Character guide

George Ponderevo

major

Also known as George Washington, George, Ponderevo, old Ponderevo, George the Third

George grows up on the edges of Bladesover, the great house where his mother is housekeeper, and learns early that English society is a system of places one is expected to keep. He is apprenticed, trained in science, and pulled into his uncle Edward's orbit just as Tono-Bungay begins to make money. His defining tension is between the desire to belong somewhere and the suspicion that every belonging is a performance; he watches, remembers, and reports, which is why the whole story comes to us through his unsettled, exacting voice.

Edward Ponderevo

major

Also known as Ponderevo, Master Ponderevo, Teddy, Mr. Ponderevo, Mr. Edward Ponderevo, Poor old Teddy, little Teddy

Edward Ponderevo is George's uncle, a failed draper's assistant turned patent-medicine promoter whose energy and shamelessness make Tono-Bungay a national phenomenon. He loves his wife Susan, adores his nephew, and believes almost sincerely in the next scheme even as he sells the last one; his dyspepsia and thinning hair keep pace with his expanding enterprises. He matters because he is the engine of the book's central comedy and horror: the ordinary man whose gift for talk turns into a system of finance that no one, including him, can quite control.

Beatrice Normandy

major

Also known as the Honourable Beatrice Normandy, the Honourable Beatrice, Beatrice, a Normandy, Beatrice Normandy, Bee - atrice, Miss Beatrice

Beatrice Normandy belongs to the old order George grew up serving, the Honourable daughter of a Normandy and stepdaughter to Lady Osprey. She is beautiful, decisive, and impatient with the conventions that constrain her, and her reappearance at Lady Grove makes George's aunt watch him over the coffee-machine with wide curiosity. She matters because she embodies the class George can neither join nor forget, and her presence forces him to measure his new money against the older kind of power it cannot buy.

Marion

supporting

Also known as Poor Marion, Dear Marion, childless Marion

Marion Ramboat is the daughter of a Walham Green household, engaged to George for years while he scrambles toward the three hundred a year she insists on. She is not cruel, only prudent, and her stipulations about semidetached walls and tiled bathrooms turn love into a negotiation George finds bitterly sordid. She matters because she is the first test of whether his rising fortunes can buy him an ordinary happiness, and the answer, when it comes, is not the one he expected.

Ewart

supporting

Also known as Rickmann Ewart, old Ewart, Sidney Ewart, Odd old Ewart, IV Ewart, Suddenly Ewart

Ewart is George's friend from the art-school years, a painter of odd, unfinished pictures and a theorist of the crosswise life, forever explaining that most people live in character while a few are jerked out of their stratum. He is cynical, generous, and unreliable, and his talk gives George a vocabulary for the social climbing and sliding that the novel is about. He matters because he is the book's resident intelligence, the friend whose ideas about class and accident quietly shape how George tells his own story.

Susan Ponderevo

supporting

Also known as Susan, Aunt Susan

Susan Ponderevo meets her nephew George for the first time in the Wimblehurst shop, a slender woman of twenty-three or four in a pale blue morning dress, apologizing that there is nothing in the house to offer. She loves Edward but has learned to watch his enthusiasms with a half-amused, half-hopeless perplexity, and her subsidiary question, whether a thing keeps, becomes the reader's question too. She matters because she is the domestic anchor of the Ponderevo ascent, the person who keeps folding the trousers and noticing what the great property of Tono-Bungay is doing to the man she married.

Gordon-Nasmyth

supporting

Also known as Nasmyth, gordon nasmyth

Gordon-Nasmyth belongs to the circle of scientifically minded men around George, the sort whose talk drifts from patents to prospects and back again. Where George hesitates between invention and commerce, Nasmyth leans toward the gamble, drawn to the Quap venture as a chance to convert cleverness into fortune. His presence sharpens the novel's early tension between patient research and speculative dash, foreshadowing the wider world of schemes that will test George's judgment.

Cothope

supporting

Also known as вАЭ Cothope

Cothope works at George's elbow in the workshop, translating ambitious designs into rivets, plates, and engines that must actually float and move. He is the grounded counterweight to George's flights of invention, valued for competence rather than charisma, and his labor gives the destroyer project its tangible weight. Without him the novel's engineering passages would lose their grit, and George's dreams would have no one to answer for them at the bench.

Effie

minor

A maid at Bladesover, briefly involved with young George.

Archie Garvell

minor

Also known as young Garvell, Archie Garvell, Garvell, young Mr. Garvell, pounding young Garvell

A young aristocrat, rival for Beatrice's affections.

Pollack

minor

Also known as young Pollack, Saint Jean de Pollack

A friend of George from his student days in London.

