The Charles Dickens Page
Charles Dickens' Characters C-D
C - D
Cabbery ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Former suitor of Mrs Nickleby. (top)
Camilla ( Great Expectations ) Wife of Raymond and sister of Matthew Pocket and one of Miss Havisham's toady relations hoping to gain an inheritance. This lady, whose name was Camilla, very much reminded me of my sister, with the difference that she was older, and (as I found when I caught sight of her) of a blunter cast of features. Indeed, when I knew her better I began to think it was a Mercy she had any features at all, so very blank and high was the dead wall of her face. (top)
Cape, Mr ( Sketches by Boz: Mrs Joseph Porter ) Violinist in the Gattleton's private theatrical. (top)
Captain Tom ( Great Expectations ) Prisoner in Newgate Prison who is visited by Wemmick and Pip. (top)
Carker, Harriet ( Dombey and Son ) Sister to James and John. Harriet lives with John and the two inherit James' fortune and donate it, anonymously, to Mr Dombey. Harriet later marries Mr Morfin. (top)
Carker, James ( Dombey and Son ) PIX Opportunistic manager at Dombey and Son. Brother of John and Harriet Carker, he elopes with Dombey's wife and is later killed when struck by a train. A gentleman thirty-eight or forty years old, of a florid complexion, and with two unbroken rows of glistening teeth, whose regularity and whiteness were quite distressing. It was impossible to escape the observation of them, for he showed them whenever he spoke; and bore so wide a smile upon his countenance (a smile, however, very rarely, indeed, extending beyond his mouth), that there was something in it like the snarl of a cat. (top)
Carker, John ( Dombey and Son ) Older brother of James although called "the Junior" because of his low position at the firm of Dombey and Son. He is looked upon with scorn by his younger brother because he embezzled money from the firm when a young man. Harriet Carker is his sister. (top)
Carlavero, Giovanni ( The Uncommercial Traveller - The Italian Prisoner ) Former political prisoner in Italy who is freed with the help of an Englishman. The Uncommercial Traveller visits the man and undertakes a commission to deliver a huge bottle of wine to the former prisoner's benefactor. A well-favoured man of good stature and military bearing, in a great cloak. (top)
Carlton, Mr ( Sketches by Boz: The Boarding House ) A boarder at Mrs Tibbs' boarding house. He woos the widow Mrs Maplesone, another boarder, who later sues him for breach of promise. Mr Calton was a superannuated beau – an old boy. He used to say of himself that although his features were not regularly handsome, they were striking. They certainly were: it was impossible to look at his face without being forcibly reminded of a chubby street-door knocker, half-lion half-monkey; and the comparison might be extended to his whole character and conversation. (top)
Caroline ( A Christmas Carol ) Wife of the debtor who cannot help being glad that Ebenezer Scrooge is dead and that their debt will be transferred elsewhere at which time they will be ready with the money. She was a mild and patient creature if her face spoke truth; but she was thankful in her soul to hear it, and she said so, with clasped hands. She prayed forgiveness the next moment, and was sorry; but the first was the emotion of her heart. (top)
Carstone, Richard ( Bleak House ) PIX Ward of Mr Jarndyce and a party to the case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce. He marries Ada Clare and later dies when his health declines as the estate he hopes to acquire is consumed in court costs. He was a handsome youth with an ingenuous face and a most engaging laugh...He was very young, not more than nineteen.
Geolinks: Chelsea, Oxford Street (top)
Carton, Sydney ( A Tale of Two Cities ) PIX Barrister in the employ of Mr Stryver. ...idlest and most unpromising of men. Carton is able to get a charge of treason reversed for Charles Darnay due to a strong physical resemblance. He becomes infatuated with Lucie Manette who marries Charles Darnay. Carton later takes Darnay's place at the guillotine. It is a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done, it is a far, far better rest I go to than I have ever known.
Geolinks: Cheshire Cheese (top)
Casby, Christopher ( Little Dorrit ) PIX Father of Flora Finching and landlord who gouges the residents of Bleeding Heart Yard through his collector, Pancks. Pancks later exposes Casby by cutting his long gray hair in front of the residents of Bleeding Heart Yard. Casby was formerly Town-agent to Lord Decimus Tite Barnacle. The shining bald head, which looked so very large because it shone so much; and the long grey hair at its sides and back, like floss silk or spun glass, which looked so very benevolent because it was never cut. (top)
Cavalletto, John Baptist ( Little Dorrit ) PIX Small time Italian smuggler and fellow prisoner with Rigaud as the novel opens. Later employed by Arthur Clennam in Bleeding Heart Yard after being injured in a mail coach accident. Aids in the search for Rigaud. A sunburnt, quick, lithe, little man, though rather thickset. Ear-rings in his brown ears, white teeth lighting up his grotesque brown face, intensely black hair clustering about his brown throat, a ragged red shirt open at his brown breast. Loose, seamanlike trousers, decent shoes, a long red cap, a red sash round his waist, and a knife in it.
Geolinks: St Bartholomew's Hospital (top)
Celia ( The Uncommercial Traveller - The City of the Absent ) Charity girl who is observed by the Uncommercial Traveller making love to Joseph in a City churchyard. (top)
Chadband, Rev ( Bleak House ) PIX Typical Dickensian hypocritical reverend, admonishing Jo in the spirit while he starves. Marries the former Mrs Rachael. Much given to describe himself, both verbally and in writing, as a vessel, he is occasionally mistaken by strangers for a gentleman connected with navigation, but he is, as he expresses it, "in the ministry." Mr Chadband is attached to no particular denomination and is considered by his persecutors to have nothing so very remarkable to say on the greatest of subjects as to render his volunteering, on his own account, at all incumbent on his conscience; but he has his followers. (top)
Charley ( David Copperfield ) Proprietor of a second-hand clothes shop in Chatham where David Copperfield sells his coat. He was a dreadful old man to look at, in a filthy flannel waistcoat, and smelling terribly of rum. (top)
Charley ( Pickwick Papers ) Pot-boy at the Magpie and Stump public house. A shambling pot-boy, with a red head. (top)
Charlotte ( Oliver Twist ) PIX Maid in Mr Sowerberry's undertaking business. She steals from her employer and runs off to London with Noah Claypole. A slatternly girl, in shoes down at heel, and blue worsted stockings very much out of repair. (top)
Charlotte ( Little Dorrit ) "False" childhood friend of Miss Wade. (top)
Cheeryble, Charles ( Nicholas Nickleby ) PIX He, with his twin brother Edwin (Ned), were benevolent businessmen who employ and befriend Nicholas Nickleby and his family. Frank Cheeryble, who marries Kate Nickleby, is their nephew. He was a sturdy old fellow in a broad-skirted blue coat, made pretty large, to fit easily, and with no particular waist; his bulky legs clothed in drab breeches and high gaiters, and his head protected by a low-crowned broad-brimmed white hat, such as a wealthy grazier might wear. He wore his coat buttoned; and his dimpled double chin rested in the folds of a white neckerchief—not one of your stiff-starched apoplectic cravats, but a good, easy, old-fashioned white neckcloth that a man might go to bed in and be none the worse for. But what principally attracted the attention of Nicholas was the old gentleman's eye,—never was such a clear, twinkling, honest, merry, happy eye, as that. And there he stood, looking a little upward, with one hand thrust into the breast of his coat, and the other playing with his old-fashioned gold watch-chain: his head thrown a little on one side, and his hat a little more on one side than his head, (but that was evidently accident; not his ordinary way of wearing it,) with such a pleasant smile playing about his mouth, and such a comical expression of mingled slyness, simplicity, kind-heartedness, and good-humour, lighting up his jolly old face, that Nicholas would have been content to have stood there and looked at him until evening, and to have forgotten, meanwhile, that there was such a thing as a soured mind or a crabbed countenance to be met with in the whole wide world.
Geolinks: Threadneedle Street (top)
Cheeryble, Edwin (Ned) ( Nicholas Nickleby ) PIX He, with his twin brother Charles, were benevolent businessmen who employ and befriend Nicholas Nickleby and his family. Frank Cheeryble, who marries Kate Nickleby, is their nephew. another old gentleman, the very type and model of [his brother]—the same face, the same figure, the same coat, waistcoat, and neckcloth, the same breeches and gaiters—nay, there was the very same white hat hanging against the wall! was something stouter than his brother; this, and a slight additional shade of clumsiness in his gait and stature, formed the only perceptible difference between them. Nobody could have doubted their being twin brothers.
