Tono-Bungay · Characters
Character guide
Key figures in Tono-Bungay by H. G. Wells.
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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.