Smithie

minor

Also known as Poor old Smithie

A fellow student and friend of George in London.

Mutney

minor

A friend of George, part of the London student circle.

Nannie

minor

A servant at Bladesover, kind to young George.

Mr. Grundy

minor

Also known as Grundy, old Grundy

A neighbor and acquaintance of the Ponderevos.

Lady Osprey

minor

Also known as old Lady Osprey, Osprey

An aristocratic lady, Beatrice's grandmother or guardian.

Lady Drew

minor

Also known as old Lady Drew

A local aristocrat at Bladesover.

Mrs. Mackridge

minor

A friend of Susan Ponderevo, part of social circles.

Lord Boom

minor

Also known as Boom

A peer and business associate of Edward Ponderevo.

Lord Carnaby

minor

Also known as Carnaby, old Carnaby, Old Carnaby

An aristocratic acquaintance of the Ponderevos.

Milly

minor

Also known as Millie

A young woman briefly involved with George.

Uncle Frapp

minor

Also known as Frapp, Nicodemus Frapp, Nicodemus, Uncle Nicodemus

George's uncle, a stern and religious man.

Mrs. Hogberry

minor

Also known as Hogberry

A neighbor in Wimblehurst.

Mr. Rabbits

minor

Also known as Rabbits

A chemist in Wimblehurst, George's employer.

Mr. Wachorn

minor

A business contact of Edward Ponderevo.

Mrs. Booch

minor

A landlady or neighbor in London.

Mr. Ramboat

minor

A business associate of Edward Ponderevo.

Neal

minor

Also known as IвАЩve, Neal IвАЩve

A friend or acquaintance of George.

Miss Fison

minor

Also known as Fison

A teacher or acquaintance.

Ann

minor

Also known as old Ann, Annie Glassbound

A servant at Bladesover.

Bob Ewart

minor

Also known as Ewart

Ewart's brother, a minor character.

Young Roots

minor

Also known as Roots

A local boy at Bladesover.

Mrs. Latude-Fernay

minor

A social acquaintance.

Ropper

minor

A friend or associate.

Mrs. Ponderevo

minor

George's mother, a housekeeper at Bladesover.

Sir Cuthbert

minor

Also known as old Sir Cuthbert

An acquaintance of the Ponderevos.

Mrs. Frapp

minor

Wife of Uncle Frapp.

Mrs. Hampton Diggs

minor

A social acquaintance.

Lord Roberts

minor

Also known as Lord Roberts Alpha, Lord Roberts β, the Lord Roberts, Lord Roberts ќ≤

A historical military figure mentioned as a social contact.

Moggs

minor

Also known as young Moggs, the original Moggs, the Moggs, Mr. Moggs, old Moggs, Moggs the First

A family of local businessmen and rivals.

Gloomkins

minor

A friend from George's student days.

Capern

minor

Also known as old Capern

An old man from Bladesover.

Aunt Ponderevo

minor

Also known as old Ponderevo

Edward Ponderevo's sister, George's aunt.

Lord Eastry

minor

Also known as Eastry

An aristocratic acquaintance.

Ruck

minor

Also known as old Ruck

A friend or associate of George.

Mrs. Ramboat

minor

Also known as the unsuspecting Mrs. Ramboat

Wife of Mr. Ramboat.

Miggles

minor

Also known as Poor old Miggles

A friend from George's student days.

Lord Tweedums

minor

A peer mentioned in social circles.

Schafer

minor

A friend or colleague of George.

Miss Somerville

minor

A governess at Bladesover.

Meggie

minor

A young woman in George's circle.

Sir Roderick

minor

Also known as Poor Sir Roderick

An acquaintance of the Ponderevos.

Old Whitman

minor

Also known as Whitman

A friend or associate.

Mordet

minor

Also known as price mordet

A place or person associated with the Quap expedition.

Lord Osprey

minor

Husband of Lady Osprey.

Cracknell

minor

A friend from George's student days.

Old Mr. Durgan

minor

A local man at Bladesover.

Lady Lichtenstein

minor

Also known as Lichtenstein

A social acquaintance.

Sir Reuben Lichtenstein

minor

Also known as old Lichtenstein

A wealthy Jewish financier.

Lady Impey

minor

A social acquaintance.

Old Hall

minor

A servant or local at Bladesover.

Sloper

minor

A friend or associate.

Mr. Redgrave

minor

A business associate.

Pilcher

minor

A friend or associate.

Roeburn

minor

A friend or associate.

Old Sally Glue

minor

Also known as Sally Glue

A local character at Bladesover.

Mrs. Scrymgeour

minor

A social acquaintance.