Geolinks: Threadneedle Street (top)
Cheeryble, Frank ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Nephew of Charles and Edwin Cheeryble who marries Kate Nickleby and takes over the business when his uncles retire. A hot-headed young man (which is not an absolute miracle and phenomenon in nature), was a sprightly, good-humoured, pleasant fellow...he was good-looking and intelligent, had a plentiful share of vivacity, was extremely cheerful. (top)
Cheggs, Alick ( The Old Curiosity Shop ) Market gardener and suitor of Sophy Wackles who vies with Dick Swiveller for her hand. He wins Miss Wackles in the end. (top)
Cheggs, Miss ( The Old Curiosity Shop ) Sister of Alick Cheggs. (top)
Chester, Edward ( Barnaby Rudge ) PIX Son of Sir John, eventually overcomes the opposition of his father and her uncle and marries Emma Haredale. The couple relocate to the West Indies. This was a young man of about eight-and-twenty, rather above the middle height, and though of a somewhat slight figure, gracefully and strongly made. He wore his own dark hair, and was accoutred in a riding-dress, which, together with his large boots (resembling in shape and fashion those worn by our Life Guardsmen at the present day), showed indisputable traces of the bad condition of the roads. But travel-stained though he was, he was well and even richly attired, and without being over-dressed looked a gallant gentleman. (top)
Chester, Sir John ( Barnaby Rudge ) PIX Father of Edward, tries to prevent Edward's courtship with Emma Haredale. Becomes a member of Parliament. Killed in a duel by Emma's uncle Geoffrey Haredale. He was a staid, grave, placid gentleman, something past the prime of life, yet upright in his carriage, for all that, and slim as a greyhound. Soft-spoken, delicately made, precise, and elegant.
Geolinks: The Temple (top)
Chestle, Mr ( David Copperfield ) A hop grower whom the eldest Miss Larkins marries. A plain elderly gentleman. (top)
Chick, John ( Dombey and Son ) Husband of Louisa. A stout bald gentleman, with a very large face, and his hands continually in his pockets, and who had a tendency in his nature to whistle and hum tunes. (top)
Chick, Louisa ( Dombey and Son ) Sister of Paul Dombey Sr. and friend to Mrs Tox. Quote: Make an effort. (top)
Chickenstalker, Anne ( The Chimes ) A stout lady who keeps a shop in the general line to whom Trotty owes some small debts. In Trotty's dream she marries Tugby and is Meg's landlady. (top)
Chickweed, Conkey ( Oliver Twist ) Keeper of a public house "over Battlebridge way" who faked a burglary of his establishment and was arrested by Jem Spyers in a story told by Blathers. (top)
Chiggle ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) American sculptor who creates a statue of Elijah Pogram. Our own immortal Chiggle, Sir, is said to have observed, when he made the celebrated Pogram statter in marble, which rose so much con-test and preju-dice in Europe, that the brow was more than mortal. (top)
Childers, E.W.B. ( Hard Times ) A member of Sleary's circus troupe. His face, close-shaven, thin, and sallow, was shaded by a great quantity of dark hair, brushed into a roll all round his head, and parted up the centre. His legs were very robust, but shorter than legs of good proportions should have been. His chest and back were as much too broad, as his legs were too short. He was dressed in a Newmarket coat and tight-fitting trousers; wore a shawl round his neck; smelt of lamp-oil, straw, orange-peel, horses' provender, and sawdust; and looked a most remarkable sort of Centaur, compounded of the stable and the play-house. (top)
Mr Chillip ( David Copperfield ) Doctor who delivers David Copperfield. He was the meekest of his sex, the mildest of little men. He sidled in and out of a room, to take up the less space. He walked as softly as the Ghost in Hamlet, and more slowly. He carried his head on one side, partly in modest depreciation of himself, partly in modest propitiation of everybody else. He later establishes a practice "within a few miles of Bury St. Edmund's" and is a neighbor of Edward and Jane Murdstone. He is married and has a daughter. (top)
Chinaman, Jack ( The Mystery of Edwin Drood ) Princess Puffer's competition in the London opium tradeAnd ye’ll remember that nobody but me (and Jack Chinaman t’other side the court; but he can’t do it as well as me) has the true secret of mixing it? (top)
Chips ( The Uncommercial Traveller - Nurse's Stories ) Dockyard worker who comes from a long line of Chipses who are in the habit of making deals with the devil in a story told to the Uncommercial Traveller by his nurse Mercy. There was once a shipwright, and he wrought in a Government Yard, and his name was Chips. And his father's name before him was Chips, and HIS father's name before HIM was Chips, and they were all Chipses. And Chips the father had sold himself to the Devil for an iron pot and a bushel of tenpenny nails and half a ton of copper and a rat that could speak; and Chips the grandfather had
sold himself to the Devil for an iron pot and a bushel of tenpenny nails and half a ton of copper and a rat that could speak; and Chips the great-grandfather had disposed of himself in the same direction on the same terms; and the bargain had run in the family for a long, long time. So, one day, when young Chips was at work in the Dock Slip all alone, down in the dark hold of an old Seventy-four that was haled up for repairs, the Devil presented himself, and remarked:
'A Lemon has pips,
And a Yard has ships,
And I'll have Chips!'
(top)
Chitling, Tom ( Oliver Twist ) One of Fagin's minions recently released from prison. He had small twinkling eyes, and a pock-marked face; wore a fur cap, a dark corduroy jacket, greasy fustian trousers, and an apron. His wardrobe was, in truth, rather out of repair; but he excused himself to the company by stating that his 'time' was only out an hour before; and that, in consequence of having worn the regimentals for six weeks past, he had not been able to bestow any attention on his private clothes.
Geolinks: Middlesex House of Corrections (top)
Chivery, John ( Little Dorrit ) Turnkey (jailor) at the Marshalsea prison and friend to William Dorrit. Father of Young John and husband of Mrs Chivery.
Geolinks: Marshalsea (top)
Chivery, Young John ( Little Dorrit ) PIX Turnkey (jailor) at the Marshalsea prison. Young John is in love with his childhood friend, Amy Dorrit, and assists in finding her father's fortune. Son of John and Mrs Chivery. When he had played with [Amy] in the yard, his favourite game had been to counterfeit locking her up in corners, and to counterfeit letting her out for real kisses. When he grew tall enough to peep through the keyhole of the great lock of the main door, he had divers times set down his father’s dinner, or supper, to get on as it might on the outer side thereof, while he stood taking cold in one eye by dint of peeping at her through that airy perspective. 2) Young John was small of stature, with rather weak legs and very weak light hair. One of his eyes (perhaps the eye that used to peep through the keyhole) was also weak, and looked larger than the other, as if it couldn’t collect itself. Young John was gentle likewise. But he was great of soul. Poetical, expansive, faithful.
Geolinks: Marshalsea (top)
Chivery, Mrs ( Little Dorrit ) Wife of John and mother of Young John. Mrs Chivery runs a tobacco shop near the Marshalsea on Horsemonger Lane.
Geolinks: Horsemonger Lane (top)
Choke, General Cyrus ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) Member of the Eden Land Corporation who introduces Martin Chuzzlewit to Zephaniah Scadder. Like many others Martin Meets in America the General is considered "one of the most remarkable men in the country." (top)
Chollop, Hannibal ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) Another of "the most remarkable men in the country" Martin Chuzzlewit meets in Eden. Chollop enforces the propagation of liberty with a brace of revolving-pistols. A lean person in a blue frock and a straw hat, with a short black pipe in his mouth, and a great hickory stick, studded all over with knots, in his hand; who, smoking and chewing as he came along, and spitting frequently, recorded his progress by a train of decomposed tobacco on the ground...His face was almost as hard and knobby as his stick; and so were his hands. His head was like an old black hearth-broom. (top)
Chopkins, Laura ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Friend of Morleena Kenwigs. Daughter of the ambitious neighbor. (top)
Chowser, Colonal ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Business associate of Ralph Nickleby. A white-headed person. (top)
Christina, Donna ( Pickwick Papers ) Alfred Jingle's Spanish conquest. Her father, Don Bolero Fizzgig, will not consent to the union, causing her death. Splendid creature--loved me to distraction--jealous father--high-souled daughter--handsome Englishman--Donna Christina in despair--prussic acid--stomach pump in my portmanteau--operation performed--old Bolaro in ecstasies--consent to our union--join hands and floods of tears--romantic story--very. (top)
Chuckster, Mr ( The Old Curiosity Shop ) Clerk to Mr Witherden, friend of Dick Swiveller, and enemy of Kit. (top)
Chuffey ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) Devoted old clerk of Anthony Chuzzlewit. He had been a schoolmate of Anthony Chuzzlewit. A little blear-eyed, weazen-faced, ancient man came creeping out. He was of a remote fashion, and dusty, like the rest of the furniture; he was dressed in a decayed suit of black; with breeches garnished at the knees with rusty wisps of ribbon, the very paupers of shoe-strings; on the lower portion of his spindle legs were dingy worsted stockings of the same colour. He looked as if he had been put away and forgotten half a century before, and somebody had just found him in a lumber-closet. (top)
Chuzzlewit, Anthony ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) Brother of old Martin Chuzzlewit and father of Jonas Chuzzlewit. Greedy and tight-fisted business man who breeds these same qualities into his son. Jonas tries to poison him for his trouble. The face of the old man so sharpened by the wariness and cunning of his life, that it seemed to cut him a passage through the crowded room.
