Topsy-Turvy · Characters
Character guide
Key figures in Topsy-Turvy by Jules Verne.
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J. T. Maston
major
Also known as Mr. Maston, Maston, Mrs. J. T. Maston
A one-armed mathematician whose flair for spectacular calculations drives the Gun Club's wildest schemes, and whose single arithmetic slip can tilt the whole planet.
President Barbicane
major
Also known as Barbicane, Impey Barbicane, this man Barbicane
The Gun Club's taciturn president, a man of few words and vast ambitions, who turns artillery know-how toward acquiring the Arctic itself.
Mrs. Evangelina Scorbitt
major
Also known as Mrs. Scorbitt, Evangelina, Mrs. Evangeline Scorbitt
A four-million-dollar widow who adores mathematicians the way other women adore poets, and who bankrolls Maston's polar dream while angling for his hand.
Major Donellan
supporting
Also known as Donellan, The Major
A gaunt, humorless English delegate who regards the North Pole as Britain's birthright and arrives at the Baltimore auction prepared to outbid the world.
Alcide Pierdeux
supporting
Also known as Engineer Alcide Pierdeux, Pierdeux
A French engineer attending the polar auction for the sheer fun of it, whose sharp eye and sharper pen may prove more dangerous than any cannon.
Capt. Nicholl
supporting
Also known as Nicholl, the impassive Nicholl
The impassive artillery captain of the Gun Club, steady where others blaze, whose calm presence anchors Barbicane's most reckless undertakings.
Dean Toodrink
supporting
Also known as Secretary Dean Toodrink
As Major Donellan's secretary in the English delegation, Toodrink pairs a large head, small eyes, and irrepressible chatter with the unshakable conviction that the North Pole belongs to Britain by divine arrangement. His good humor makes him a strange mirror to his gaunt, laughterless chief, yet he is just as personally conceited when Great Britain comes up. When tempers fray among the Baltimore delegates, it is Toodrink who trades prize-ring blows with the American straw man Forster, turning the auction's diplomatic friction into something close to farce.
William S. Forster
supporting
Also known as Mr. Forster, Forster, Mr. W. S. Forster, W. S. Forster
Forster stands among the foreign delegates as the N.P.P.A.'s nominal representative, a businessman whose calm temperament contrasts sharply with the agitated Europeans circling him. He is described as knowing absolutely nothing of the affair, a puppet whose placidity makes him an easy mark for the delegation's collective frustration. His scuffle with Dean Toodrink, fought under prize-ring rules while Major Donellan looks on, crystallizes how the high-stakes polar sale has degenerated into petty international squabbling.
Prof. Jan Harald
supporting
Also known as Harald, Jan Harald
Harald arrives in Baltimore among the Northern European delegates who disembark from separate steamers to feign indifference to one another, though they are in truth bitter rivals. As a scientist representing Sweden, he belongs to the contingent of nations each carrying funds to challenge the American Society, though their purses are unequal. His presence underscores that the auction is not merely commerce but a contest over scientific prestige and national destiny in the Arctic.
Col. Boris Karkof
supporting
Also known as Boris Karkof, Col. Karkof, the diplomat Karkof
Karkof represents Russia among the European delegates who grow increasingly despondent as months pass without word from Barbicane and his associates. Unlike the phlegmatic Jansen or the posturing Englishmen, Karkof's frustration boils over into a duel in which he only slightly wounds his adversary. His readiness to settle diplomatic deadlock with pistols embodies the mounting international hysteria that threatens to make the United States itself pay for one reckless American's actions.
Jacques Jansen
supporting
Also known as Even Jacques Jansen
Jansen embodies Dutch calm among the European delegates gathered in Baltimore, a temperament so noted that his eventual agitation registers as a minor marvel. As weeks stretch into May with no news from the vanished Barbicane, even he wakes from his placidity and bombards his colleagues with charges and countercharges. His deterioration from stoic observer to querulous participant measures how thoroughly the unresolved polar venture has poisoned the international atmosphere.
Eric Baldenak
supporting
Also known as Eric, Denmark—Eric Baldenak
Baldenak represents Denmark among the Northern European delegates who disembark from different steamers in Baltimore, pretending to have nothing to do with one another while secretly competing for the same prize. Each carries funds to fight the American Society, though their resources vary and none can match the English delegate's backing. His presence illustrates how even small nations feel entitled to a share of the polar regions, swelling the chorus of rivals determined to check American ambition.
Michel Ardan
minor
French adventurer and friend of Barbicane, a veteran of previous Gun Club exploits.
Sultan Bali
minor
Also known as the Sultan, Bali
Sultan of Wamasai in Africa, involved in the later polar expedition events.
Andrew R. Gilmour
minor
Also known as the Auctioneer Gilmour, Auctioneer Gilmour
Auctioneer who conducts the sale of the Arctic regions.
John Prestice
minor
American delegate and participant in the polar auction.
Col. Bloomsberry
minor
American colonel and member of the Gun Club, present at the auction.
Tom Hunter
minor
American delegate and participant in the polar auction.
Richard W. Trust
minor
American delegate and participant in the polar auction.