Charles Dickens' Characters L-M
L - M
La Creevy, John ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Brother of Miss La Creevy whom she visits for the first time in fifteen years at his request. He was apprenticed down in the country, and he got married there. (top)
Miss La Creevy ( Nicholas Nickleby ) PIX Miniature painter in the Strand. The Nickleby's lease lodging from her briefly and she becomes their faithful friend. In the end she marries the Cheeryble Brothers old clerk, Tim Linkinwater. A mincing young lady of fifty. An odd little mixture of shrewdness and simplicity...The little bustling, active, cheerful creature existed entirely within herself, talked to herself, made a confidante of herself, was as sarcastic as she could be, on people who offended her, by herself; pleased herself, and did no harm. If she indulged in scandal, nobody's reputation suffered; and if she enjoyed a little bit of revenge, no living soul was one atom the worse.
Lambert, Daniel ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Example used by Mrs Nickleby as a man who was proud of his legs when defending the behavior of her admirer next door. The Prince Regent was proud of his legs, and so was Daniel Lambert, who was also a fat man; HE was proud of his legs. (top)
Lammle, Alfred ( Our Mutual Friend ) PIX Husband of Sophronia, a society couple who marry, each thinking that the other has money only to find after marriage that both are broke. They are frustrated in a scheme to worm their way into the Boffin fortune and leave England to escape debts.
Geolinks: Piccadilly (top)
Lammle, Sophronia (nee Akershem) ( Our Mutual Friend ) PIX Daughter of Horatio and wife of Alfred, a society couple who marry, each thinking that the other has money only to find after marriage that both are broke. They are frustrated in a scheme to worm their way into the Boffin fortune and leave England to escape debts.
Geolinks: Piccadilly (top)
Landless, Helena ( The Mystery of Edwin Drood ) PIX Twin sister of Neville and friend and confidant of Rosa Bud. Described, along with her brother: An unusually handsome lithe young fellow, and an unusually handsome lithe girl; much alike; both very dark, and very rich in colour; she of almost the gipsy type; something untamed about them both; a certain air upon them of hunter and huntress; yet withal a certain air of being the objects of the chase, rather than the followers. Slender, supple, quick of eye and limb; half shy, half defiant; fierce of look; an indefinable kind of pause coming and going on their whole expression, both of face and form, which might be equally likened to the pause before a crouch or a bound. (top)
Landless, Neville ( The Mystery of Edwin Drood ) PIX Twin brother of Helena. He and his sister are brought to Cloisterham by their guardian, Mr Honeythunder. Neville is attracted to Rosa Bud and, being set up by Jasper, quarrels with Edwin Drood. After Drood's disappearance Jasper cast blame on Neville who has no alibi and flees to London with his sister. (top)
Lane, Miss ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Governess to the Borum children. (top)
Langdale ( Barnaby Rudge ) Kindly vintner and distiller in Holborn based on an historical figure. The Catholic Langdale shelters Geoffrey Haredale from the rioters. His home and warehouse are burned in the riots, his stores of spirits are consumed by the mob. A very hearty old fellow and a worthy man. (top)
Larkins, eldest Miss ( David Copperfield ) Early love of David Copperfield, The eldest Miss Larkins is not a little girl. She is a tall, dark, black-eyed, fine figure of a woman. The eldest Miss Larkins is not a chicken; for the youngest Miss Larkins is not that, and the eldest must be three or four years older. Perhaps the eldest Miss Larkins may be about thirty. She later marries Mr Chestle. (top)
Larkins, youngest Miss ( David Copperfield ) Younger sister of the eldest Miss Larkins. Three or four years younger than her sister. (top)
Larkins, Mr ( David Copperfield ) Father of the two Miss Larkins, eldest and youngest. (top)
Abraham Lazarus ( Great Expectations ) Criminal whose brother tries to engage Jaggers to represent. Jaggers informs him that he is too late, that he represents the other side. (top)
Ledrook, Miss (Led) ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Member of Crummles' acting troupe. Was of a romantic turn. (top)
Leeford, Edward aka Monks ( Oliver Twist ) PIX Villainous son of Edwin and half-brother of Oliver Twist who plots with Fagin to corrupt Oliver, in which case Leeford will inherit all of their father's property. After the plan is foiled Leeford is forced to emigrate to America where he dies in prison. He is tall...and a strongly made man, but not stout; he has a lurking walk; and as he walks, constantly looks over his shoulder, first on one side, and then on the other...his eyes are sunk in his head so much deeper than any other man's, that you might almost tell him by that alone. His face is dark, like his hair and eyes; and, although he can't be more than six or eight and twenty, withered and haggard. His lips are often discoloured and disfigured with the marks of teeth; for he has desperate fits, and sometimes even bites his hands and covers them with wounds. (top)