Chuzzlewit, Diggory ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) 'Aristocratic' ancestor of the Chuzzlewit clan. He was said to have perpetually dined with Duke Humphrey, a common phrase in Elizabethan literature meaning to go without dinner. (top)
Chuzzlewit, George ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) Member of the Chuzzlewit family. A gay bachelor cousin, who claimed to be young but had been younger, and was inclined to corpulency, and rather over-fed himself: to that extent, indeed, that his eyes were strained in their sockets, as if with constant surprise; and he had such an obvious disposition to pimples, that the bright spots on his cravat, the rich pattern on his waistcoat, and even his glittering trinkets, seemed to have broken out upon him, and not to have come into existence comfortably. (top)
Chuzzlewit, Jonas ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) PIX Son of Anthony Chuzzlewit, he attempts to kill his father to gain his inheritance. Marries Mercy Pecksniff and, through his cruelty, breaks her spirit. He murders Tigg, the murder is discovered, and on the way to prison poisons himself. So well profited by the precept and example of the father that he looked a year or two the elder of the twain.
Geolinks: London Bridge (top)
Chuzzlewit, Old Martin ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) PIX Grandfather of Martin, cousin of Pecksniff, brother of Anthony, uncle of Jonas. Martin is suspicious of his hypocritical relatives, chiefly Pecksniff, whose hypocrisy Martin exposes. At the end he is reconciled with his grandson, young Martin. He was a strong and vigorous old man, with a will of iron, and a voice of brass. (top)
Chuzzlewit, Martin ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) PIX Grandson of Martin Sr. He has a falling out with his grandfather over his love for Mary Graham. He becomes a pupil of Pecksniff who, because of pressure from the grandfather, throws young Martin out. He goes to America with Mark Tapley to seek his fortune. Finding out, like Dickens, that America is not the land of opportunity he thought, he comes back to England. After the undoing of Pecksniff, Martin is reconciled with his grandfather and marries Mary Graham. He was young – one-and-twenty, perhaps – and handsome; with a keen dark eye, and a quickness of look and manner.
Geolinks: St. James Park, Strand (top)
Chuzzlewit, Mrs Ned ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) 'Strong-minded' widow of Old Martin Chuzzlewit's brother who had outlived three husbands. Almost supernaturally disagreeable, and having a dreary face and a bony figure and a masculine voice, was, in right of these qualities, what is commonly called a strong-minded woman; and who, if she could, would have established her claim to the title, and have shown herself, mentally speaking, a perfect Samson, by shutting up her brother-in-law in a private madhouse, until he proved his complete sanity by loving her very much. Beside her sat her spinster daughters, three in number, and of gentlemanly deportment, who had so mortified themselves with tight stays, that their tempers were reduced to something less than their waists, and sharp lacing was expressed in their very noses. (top)
Chuzzlewit, Toby ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) Chuzzlewit family ancestor whose answer to the deathbed question 'who was your grandfather?' was 'The Lord No Zoo' (The Lord knows who). This misconstrusion was taken as proof of the family's nobility. (top)
Cicero ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) Former slave brought to Martin Chuzzlewit's attention in New York by Mark Tapley who tells Martin: When that there man was young – don’t look at him, while I’m a telling it – he was shot in the leg; gashed in the arm; scored in his live limbs, like pork; beaten out of shape; had his neck galled with an iron collar, and wore iron rings upon his wrists and ancles. The marks are on him to this day. When I was having my dinner just now, he stripped off his coat, and took away my appetite...That master died; so did his second master from having his head cut open with a hatchet by another slave, who, when he'd done it, went and drowned himself; then he got a better one; in years and years he saved up a little money, and bought his freedom, which he got pretty cheap at last, on account of his strength being nearly gone, and he being ill. Then he come here. And now he's a-saving up to treat himself, afore he dies, to one small purchase--it's nothing to speak of. Only his own daughter; that's all! (top)
Clare, Ada ( Bleak House ) PIX Ward of John Jarndyce, friend of Esther Summerson, cousin of Richard Carstone, who she marries and is soon widowed as Richard's health fails in the wake of the unhappy conclusion of the Chancery suit. ...such a beautiful girl! With such rich golden hair, such soft blue eyes, and such a bright, innocent, trusting face!
Geolinks: Oxford Street (top)
Clark, Betsy ( Sketches by Boz: The Streets – Morning ) Servant girl in the Covent Garden area who is interested in the baker's young man over the way.
Geolinks: Covent Garden (top)
Clark, Mrs ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Employer whom the General Agency office sends Madeline Bray. (top)
Clark, Susan ( Pickwick Papers ) Maiden name of Susan Weller. (top)
Clarriker ( Great Expectations ) Shipping merchant from whom Pip secretly buys a partnership for Herbert. After Pip loses his fortune he is also employed in the firm. (top)
Claypole, Noah (Morris Bolter) ( Oliver Twist ) PIX Assistant at Sowerberry's with whom Oliver fights. Noah runs away to London with Charlotte and joins Fagin's band, taking the name of Morris Bolter. Fagin uses him to spy on Nancy. After Fagin's capture he testifies against him and becomes an informer for the police. A large-headed, small-eyed youth, of lumbering make and heavy countenance,...a red nose and yellow smalls.>
Geolinks: London Bridge (top)
Clennam, Arthur ( Little Dorrit ) PIX Returns to England from abroad where he has spent years with his father in the family business. On his father's death he falls out with his mother and gives up his share of the family business. He befriends Amy Dorrit at the Marshalsea and becomes business partner to Daniel Doyce. After losing everything in a banking scam by Merdle he is himself imprisoned in the Marshalsea. His health fails and Amy cares for him in the prison. The novel ends with Arthur and Amy's marriage. A grave dark man of forty... I am the only child of parents who weighed, measured, and priced everything: for whom what could not be weighed, measured and priced, had no existence. Strict people as the phrase is, professors of a stern religion, their very religion was a gloomy sacrifice of tastes and sympathies that were never their own, offered up as a part of a bargain for the security of their possessions. Austere faces, inexorable discipline, penance in this world and terror in the next – nothing graceful or gentle anywhere, and the void in my cowed heart everywhere – this was my childhood, if I may so misuse the word as to apply it to such a beginning of life.
Geolinks: The Adelphi, Bleeding Heart Yard, Covent Garden, King's Bench Prison, The Marshalsea, St. Georges Church, Bank of England, Park Lane (top)
Clennam, Gilbert ( Little Dorrit ) Uncle of Arthur Clennam's father. Gilbert arranged the marriage of Arthur's father to Mrs Clennam for financial purposes. He later regrets the shameful death of Arthur's real mother, a dancer, and leaves 1000 pounds in his will to the youngest daughter or niece of her benefactor, Frederick Dorrit. Frederick is childless, so the legacy falls to his niece Amy Dorrit. (top)
Clennam, Mrs ( Little Dorrit ) PIX Adoptive mother of Arthur Clennam who believes her to be his real mother. Arthur's real mother was a dancer with whom his father had an affair. Mrs Clennam keeps this affair, and Gilbert's will, a secret until she is blackmailed by Riguad.
