# The Slaves of Paris — Character guide

> Key figures in The Slaves of Paris by Émile Gaboriau.

- [Louis Norbert de Champdoce](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/louis_norbert_de_champdoce.md): Norbert is the son of the Duke of Champdoce, mocked behind his back as the 'Young Savage' for the wooden shoes and leather jacket his father makes him wear despite a fortune of millions. He loves Diana de Laurebourg, but
- [André](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/andre.md): André is a young foundling of good feeling and courage, handy enough with his fists to earn the admiration of the agent he knocks down and the friendship of the great detective Lecoq. Lecoq warns him that Mascarin's gang
- [Diana de Laurebourg](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/diana_de_laurebourg.md): Diana de Laurebourg is beautiful, portionless, and far more calculating than her convent education suggests; her father has told her plainly that her only career is to fascinate a wealthy equal. She loves Norbert de Cham
- [Daddy Tantaine](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/daddy_tantaine.md): Daddy Tantaine presents himself as a harmless, garrulous old man, but he is the recruiting hand of a criminal association run from Mascarin's registry office, and his five hundred francs to Paul Violaine are an investmen
- [Baptiste Mascarin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/baptiste_mascarin.md): Mascarin runs his registry office in the Rue Montorgeuil with such long-standing respectability that employers and domestics alike trust him, and he has parlayed that trust into a network of information and leverage reac
- [Paul Violaine](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/paul_violaine.md): Paul Violaine arrives at Mascarin's office with Tantaine's five hundred francs spent on clothes and his head full of doubt, only to find himself in a room where dowries, commissions, and marriages are quietly bargained o
- [Catenac](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/catenac.md): Catenac earns thirty thousand francs a year not by pleading but by making scandals quietly disappear — settling disputes between murderers quarreling over booty, hearing confessions in his Rue Jacob office that would bri
- [Gaston de Gandelu](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/gaston_de_gandelu.md): Gaston moves through a world of studios, collectors, and speculators, where a single commission can make or break a reputation. When Prince Crescenzi offers six thousand francs for a painting and Jean Lamou dangles the d
- [Daumon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/daumon.md): Daumon presents himself as the humble, devoted friend of Norbert, the Marquis known everywhere as the Young Savage of Champdoce, kept on a short leash by a parsimonious father. He speaks of Norbert's many admirers, menti
- [Sabine de Mussidan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/sabine_de_mussidan.md): Sabine de Mussidan moves through a household poisoned by her mother's hidden correspondence and her father's humiliating dealings with blackmailers. Told she must marry M. de Croisenois, she smiles faintly and asks wheth
- [Toto Chupin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/toto_chupin.md): Toto Chupin moves through the shadows of the Champdoce household, where a dead Duke's extravagance has furnished a tomb for his heirs. The young Duchess wanders rooms that feel like a sepulchre, her husband Norbert plung
- [M. de Breulh-Faverlay](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/m_de_breulh_faverlay.md): M. de Breulh-Faverlay is the type of the perfect French gentleman — generous, discreet, a lover of horses rather than a mere turfite, with a mysterious South American past and a fortune inherited on condition he add the 
- [Florestan Mascarin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/florestan_mascarin.md): A loyal associate of the criminal Mascarin.
- [Dr. Hortebise](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/dr_hortebise.md): Hortebise moves easily through the best society, laughing at the very schemes he profits from, and answers Mascarin's warnings by flashing a gold locket he keeps for some later use. Twenty-five years of shared secrets bi
- [Van Klopen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/van_klopen.md): A wealthy and influential figure in the story.
- [Little Rose](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/little_rose.md): A young woman who gets a promotion and becomes involved.
- [Marie de Puymandour](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/marie_de_puymandour.md): Marie sits with her betrothed in stiff, chaperoned silence, both of them straining for conversation that will not come, while her father refurnishes the château and quarters the arms of Champdoce and Puymandour on everyt
- [Flavia Rigal](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/flavia_rigal.md): Flavia confesses her passion to Martin Rigal with a candor that scandalizes and disarms him, insisting she cannot sleep and that liquid fire runs through her veins. Her father, who has indulged her every whim, watches he
- [Perpignan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/perpignan.md): A wily and cunning character in the story.
- [Beaumarchef](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/beaumarchef.md): A master craftsman or employer of Chupin.
- [George de Croisenois](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/george_de_croisenois.md): Croisenois strides out of Verminet's office all elegance and cigar smoke, but his half-concealed look of terror betrays a man expecting a blow to fall at any moment. He owes money, he owes favors, and he has agreed to le
- [Count Octave de Mussidan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/count_octave_de_mussidan.md): Octave arrives at Laurebourg with birth, wealth, and charm to spare, and is swept away the moment he sees Diana. He courts her like a true knight, going directly to her with his suit, but she answers him with a strange, 
- [M. Lecoq](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/m_lecoq.md): Lecoq enters a world where matrimonial brokerage and servant registries run side by side with blackmail, and where Mascarin boasts of twenty-five years of shared crime among men who once starved together in a Rue de la H
- [Madame de Mussidan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/madame_de_mussidan.md): The wife of the Count de Mussidan.
- [Duke de Champdoce](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/duke_de_champdoce.md): The Duke de Champdoce belongs to one of France's oldest noble lines, yet his marriage is a wreck and his household a mausoleum of concealed shame. He works obsessively to compensate for a neglected education, while his w
- [Marquis Henri de Croisenois](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/marquis_henri_de_croisenois.md): The father of George, a nobleman of high standing.
- [Diana de Mussidan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/diana_de_mussidan.md): A miserable woman, possibly a relative of the Mussidan family.
- [Verminet](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/verminet.md): A character involved in financial dealings.
- [Jean Lamou](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/jean_lamou.md): An old servant or retainer.
- [Zora Chantemille](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/zora_chantemille.md): A mysterious woman with an alias, involved in the plot.
- [Martin Rigal](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/martin_rigal.md): A businessman or criminal associate.
- [Montlouis](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/montlouis.md): A character who experiences misfortune.
- [Caroline Schimmel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/caroline_schimmel.md): A woman with a role in the story's events.
- [Count de Puymandour](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/count_de_puymandour.md): The father of Marie de Puymandour.
- [Viscountess de Bois Arden](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/viscountess_de_bois_arden.md): A noblewoman, possibly the same as Madame de Bois Arden.
- [Bruno](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/bruno.md): A minor character, possibly a servant.
- [Modeste](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/modeste.md): A minor character.
- [Poluche](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/poluche.md): A professor or teacher.
- [Countess de Mussidan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/countess_de_mussidan.md): The mother of Sabine de Mussidan.
- [Marquis de Laurebourg](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/marquis_de_laurebourg.md): The father of Diana de Laurebourg.
- [Françoise](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/francoise.md): A minor female character, possibly a servant.
- [Father Canon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_slaves_of_paris_se/characters/father_canon.md): A priest or religious figure.

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