former pupil or teacher at the Nuns' House; not a major presence.
- [Poker](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mystery_of_edwin_drood_se/characters/poker.md): Nickname for a minor character, possibly a servant or worker; not clearly identified.
- [Mr. Peartree](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mystery_of_edwin_drood_se/characters/peartree.md): Minor character, possibly a tradesman or resident of Cloisterham.
- [Mrs. Crisparkle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mystery_of_edwin_drood_se/characters/mrs_crisparkle.md): Mother of Septimus Crisparkle, a widow living with her son.
- [The Lascar](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mystery_of_edwin_drood_se/characters/the_lascar.md): Another opium addict in the London den, seen by Jasper; not a major character.
- [The Dean](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mystery_of_edwin_drood_se/characters/the_dean.md): Dean of Cloisterham Cathedral, a background authority figure.

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