Geolinks: Thames Street (top)
Cleverly, Susannah and William ( The Uncommercial Traveller - Bound for the Great Salt Lake ) Mormon brother and sister headed for Great Salt Lake, Utah aboard the ship Amazon. (top)
Clickett (The Orfling) ( David Copperfield ) Maid to the Micawbers and an orphan from St. Luke's Workhouse. A dark-complexioned young woman, with a habit of snorting. (top)
Clive, Mr ( Little Dorrit ) Clerk at the Circumlocution Office (top)
Clubber, Sir Thomas ( Pickwick Papers ) Commissioner and head of the Chatham dockyard. Attends the charity ball at the Bull Inn in Rochester with his wife and two daughters. A great sensation was created throughout the room by the entrance of a tall gentleman in a blue coat and bright buttons, a large lady in blue satin, and two young ladies, on a similar scale, in fashionably-made dresses of the same hue. (top)
Cluppins, Elizabeth ( Pickwick Papers ) Friend of Martha Bardell and sister of Mary Ann Raddle. 'A little, brisk, busy-looking woman', she gives evidence against Pickwick in the Bardell vs Pickwick trial. She was the mother of eight children at that present speaking, and that she entertained confident expectations of presenting Mr. Cluppins with a ninth, somewhere about that day six months. (top)
Cly, Roger ( A Tale of Two Cities ) Former servant of Charles Darnay who testifies against his former master at Darnay's trial for treason. He fakes his death and is buried in a mock funeral in London. Cly surfaces later as a spy and informer in Paris and ends up on the guillotine. (top)
Coavins ( Bleak House ) Runs a sponging house and employs Neckett as a "follerer" and where Harold Skimpole is a frequent inmate. (top)
Cobb, Tom ( Barnaby Rudge ) Friend of John Willet at the Maypole Inn. General chandler and post office keeper at Chigwell. (top)
Cobbey ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Pupil at Dotheboys Hall. Wackford Squeers, on returning from London, tells him that his grandmother has died and his uncle has took to drink. His sister sends eighteen pence. Squeers pockets the money saying which will just pay for that broken square of glass. (top)
Cocker, Indignation ( The Uncommercial Traveller - A Little Dinner in an Hour ) Unhappy patron of the Temeraire in Namelesston. A severe diner, lately finished, perusing his bill fiercely through his eye-glass. (top)
Codger, Miss ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) Literary Lady at the levee given in honor of Elijah Pogram. (top)
Codlin, Tommy ( The Old Curiosity Shop ) PIX Proprietor, along with partner Short, of a traveling Punch and Judy show that Nell and her grandfather meet on their travels through the English countryside. Codlin's job was taking the money while his partner performed. Had a surly, grumbling manner. (top)
Coiler, Mrs ( Great Expectations ) Toady neighbor of the Pockets. A widow lady of that highly sympathetic nature that she agreed with everybody, blessed everybody, and shed smiles and tears on everybody, according to circumstances. (top)
Colonel ( Great Expectations ) Former soldier and prisoner in Newgate Prison for counterfeiting. A Coiner, a very good workman. The Recorder's report is made to-day, and he is sure to be executed on Monday. (top)
Compeyson ( Great Expectations ) Con man who deceives Miss Havisham, with the help of Miss Havisham's brother Arthur, to get her money with a promise of marriage, and then leaves her at the altar. He is an accomplice of Magwitch in the original prison break. He later exposes Magwitch and accidentally drowns when Magwitch is recaptured. (top)
Cooper, Augustus ( Sketches by Boz: The Dancing Academy ) Customer at the dance studio of Signor Billsmethi and pursued by his daughter, Miss Billsmethi. Finally sued for breach of promise, Cooper goes back to live with his mother. Mr Augustus Cooper was in the oil and colour line - just of age, with a little money, a little business, and a little mother, who, having managed her husband and HIS business in his lifetime, took to managing her son and HIS business after his decease; and so, somehow or other, he had been cooped up in the little back parlour behind the shop on week-days, and in a little deal box without a lid (called by courtesy a pew) at Bethel Chapel, on Sundays, and had seen no more of the world than if he had been an infant all his days. (top)
Copperfield, Clara ( David Copperfield ) PIX Mother of David Copperfield. Orphan and later a nursery-governess when she marries David Copperfield Sr. A widow when David Jr is born, she is later lured into marriage by Edward Murdstone, who destroys her spirit and she dies along with her newborn son while David is away at school. Pretty hair and youthful shape...Meek, mild, and no match for her new husband, Mr Murdstone, and his sister. (top)
Copperfield, David ( David Copperfield ) PIX Narrator of the story modeled after Dickens' life. Begins life with his widowed mother and their maid, Peggotty. When his mother marries Mr Murdstone his life becomes miserable. He is sent to Creakle's school where he meets Steerforth and Traddles. After the death of his mother he goes to work at Murdstone and Grinby and is lodged with the Micawbers. David runs away to live with his aunt Betsey Trotwood in Dover. He later marries his employer Spenlow's daughter, Dora. Dora dies and David marries longtime friend, Agnes Wickfield. David, like Dickens, becomes a successful author.
Geolinks: The Adelphi, British Museum, The Adelphi, Buckingham Street, Charing Cross, Covent Garden, Doctors Commons, Drury Lane, Fleet Street, London Bridge, Milbank, The Monument, The Obelisk, St. Paul's Cathedral, The Strand, The Tower, Westminster Bridge, Whitechapel, Blackfriars Road (top)
Copperfield, David Sr ( David Copperfield ) Father of David Copperfield, dead six months before his son's birth. Buried in the churchyard in view of David's bedroom window. I was a posthumous child. My father's eyes had closed upon the light of this world six months, when mine opened on it. (top)
Corney, Mrs ( Oliver Twist ) Matron of the workhouse where Oliver is born. She marries Bumble making him miserable. The Bumbles are disgraced when they contrive with Monks to hide Oliver's past. They end up as paupers in the workhouse they once ruled over. (top)
Corney, Mr ( Oliver Twist ) Mrs Corney's deceased husband, dead not five and twenty years, whom she laments she will never get another like him. After Mrs Corney marries Mr Bumble he wishes the former Mr Corney were still alive. (top)
Cower, Mr ( Sketches by Boz: The Tuggs's at Ramsgate ) Joseph Tuggs' solicitor. (top)
Crackit, Toby ( Oliver Twist ) Bill Sikes' companion in the attempted robbery of the Maylie house. His lair on Jacob's Island is where Sikes eventually seeks refuge after Nancy's murder. He was dressed in a smartly-cut snuff-coloured coat, with large brass buttons; an orange neckerchief; a coarse, staring, shawl-pattern waistcoat; and drab breeches. [He] had no very great quantity of hair, either upon his head or face; but what he had, was of a reddish dye, and tortured into long corkscrew curls, through which he occasionally thrust some very dirty fingers, ornamented with large common rings. He was a trifle above the middle size, and apparently rather weak in the legs; but this circumstance by no means detracted from his own admiration of his top-boots, which he contemplated, in their elevated situation, with lively satisfaction.
Geolinks: Jacob's Island (top)
Craddock, Mrs ( Pickwick Papers ) The Pickwickians' landlady in Bath. (top)
Cratchit, Bob ( A Christmas Carol ) PIX Longsuffering clerk of Ebenezer Scrooge. Bob endures Scrooge's mistreatment until Scrooge, reformed by the visit of the three spirits, raises Bob's salary and vows to help his struggling family. The Cratchit family consists of Bob's wife, eldest daughter Martha, daughter Belinda, son Peter, two younger children: boy and girl, and Tiny Tim. They were not a handsome family; they were not well dressed; their shoes were far from being water-proof; their clothes were scanty.
Geolinks: Camden Town, Cornhill (top)
Cratchit, Mrs ( A Christmas Carol ) Wife of Bob Cratchit. She is not quite as mild as her husband, wishing to give Scrooge of her mind to feast upon, and hope he had a good appetite for it. Dressed out but poorly in a twice-turned gown, but brave in ribbons, which are cheap and make a goodly show for sixpence.
Geolinks: Camden Town (top)
Cratchit, Belinda ( A Christmas Carol ) Middle daughter of Bob Cratchit. Also brave in ribbons.
Geolinks: Camden Town (top)
Cratchit, Martha ( A Christmas Carol ) Oldest daughter of Bob Cratchit. Martha lives away from home and is a poor apprentice at a milliner's shop.
Geolinks: Camden Town (top)
Cratchit, Peter ( A Christmas Carol ) Oldest son of Bob Cratchit. Bob Cratchit ... had a situation in his eye for Master Peter, which would bring in, if obtained, full five-and-sixpence weekly. The two young Cratchits laughed tremendously at the idea of Peter's being a man of business; and Peter himself looked thoughtfully at the fire from between his collars, as if he were deliberating what particular investments he should favour when he came into the receipt of that bewildering income.
Geolinks: Camden Town (top)
Cratchit, Tiny Tim ( A Christmas Carol ) Crippled son of Bob Cratchit. The forecast of Tim's death by the Ghosts of Christmas Present and Future is instrumental in Scrooge's reformation after which Tim is afforded proper medical attention and is cured. Dickens based Tiny Tim (and also Paul Dombey Jr) on his sister Fanny's crippled son Henry Burnett Jr. Alas for Tiny Tim, he bore a little crutch, and had his limbs supported by an iron frame.
