# Father — The Phoenix and the Carpet character guide

> Father in The Phoenix and the Carpet by E. Nesbit.

**Role:** supporting

**First appearance:** 0002-i-the-egg

## Snapshot

A hardworking writer who nurses the coughing Lamb instead of napping, reads The Golden Age aloud, and cheerfully quotes about fish in the sea.

## Who they are

Father brings home Saturday flowers, works all week, and still gathers the children on the hearthrug for stories when he could be sleeping. His gentle joke about there being as good fish in the sea goes over the children's heads, hinting at adult worries beneath the domestic warmth. He anchors the book's sense of a loving, slightly precarious home worth returning to.

## Relationships

### [Mother](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_phoenix_and_the_carpet_se/characters/mother)

_family_

Father and Mother are a married couple who share a loving and practical partnership, with Father often away for work.

### [Mother](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_phoenix_and_the_carpet_se/characters/mother)

_family_

Father and Mother are a married couple who share a loving and practical partnership, with Father often away for work.

### [Mother](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_phoenix_and_the_carpet_se/characters/mother)

_family_

Father and Mother are a married couple who share a loving and practical partnership, with Father often away for work.

## In the story

### [The Egg](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_phoenix_and_the_carpet_se/chapters/i-the-egg)

Returns home late; tells the children to go to sleep.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_phoenix_and_the_carpet_se/characters/father
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_phoenix_and_the_carpet_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_phoenix_and_the_carpet_se/characters