# Topsy-Turvy — Character guide

> Key figures in Topsy-Turvy by Jules Verne.

- [J. T. Maston](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/topsy_turvy_se/characters/j_t_maston.md): 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](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/topsy_turvy_se/characters/president_barbicane.md): 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](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/topsy_turvy_se/characters/mrs_scorbitt.md): 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](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/topsy_turvy_se/characters/major_donellan.md): 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](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/topsy_turvy_se/characters/alcide_pierdeux.md): 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](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/topsy_turvy_se/characters/capt_nicholl.md): The impassive artillery captain of the Gun Club, steady where others blaze, whose calm presence anchors Barbicane's most reckless undertakings.
- [Dean Toodrink](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/topsy_turvy_se/characters/dean_toodrink.md): 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
- [William S. Forster](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/topsy_turvy_se/characters/william_s_forster.md): 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 
- [Prof. Jan Harald](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/topsy_turvy_se/characters/prof_jan_harald.md): 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 
- [Col. Boris Karkof](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/topsy_turvy_se/characters/boris_karkof.md): 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 fru
- [Jacques Jansen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/topsy_turvy_se/characters/jacques_jansen.md): 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 Barb
- [Eric Baldenak](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/topsy_turvy_se/characters/eric_baldenak.md): 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 ca
- [Michel Ardan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/topsy_turvy_se/characters/michel_ardan.md): French adventurer and friend of Barbicane, a veteran of previous Gun Club exploits.
- [Sultan Bali](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/topsy_turvy_se/characters/sultan_bali.md): Sultan of Wamasai in Africa, involved in the later polar expedition events.
- [Andrew R. Gilmour](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/topsy_turvy_se/characters/andrew_r_gilmour.md): Auctioneer who conducts the sale of the Arctic regions.
- [John Prestice](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/topsy_turvy_se/characters/john_prestice.md): American delegate and participant in the polar auction.
- [Col. Bloomsberry](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/topsy_turvy_se/characters/col_bloomsberry.md): American colonel and member of the Gun Club, present at the auction.

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