Geolinks: Camden Town (top)
Crawley, Mr ( Pickwick Papers ) Proposed dance partner of Jane Wugsby at the Bath ball who is rejected by Mrs Colonel Wugsby as unworthy. (top)
Creakle, Mr ( David Copperfield ) Severe headmaster of Salem House Academy where David Copperfield first goes to school. He shows up later in the story as a Middlesex Magistrate who gives David and Tommy Traddles a tour of the Pentonville prison. He was based on William Jones, headmaster of Wellington Academy which Dickens attended from 1824-1827. Mr Creakle's face was fiery, and his eyes were small, and deep in his head; he had thick veins in his forehead, a little nose, and a large chin. He was bald on the top of his head; and had some thin wet-looking hair that was just turning grey, brushed across each temple, so that the two sides interlaced on his forehead. (top)
Creakle, Mrs ( David Copperfield ) Wife of Mr Creakle and more kindhearted than her husband. Thin and quiet. (top)
Creakle, Miss ( David Copperfield ) Daughter of Mr Creakle. Thin and quiet. (top)
Crewler, Caroline ( David Copperfield ) Daughter of Reverend Horace Crewler and Mrs Crewler and sister to Sophy. Very handsome. (top)
Crewler, Reverend Horace ( David Copperfield ) Father of ten children in Devonshire of which the fourth is Sophy. He takes Tommy Traddles' side when his wife comes out strongly against Sophy's marriage. He is an excellent man, most exemplary in every way; and he pointed out to [Mrs Crewler] that she ought, as a Christian, to reconcile herself to the sacrifice (especially as it was so uncertain), and to bear no uncharitable feeling towards me. (top)
Crewler, Louisa ( David Copperfield ) Daughter of Reverend Horace Crewler and Mrs Crewler and sister to Sophy. (top)
Crewler, Lucy ( David Copperfield ) Daughter of Reverend Horace Crewler and Mrs Crewler and sister to Sophy. (top)
Crewler, Margaret ( David Copperfield ) Daughter of Reverend Horace Crewler and Mrs Crewler and sister to Sophy. (top)
Crewler, Mrs ( David Copperfield ) Wife of Reverend Horace Crewler and mother of Sophy, whose marriage to Tommy Traddles she is very much against. She is a very superior woman indeed, but the damp country is not adapted to her constitution, and - in fact, she has lost the use of her limbs. (top)
Crewler, Sarah ( David Copperfield ) Second daughter of Reverend Horace Crewler and Mrs Crewler and sister to Sophy. Sarah has something the matter with her spine, poor girl. The malady will wear out by and by, the doctors say, but in the meantime she has to lie down for a twelvemonth. Sophy nurses her. (top)
Crewler, Sophy ( David Copperfield ) Fourth daughter of Reverend Horace Crewler and Mrs Crewler and fiance of Tommy Traddles. Traddles has trouble gaining permission to marry Sophy because she is indispensable to her large family. Sophy arrives at the house of Dora's aunts, in due course. She has the most agreeable of faces, — not absolutely beautiful, but extraordinarily pleasant, — and is one of the most genial, unaffected, frank, engaging creatures I have ever seen. Traddles presents her to us with great pride; and rubs his hands for ten minutes by the clock, with every individual hair upon his head standing on tiptoe, when I congratulate him in a corner on his choice. (top)
Crimple, David (Crimp) ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) Pawnbroker and later partner with Tigg Montague in the Anglo-Bengalee Disinterested Loan and Life Assurance Company. After Montague is murdered he flees the country with the company's money. This gentleman's name, by the way, had been originally Crimp; but as the word was susceptible of an awkward construction and might be misrepresented, he had altered it to Crimple. (top)
Cripples, Mr ( Little Dorrit ) Operates Cripples Evening Academy in the same lodging house where Frederick Dorrit lives. Amy Dorrit attended classes there. (top)
Cripples, Master ( Little Dorrit ) Son of Mr Cripples. A little white-faced boy. (top)
Cripps, Mrs ( Pickwick Papers ) Mother of Tom Cripps. (top)
Cripps, Tom ( Pickwick Papers ) Office boy employed by Bob Sawyer in Bristol. A boy, in a sober grey livery and a gold-laced hat, with a small covered basket under his arm. (top)
Crisparkle, Canon Septimus ( The Mystery of Edwin Drood ) PIX Minor canon of Cloisterham Cathedral. He takes Neville Landless as a pupil and helps Neville flee to London when suspicion is cast on him for the disappearance of Edwin Drood. Mr Crisparkle, Minor Canon, early riser, musical, classical, cheerful, kind, good-natured, social, contented, and boy-like. Named Septimus because six little brother Crisparkles before him went out, one by one, as they were born, like six weak little rushlights, as they were lighted. (top)
Crisparkle, Mrs ( The Mystery of Edwin Drood ) PIX Mother of Canon Septimus Crisparkle. What is prettier than an old lady—except a young lady—when her eyes are bright, when her figure is trim and compact, when her face is cheerful and calm, when her dress is as the dress of a china shepherdess: so dainty in its colours, so individually assorted to herself, so neatly moulded on her? Nothing is prettier, thought the good Minor Canon frequently, when taking his seat at table opposite his long-widowed mother. (top)
Crookey ( Pickwick Papers ) Attendant at Namby's. Who in dress and general appearance looked something between a bankrupt grazier, and a drover in a state of insolvency. (top)
Cropley, Miss ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Friend of Mrs Nickleby at Exeter. (top)
Crowl, Mr ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Newman Noggs' landlord. A hard-featured square-faced man, elderly and shabby. (top)
Crummles, Vincent ( Nicholas Nickleby ) PIX Manager of a touring stage company who employs and befriends Nicholas Nickleby and Smike. He had a very full under-lip, a hoarse voice, as though he were in the habit of shouting very much, and very short black hair, shaved off nearly to the crown of his head--to admit...of his more easily wearing character wigs of any shape or pattern. Members of his acting troupe called him old bricks and mortar because his style of acting is rather in the heavy and ponderous way. (top)
Crummles, Mrs ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Wife of Vincent Crummles and actress in his traveling stage troupe. A stout, portly female, apparently between forty and fifty, in a tarnished silk cloak, with her bonnet dangling by the strings in her hand, and her hair (of which she had a great quantity) braided in a large festoon over each temple. (top)
Crummles, Master ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Second son of Vincent Crummles and actor in his traveling stage troupe. (top)
Crummles, Percy ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Son of Vincent Crummles and actor in his traveling stage troupe. (top)
Crummles, Ninetta (The Infant Phenomenon) ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Daughter of Vincent Crummles and actress in his traveling stage troupe. Her acting capability is greatly over-rated by her father. She is listed as 10 years old but is apparently much older. Though of short stature, had a comparatively aged countenance, and had moreover been precisely the same age -- not perhaps to the full extent of the memory of the oldest inhabitant, but certainly for five good years. But she had been kept up late every night, and put upon an unlimited allowance of gin-and-water from infancy, to prevent her growing tall, and perhaps this system of training had produced in the infant phenomenon these additional phenomena. (top)
Crumpton, Amelia and Maria ( Sketches by Boz: Sentiment ) Spinster sisters who are proprietors of Minerva House, A finishing establishment for young ladies where some twenty girls of the ages of from thirteen to nineteen inclusive, acquired a smattering of every thing, and a knowledge of nothing; instruction in French and Italian, dancing lessons twice a-week, and other necessaries of life.' "‘The Misses Crumpton,’ were two unusually tall, particularly thin, and exceedingly skinny personages: very upright, and very yellow. Miss Amelia Crumpton owned to thirty-eight, and Miss Maria Crumpton admitted she was forty; an admission which was rendered perfectly unnecessary by the self-evident fact of her being fifty at least. They dressed in the most interesting manner – like twins, and looked about as happy and comfortable as a couple of marigolds run to seed. They were very precise, had the strictest possible ideas of propriety, wore false hair, and always smelt very strongly of lavender. (top)
Cruncher, Jerry ( A Tale of Two Cities ) Odd-job-man for Tellson's Bank who moonlights as a body-snatcher. ...evincing a tendency to keep his own counsel, and to keep his hat cocked over his eyes. He had eyes that assorted very well with that decoration, being of a surface black, with no depth in the colour or form, and much too near together—as if they were afraid of being found out in something, singly, if they kept too far apart. They had a sinister expression, under an old cocked-hat like a three-cornered spittoon, and over a great muffler for the chin and throat, which descended nearly to the wearer's knees. When he stopped for drink, he moved this muffler with his left hand, only while he poured his liquor in with his right; as soon as that was done, he muffled again.
Geolinks: Temple Bar (top)
Cruncher, Mrs ( A Tale of Two Cities ) Long suffering wife of Jerry Cruncher. She disapproves of his nighttime occupation and is constantly praying (flopping) that he change his ways. Jerry refers to her as aggerawayter (aggravater). A woman of orderly and industrious appearance (top)
Cruncher, Young Jerry ( A Tale of Two Cities ) Son of Jerry Cruncher. Young Jerry accompanies his father during the day's work as messenger for Tellson's Bank. He follows his father on one of his mysterious nighttime "fishing trips" and is frightened by what he sees. His head was garnished with tenderer spikes, and whose young eyes stood close by one another, as his father's did. (top)
Crupp, Mrs ( David Copperfield ) PIX David Copperfield's brandy-loving landlady at his residence in Buckingham Street. A stout lady with a flounce of flannel petticoat below a nankeen gown...Mrs Crupp was a martyr to a curious disorder called 'the spazzums', which was generally accompanied with inflammation of the nose, and required to be constantly treated with peppermint...Mrs Crupp always called me Mr Copperfull: firstly, no doubt, because it was not my name; and secondly, I am inclined to think, in some indistinct association with a washing-day.
