Character guide

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.