Geolinks: The Adelphi, Buckingham Street (top)
Crushton, Mr ( Pickwick Papers ) Bosom friend of Lord Mutanhed at Bath. (top)
Cummins, Tom ( Pickwick Papers ) The man who was 'in the chair' on a night out described by one of Dodson and Fogg's clerks. (top)
Curdle, Mr ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Husband of Mrs Curdle and patron of Miss Snevellici's bespeak performance. He had written a pamphlet of sixty-four pages, post octavo, on the character of the Nurse's deceased husband in Romeo and Juliet. (top)
Curdle, Mrs ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Wife of Mr Curdle and patron of Miss Snevellici's bespeak performance. Supposed, by those who were best informed on such points, to possess quite the London taste in matters relating to literature and the drama. (top)
Curzon, Thomas ( Barnaby Rudge ) Hosier, Golden Fleece, Aldgate to whom Mark Gilbert is apprenticed. Gilbert is in love with Curzon's daughter. (top)
Cute, Alderman ( The Chimes ) City magistrate who is blind to the plight of the poor. Vows to "put down"^ any nonsense claimed by the poor, such as starvation, illness, and suicide. (top)
Cutler, Mr and Mrs ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Friends of the Kenwigs. (top)
Cuttle, Captain Edward (Ned) ( Dombey and Son ) PIX Seafaring friend of Sol Gills, whose shop he cares for when Sol goes in search of his lost nephew, Walter Gay. Quote: "When found, make a note of." A gentleman in a wide suit of blue, with a hook instead of a hand attached to his right wrist; very bushy black eyebrows; and a thick stick in his left hand, covered all over (like his nose) with knobs. He wore a loose black silk handkerchief round his neck, and such a very large coarse shirt collar, that it looked like a small sail. (top)
D
Dabber, Sir Dingleby ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Portrait painter whom Mrs Nickleby imagines will paint Kate's portrait after she marries Sir Mulberry Hawk. (top)
Dadson, Mr and Mrs ( Sketches by Boz: Sentiment ) Writing master at Minerva House run by the Crumpton sisters and his wife. The wife in green silk, with shoes and cap-trimmings to correspond, and the writing-master in a white waistcoat, black knee shorts, and ditto silk stockings, displaying a leg large enough for two writing-masters, at least. (top)
Daisy, Solomon ( Barnaby Rudge ) Clerk and bell-ringer at the parish church in Chigwell. Friend of John Willet at the Maypole Inn. Daisy tells the story of Reuben Haredale's murder. [He] had little round black shiny eyes like beads; moreover this little man wore at the knees of his rusty black breeches, and on his rusty black coat, and all down his long flapped waistcoat, little queer buttons like nothing except his eyes; but so like them, that as they twinkled and glistened in the light of the fire, which shone too in his bright shoe-buckles. (top)
Dancer, Daniel ( Our Mutual Friend ) Miser in Noddy Boffin’s collection of books concerning prominent misers purchased to give the illusion that he himself has become a miser. (top)
Danton, Mr ( Sketches by Boz: The Bloomsbury Christening ) Friend of Charles Kitterbell whom he introduces to his uncle, Nicodemus Dumps, at the christening of the Kitterbell's infant son. A young man of about five-and-twenty, with a considerable stock of impudence, and a very small share of ideas: he was a great favourite, especially with young ladies of from sixteen to twenty-six years of age, both inclusive. He could imitate the French-horn to admiration, sang comic songs most inimitably, and had the most insinuating way of saying impertinent nothings to his doting female admirers. He had acquired, somehow or other, the reputation of being a great wit, and, accordingly, whenever he opened his mouth, every body who knew him laughed very heartily. (top)
Darby ( Bleak House ) Constable on duty at Tom-All-Alone's who accompanies Mr Bucket and Mr Snagsby in search of Jo. (top)
Darby, Mr and Mrs ( The Uncommercial Traveller - Poor Mercantile Jack ) Proprietors of an unregistered boarding house near the Liverpool docks. (top)
Darnay, Charles ( A Tale of Two Cities ) PIX Son of Marquis de St. Evrémonde. He moves to England and takes the anglicized version of his mother's name (D'Aulnais) in order to distance himself from his family with whom he is estranged. He is tried for treason in London and is acquitted due to his resemblance to Sydney Carton. He marries Lucie Manette, daughter of Dr. Manette. He returns to Paris to help a friend imprisoned there and is arrested by the revolutionaries. His life is saved when look-alike Carton takes his place on the guillotine. A young man of about five-and-twenty, well-grown and well-looking, with a sunburnt cheek and a dark eye. His condition was that of a young gentleman. He was plainly dressed in black, or very dark grey, and his hair, which was long and dark, was gathered in a ribbon at the back of his neck; more to be out of his way than for ornament.
Geolinks: Cheshire Cheese (top)
Darnay, Little Lucie ( A Tale of Two Cities ) Daughter of Lucie (Manette) Darnay and Charles Darnay. (top)
Dartle, Rosa ( David Copperfield ) PIX Companion to Mrs Steerforth, jealously in love with James Steerforth, who has marked her face when a child by throwing a hammer in a fit of temper. Rosa hates Emily for running away with Steerforth. A slight short figure, dark, and not agreeable to look at, but with some appearance of good looks too... I concluded in my own mind that she was about thirty years of age, and that she wished to be married. She was a little dilapidated, like a house, with having been so long to let; yet had, as I have said, an appearance of good looks. Her thinness seemed to be the effect of some wasting fire within her, which found a vent in her gaunt eyes. (top)
Datchery, Dick ( The Mystery of Edwin Drood ) Mysterious visitor to Cloisterham whose white head was unusually large, and his shock of white hair was unusually thick and ample. Datchery keeps an eye on John Jasper after the disappearance of Edwin Drood. The true identity of Datchery is one of the most contested points of the uncompleted mystery. It is widely believed that Datchery is one of the characters in the book in disguise, most likely candidates include Neville, Bazzard, Tartar, Helena, or even Edwin Drood himself. At about this time a stranger appeared in Cloisterham; a white-haired personage, with black eyebrows. Being buttoned up in a tightish blue surtout, with a buff waistcoat and gray trousers, he had something of a military air, but he announced himself at the Crozier (the orthodox hotel, where he put up with a portmanteau) as an idle dog who lived upon his means; and he farther announced that he had a mind to take a lodging in the picturesque old city for a month or two, with a view of settling down there altogether. (top)
David ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Apoplectic butler of the Cheeryble brothers. (top)
Dawes ( Little Dorrit ) Nurse for the family that Miss Wade serves as governess in her youth. (top)
David ( The Old Curiosity Shop ) Old deaf assistant sextant in the village where Nell and her grandfather live after Mr Marton accepts a job there. (top)
Dawkins, Jack ( Oliver Twist ) See Artful Dodger (top)
Dawson, Mr ( Sketches by Boz: The Four Sisters ) Surgeon. (top)
Dean ( The Mystery of Edwin Drood ) The Dean of Cloisterham Cathedral. With a pleasant air of patronage, the Dean as nearly cocks his quaint hat as a Dean in good spirits may, and directs his comely gaiters towards the ruddy dining-room of the snug old red-brick house where he is at present, ‘in residence’ with Mrs. Dean and Miss Dean. (top)
Dedlock, Lady Honoria ( Bleak House ) PIX Wife of Sir Leicester Dedlock and, unknown to her husband, mother of Esther Summerson. When Tulkinghorn, the family lawyer, learns the secret she runs away and is found dead by Esther at the gates of the cemetery in which Esther's father, Captain Hawdon, lies buried. She has beauty still, and if it be not in its heyday, it is not yet in its autumn. She has a fine face--originally of a character that would be rather called very pretty than handsome, but improved into classicality by the acquired expression of her fashionable state. Her figure is elegant and has the effect of being tall. Not that she is so, but that "the most is made," as the Honourable Bob Stables has frequently asserted upon oath, "of all her points." The same authority observes that she is perfectly got up and remarks in commendation of her hair especially that she is the best-groomed woman in the whole stud. (top)
Dedlock, Sir Leicester ( Bleak House ) PIX Devoted husband of Lady Dedlock, owner of Chesney Wold, and guardian of the status quo. Sir Leicester is twenty years, full measure, older than my Lady. He will never see sixty-five again, nor perhaps sixty-six, nor yet sixty-seven. He has a twist of the gout now and then and walks a little stiffly. He is of a worthy presence, with his light-grey hair and whiskers, his fine shirt-frill, his pure-white waistcoat, and his blue coat with bright buttons always buttoned. (top)
Dedlock, Volumnia ( Bleak House ) Poor relation of Sir Leicester Dedlock and a hanger-on at Chesney Wold. A young lady (of sixty)...rouged and necklaced. (top)
Defarge, Ernest ( A Tale of Two Cities ) PIX Husband of Thérése Defarge and keeper of a wine shop in Paris. He is a leader among the revolutionaries. This wine-shop keeper was a bull-necked, martial-looking man of thirty, and he should have been of a hot temperament, for, although it was a bitter day, he wore no coat, but carried one slung over his shoulder. His shirt-sleeves were rolled up, too, and his brown arms were bare to the elbows. Neither did he wear anything more on his head than his own crisply-curling short dark hair. He was a dark man altogether, with good eyes and a good bold breadth between them. Good-humoured looking on the whole, but implacable-looking, too; evidently a man of a strong resolution and a set purpose; a man not desirable to be met, rushing down a narrow pass with a gulf on either side, for nothing would turn the man. (top)
Defarge, Madame Thérése ( A Tale of Two Cities ) PIX Wife of wine shop keeper, Ernest Defarge, and a leader among the revolutionaries. She harbors an intense hatred of Charles Darnay for atrocities committed against her family by the Evremonde family. Madame Defarge is killed in a struggle with Miss Pross in Paris. Madame Defarge was a stout woman of about his [Ernest Defarge's] own age, with a watchful eye that seldom seemed to look at anything, a large hand heavily ringed, a steady face, strong features, and great composure of manner. There was a character about Madame Defarge, from which one might have predicated that she did not often make mistakes against herself in any of the reckonings over which she presided. Madame Defarge being sensitive to cold, was wrapped in fur, and had a quantity of bright shawl twined about her head, though not to the concealment of her large earrings. (top)
Demple, George ( David Copperfield ) Pupil at Salem House Academy with David Copperfield. George's father is a doctor. (top)
Dennis, Ned ( Barnaby Rudge ) PIX Hangman at Tyburn, becomes involved in the Gordon Riots and is, ironically, hanged himself. A squat, thickset personage, with a low retreating forehead, a coarse shock head of hair, and eyes so small and near together, that his broken nose alone seemed to prevent their meeting and fusing into one of the usual size. A dingy handkerchief twisted like a cord about his neck, left its great veins exposed to view, and they were swoln and starting, as though with gulping down strong passions, malice, and ill-will. His dress was of threadbare velveteen – a faded, rusty, whitened black, like the ashes of a pipe or a coal fire after a day’s extinction; discoloured with the soils of many a stale debauch, and reeking yet with pot-house odours. In lieu of buckles at his knees, he wore unequal loops of packthread; and in his grimy hands he held a knotted stick, the knob of which was carved into a rough likeness of his own vile face.
Geolinks: Newgate Prison, St. James Square, Tyburn (top)
Deputy (Winks) ( The Mystery of Edwin Drood ) Boy hired by Durdles to throw stones at him when he is wandering drunk at night. Deputy resides at the Traveler's Twopenny. Sometimes the stones hit him, and sometimes they miss him, but Durdles seems indifferent to either fortune. The hideous small boy, on the contrary, whenever he hits Durdles, blows a whistle of triumph through a jagged gap, convenient for the purpose, in the front of his mouth, where half his teeth are wanting; and whenever he misses him, yelps out 'Mulled agin!' and tries to atone for the failure by taking a more correct and vicious aim. (top)
Dibabs, Jane ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Mrs Nickleby's rambling example of a woman who marries a man much older than herself when confronted with the story of Madeline Bray being forced to marry Arthur Gride. The Dibabses lived in the beautiful little thatched white house one story high, covered all over with ivy and creeping plants, with an exquisite little porch with twining honysuckles and all sorts of things: where the earwigs used to fall into one's tea on a summer evening, and always fell upon their backs and kicked dreadfully, and where the frogs used to get into the rushlight shades when one stopped all night, and sit up and look through the little holes like Christians—Jane Dibabs, she married a man who was a great deal older than herself, and would marry him, notwithstanding all that could be said to the contrary, and she was so fond of him that nothing was ever equal to it. There was no fuss made about Jane Dibabs, and her husband was a most honourable and excellent man, and everybody spoke well of him. (top)
Dibble, Dorothy and Sampson ( The Uncommercial Traveller - Bound for the Great Salt Lake ) Very old Mormon woman with her blind husband headed for Great Salt Lake, Utah aboard the ship Amazon. (top)
Dick, Mr ( David Copperfield ) PIX An eccentric connection and confidant of Betsey Trotwood, whom she has rescued from a lunatic asylum. He becomes a close friend of David Copperfield. Real name: Richard Babley. Grey-headed, and florid: I should have said all about him, in saying so, had not his head been curiously bowed - not by age...and his grey eyes prominent and large, with a strange kind of watery brightness in them that made me, in combination with his vacant manner, his submission to my aunt, and his childish delight when she praised him, suspect him of being a little mad; though, if he were mad, how he came to be there puzzled me extremely. He was dressed like any other ordinary gentleman, in a loose grey morning coat and waistcoat, and white trousers; and had his watch in his fob, and his money in his pockets: which he rattled as if he were very proud of it. (top)
Dick ( Oliver Twist ) Oliver's dying little friend in the workhouse. (top)
Dick ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Guard on the coach to Yorkshire. A stout old Yorkshireman. (top)
Dick ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) Hostler at the inn in Salisbury where Tom Pinch meets Martin Chuzzlewit. (top)
Digby ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Stage name of Smike. (top)
Dilber, Mrs ( A Christmas Carol ) Scrooge's laundress who sells sheets and towels, a little wearing apparel, two old-fashioned silver teaspoons, a pair of sugar-tongs, and a few boots to Old Joe when Scrooge is shown shadows of the future by the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. (top)
Dingo, Professor ( Bleak House ) Mrs Badger's second husband. Of European reputation. (top)
Diver, Colonel ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) PIX Editor of the New York Rowdy Journal. Diver meets Mark Tapley and Martin Chuzzlewit onboard the Screw and directs them to Pawkins boarding house. A sallow gentleman, with sunken cheeks, black hair, small twinkling eyes, and a singular expression hovering about that region of his face, which was not a frown, nor a leer, and yet might have been mistaken at the first glance for either. Indeed it would have been difficult on a much closer acquaintance, to describe it in any more satisfactory terms than as a mixed expression of vulgar cunning and conceit. This gentleman wore a rather broad-brimmed hat for the greater wisdom of his appearance; and had his arms folded for the greater impressiveness of his attitude. He was somewhat shabbily dressed in a blue surtout reaching nearly to his ancles, short loose trousers of the same colour, and a faded buff waistcoat, through which a discoloured shirt-frill struggled to force itself into notice, as asserting an equality of civil rights with the other portions of his dress, and maintaining a declaration of Independence on its own account. His feet, which were of unusually large proportions, were leisurely crossed before him as he half leaned against, half sat upon, the steam-boat's side; and his thick cane, shod with a mighty ferrule at one end and armed with a great metal knob at the other, depended from a line-and-tassel on his wrist. (top)
Dixon Family ( Sketches by Boz: Mrs Joseph Porter ) Audience members at the Gattleton's private theatrical. (top)
Dobble Family ( Sketches by Boz: The New Year ) Hosts of the New Year's Eve party. (top)
Dodson ( Pickwick Papers ) Partner in the unscrupulous law firm of Dodson and Fogg who represent Martha Bardell in the breach of promise suit against Samuel Pickwick. A plump, portly, stern-looking man, with a loud voice.
Dolloby, Mr ( David Copperfield ) Proprietor of a second-hand clothes shop where David Copperfield sells his waistcoat for ninepence on the Kent Road on his way to Dover. (top)
Dolls, Mr ( Our Mutual Friend ) PIX Name given to the drunken father of Jenny Wren by Eugene Wrayburn. Jenny refers to him as her 'bad child'. The father is like his own father, a weak wretched trembling creature, falling to pieces, never sober. But a good workman too, at the work he does. (top)
Dombey, Fanny ( Dombey and Son ) First wife of Paul Dombey and mother of Florence and Paul Jr. at who's birth she dies. (top)
Dombey, Florence ( Dombey and Son ) PIX Neglected daughter of Paul Dombey and sister of little Paul whom she nurses in his illness. She marries Walter Gay and is eventually reconciled with her father.
Dombey, Paul ( Dombey and Son ) PIX Powerful head of the House of Dombey. He wants a son, and when a daughter (Florence) is born he despises her. His second child, a son (Paul), is weak and sickly and dies a child. Paul's first wife dies with the birth of Paul Jr and he remarries. His second wife, Edith Granger, does not love him and eventually runs away with Carker, a manager at the firm. With Carker gone, Paul is incapable of managing the business and it fails. Paul ends his days reconciled with his daughter and doting on his grandchildren, little Paul, but especially little Florence.
Geolinks: The City, Leadenhall Street, Royal Exchange, Portland Place (top)
Dombey, Paul Jr. ( Dombey and Son ) PIX The long hoped-for heir to the house of Dombey and Son. His mother dies at his birth leaving him a frail and sickly child. His father sends him to Brighton in the care of Mrs Pipchin hoping the sea air will bolster his failing health. He then attends Dr. Blimber's school and his health continues to decline. Paul returns home to London and dies in the care of his sister, Florence, leaving the firm of Dombey and Son without an heir. Dickens modeled Paul (and also Tiny Tim) on his sister Fanny's crippled son Henry Burnett Jr. (top)
Donny, The Misses ( Bleak House ) Twin sisters and owners of Greenleaf, a boarding school near Reading, where Esther Summerson spends "six happy, quiet years." (top)
Dorker ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Boy who died at Dotheboys Hall. (top)
Dorrit, Amy ( Little Dorrit ) PIX Daughter of William Dorrit, born in the Marshalsea debtor's prison. She works for Mrs Clennam and befriends Arthur. Her father inherits a fortune and they leave the prison and travel abroad. After her father's death she discovers that the fortune has been lost in a banking scam. She nurses Arthur in the Marshalsea when his fortune is lost in the same banking scam. The novel ends with the marriage of Arthur and Amy at St. Georges Church, next to the prison, the same church where she was christened. Her diminutive figure, small features, and slight spare dress, gave her the appearance of being much younger than she was. A woman, probably of not less than two and twenty, she might have been passed in the street for little more than half that age. Not that her face was very youthful, for in truth there was more consideration and care in it than naturally belonged to her utmost years; but she was so little and light, so noiseless and shy, and appeared so conscious of being out of place among the three hard elders, that she had all the manner and much of the appearance of a subdued child.
Geolinks: The Marshalsea, St. Georges Church, Southwark Bridge (top)
Dorrit, Edward (Tip) ( Little Dorrit ) Ne'er-do-well brother of Amy Dorrit.
Geolinks: Clifford's Inn (top)
Dorrit, Fanny ( Little Dorrit ) PIX Sister of Amy. A dancer with social aspirations, Fanny marries Edmund Sparkler, Step-son of Mr Merdle. Fanny and Sparkler lose everything in the Merdle banking scam. Pretty girl of a far better figure, and much more developed than Little Dorrit, though looking much younger in the face when the two were observed together (top)
Dorrit, Frederick ( Little Dorrit ) PIX Brother of William, Uncle of Amy, Fanny, and Edward. He plays clarionet in a small-time theatre. Through him his niece Amy Dorrit is due an inheritance but the knowledge is kept from him by the intrigues of Mrs Clennam. He stooped a good deal, and plodded along in a slow preoccupied manner, which made the bustling London thoroughfares no very safe resort for him. He was dirtily and meanly dressed, in a threadbare coat, once blue, reaching to his ankles and buttoned to his chin, where it vanished in the pale ghost of a velvet collar. A piece of red cloth with which that phantom had been stiffened in its lifetime was now laid bare, and poked itself up, at the back of the old man’s neck, into a confusion of grey hair and rusty stock and buckle which altogether nearly poked his hat off. A greasy hat it was, and a napless; impending over his eyes, cracked and crumpled at the brim, and with a wisp of pocket handkerchief dangling out below it. His trowsers were so long and loose, and his shoes so clumsy and large, that he shuffled like an elephant; though how much of this was gait, and how much trailing cloth and leather, no one could have told. Under one arm he carried a limp and worn-out case, containing some wind instrument; in the same hand he had a pennyworth of snuff in a little packet of whitey-brown paper, from which he slowly comforted his poor old blue nose with a lengthened-out pinch. (top)
Dorrit, Mrs Fanny ( Little Dorrit ) Wife of William and mother of Amy, Fanny, and Edward. She died when Amy was eight-years-old. (top)
Dorrit, William ( Little Dorrit ) PIX Father of Amy (title character), Fanny, and Edward, and long-time inmate of the Marshalsea debtor's prison. He inherits an estate and leaves the prison, traveling in style with his daughters. After his death Amy learns that his fortune has been lost in the Merdle banking scam. He was under lock and key; but the lock and key that kept him in, kept numbers of his troubles out. If he had been a man with strength of purpose to face those troubles and fight them, he might have broken the net that held him, or broken his heart; but being what he was, he languidly slipped into this smooth descent, and never more took one step upward.
Geolinks: The Marshalsea (top)
Dounce, John ( Sketches by Boz: The Misplaced Attachment of Mr John Dounce ) Widower and retired glove and braces maker with three grown daughters. Proposes marriage to several ladies and ends up marrying his cook who henpecks him. He was a short, round, large-faced, tubbish sort of man, with a broad-brimmed hat, and a square coat; and had that grave, but confident, kind of roll, peculiar to old boys in general. (top)
Dowdle, Misses ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Classmates of Kate Nickleby at Devonshire. The most accomplished, elegant, fascinating creatures. (top)
Dowler, Mr ( Pickwick Papers ) Grumpy and fierce ex-army, now businessman, who travels with the Pickwickians on the coach to Bath and lodges with them at the Royal Crescent there. He threatens Nathaniel Winkle with bodily harm when he thinks Winkle has made advances to his pretty wife, but later apologizes. A stern-eyed man of about five-and-forty, who had a bald and glossy forehead, with a good deal of black hair at the sides and back of his head, and large black whiskers. He was buttoned up to the chin in a brown coat; and had a large seal-skin travelling cap, and a greatcoat and cloak lying on the seat beside him. (top)
Dowler, Mrs ( Pickwick Papers ) Pretty wife of Mr Dowler. A very agreeable and fascinating person. (top)
Doyce, Daniel ( Little Dorrit ) Inventor of an unspecified mechanical wonder which he is unable to get a patent for in the Circumlocution Office. He partners with Arthur Clennam who loses the firm's money in the Merdle scandal. Doyce later sells the invention abroad and returns to liberate Arthur from the Marshalsea. He was not much to look at, either in point of size or in point of dress; being merely a short, square, practical looking man, whose hair had turned grey, and in whose face and forehead there were deep lines of cogitation, which looked as though they were carved in hard wood. He was dressed in decent black, a little rusty, and had the appearance of a sagacious master in some handicraft.
Geolinks: Bleeding Heart Yard, Bank of England (top)
Drood, Edwin ( The Mystery of Edwin Drood ) PIX An orphan and engineering student with the promise of a position in his deceased father's firm, Edwin has been promised to Rosa Bud since early childhood. Later Edwin and Rosa rebel against the arrangement. Rosa is also wooed by Edwin's uncle John Jasper. Edwin turns up missing and his watch is found in the river. Jasper hints suspicion of Neville Landless in the disappearance when the novel ends abruptly with the death of Dickens in 1870. (top)
Dunkle, Dr Ginery ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) Member of the deputation at the National Hotel in America awaiting the arrival of the Honorable Elijah Pogram. A very shrill boy...A gentleman of great poetical elements. (top)
Drummle, Bentley ( Great Expectations ) Pip's fellow student at Matthew Pocket's. He marries Estella for her money and abuses her. He is killed when kicked by a horse that he has mistreated. Bentley Drummle, who was so sulky a fellow that he even took up a book as if its writer had done him an injury, did not take up an acquaintance in a more agreeable spirit. Heavy in figure, movement, and comprehension - in the sluggish complexion of his face, and in the large awkward tongue that seemed to loll about in his mouth as he himself lolled about in a room - he was idle, proud, niggardly, reserved, and suspicious. He came of rich people down in Somersetshire, who had nursed this combination of qualities until they made the discovery that it was just of age and a blockhead. Thus, Bentley Drummle had come to Mr Pocket when he was a head taller than that gentleman, and half a dozen heads thicker than most gentlemen. (top)
Dubbley, Mr ( Pickwick Papers ) Assistant to constable Daniel Grummer who aides in the arrest of Pickwick and Tupman in Ipswich. A dirty-faced man, something over six feet high, and stout in proportion. (top)
Duff ( Oliver Twist ) Bow Street Runner (London Policemen) who, along with Blathers, investigates the attempted robbery of the Maylie home. A red-headed, bony man, in top-boots; with a rather ill-favoured countenance, and a turned-up sinister-looking nose. (top)
Dumkins, Mr ( Pickwick Papers ) Reknowned member of the Muggleton cricket team. (top)
Dumps, Nicodemus ( Sketches by Boz: The Bloomsbury Christening ) Bachelor and uncle to Charles Kitterbell who asks him to be godfather to the Kitterbell's first child which Dumps reluctantly accepts. MR NICODEMUS DUMPS, or, as his acquaintance called him, ‘long Dumps,’ was a bachelor, six feet high, and fifty years old; cross, cadaverous, odd, and ill-natured. He was never happy but when he was miserable; and always miserable when he had the best reason to be happy. (top)
Durdles, Stony ( The Mystery of Edwin Drood ) PIX Drunken stonemason who engraves tombstones for Cloisterham Cathedral. John Jasper is interested in Durdles ability to tap on the tombs and discover their contents. Durdles hires Deputy to throw stones at him when he catches him wandering about drunk at night. Durdles is a stonemason; chiefly in the gravestone, tomb, and monument way, and wholly of their colour from head to foot. No man is better known in Cloisterham. He is the chartered libertine of the place. Fame trumpets him a wonderful workman—which, for aught that anybody knows, he may be (as he never works); and a wonderful sot—which everybody knows he is...In a suit of coarse flannel with horn buttons, a yellow neckerchief with draggled ends, an old hat more russet-coloured than black, and laced boots of the hue of his stony calling, Durdles leads a hazy, gipsy sort of life, carrying his dinner about with him in a small bundle, and sitting on all manner of tombstones to dine. This dinner of Durdles’s has become quite a Cloisterham institution: not only because of his never appearing in public without it, but because of its having been, on certain renowned occasions, taken into custody along with Durdles (as drunk and incapable), and exhibited before the Bench of justices at the townhall. These occasions, however, have been few and far apart: Durdles being as seldom drunk as sober. For the rest, he is an old bachelor, and he lives in a little antiquated hole of a house that was never finished: supposed to be built, so far, of stones stolen from the city wall. To this abode there is an approach, ankle-deep in stone chips, resembling a petrified grove of tombstones, urns, draperies, and broken columns, in all stages of sculpture. Herein two journeymen incessantly chip, while other two journeymen, who face each other, incessantly saw stone; dipping as regularly in and out of their sheltering sentry-boxes, as if they were mechanical figures emblematical of Time and Death. (top)