Leeford, Edwin ( Oliver Twist ) Father of Oliver, whom he has fathered out of wedlock with Agnes Fleming. Also father of Edward (Monks) from a previous marriage. Edwin has died before the story begins. (top)
Lenville, Mrs ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Wife of Thomas. In a very limp bonnet and veil. (top)
Lenville, Thomas ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Tragedian in Crummles' acting troupe. A dark-complexioned man, inclining indeed to sallow, with long thick black hair, and very evident inclinations (although he was close shaved) of a stiff beard, and whiskers of the same deep shade. His age did not appear to exceed thirty, though many at first sight would have considered him much older, as his face was long, and very pale, from the constant application of stage paint. (top)
Lewsome ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) Medical man and old schoolmate of John Westlock. Westlock hires Sairey Gamp to nurse Lewsome through a serious illness. Lewsome has provided poison to Jonas Chuzzlewit who intends using it to kill his father, Anthony Chuzzlewit. His later confession helps lead to Jonas' arrest. (top)
Lightwood, Mortimer ( Our Mutual Friend ) PIX A lawyer too lazy to take on much work and friend of Eugene Wrayburn since childhood. His only client is the Boffins, which puts him in the middle of much of the story.
Geolinks: The Temple (top)
Lillerton, Miss ( Sketches by Boz: A Passage in the Life of Mr Watkins Tottle ) Spinster to whom Gabriel Parsons tries to get Watkins Tottle to marry. Lillerton chooses Rev Charles Timson and Tottle drowns himself. A lady of very prim appearance, and remarkably inanimate. She was one of those persons at whose age it is impossible to make any reasonable guess; her features might have been remarkably pretty when she was younger, and they might always have presented the same appearance. Her complexion - with a slight trace of powder here and there - was as clear as that of a well-made wax doll, and her face as expressive. She was handsomely dressed, and was winding up a gold watch. (top)
Lillian ( The Chimes ) Orphaned nine-year-old niece of Will Fern. (top)
Lillyvick, Mr ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Collector of water rates and uncle of Mrs Kenwigs. He secretly marries Henrietta Petowker in Portsmouth, much to the dismay of the Kenwigs, who had hoped to inherit his money. The Kenwigs expectations are renewed when Henrietta runs off with a half-pay (retired) captain. A short old gentleman in drabs and gaiters, with a face that might have been carved out of lignum vitae [wood], for anything that appeared to the contrary. (top)
Limbkins, Mr ( Oliver Twist ) Chairman of the Board of the workhouse where Oliver Twist is born. (top)
Linkinwater, Tim ( Nicholas Nickleby ) PIX Faithful clerk to the Cheeryble Brothers and friend of the Nicklebys. He marries Miss La Creevy. A fat, elderly, large-faced clerk, with silver spectacles and a powdered head.
Geolinks: Leadenhall Street (top)
Linseed, Duke of ( Our Mutual Friend ) Begging letter writer to the newly rich Boffins. (top)
Lirriper ( Mrs Lirriper's Lodging, Mrs Lirriper's Legacy ) Emma Lirriper's deceased husband. A handsome figure of a man, with a beaming eye and a voice as mellow as a musical instrument made of honey and steel. (top)
Lirriper, Emma (Gran) ( Mrs Lirriper's Lodging, Mrs Lirriper's Legacy ) Widowed owner of a boarding house at number eighty-one Norfolk Street, Strand in London. But it was about the Lodgings that I was intending to hold forth and certainly I ought to know something of the business having been in it so long, for it was early in the second year of my married life that I lost my poor Lirriper and I set up at Islington directly afterwards and afterwards came here, being two houses and eight-and-thirty years and some losses and a deal of experience. (top)
Lirriper, Jemmy Jackman ( Mrs Lirriper's Lodging, Mrs Lirriper's Legacy ) Son of Mr Edson and his wife Peggy. Mr Edson left his wife with child and Peggy died in childbirth. Emma Lirriper and Major Jemmy Jackman adopted the child and raised him. So...we called him Jemmy, being after the Major his own godfather with Lirriper for a surname being after myself, and never was a dear child such a brightening thing in a Lodgings or such a playmate to his grandmother as Jemmy to this house and me. (top)
Lirriper, Dr Joshua ( Mrs Lirriper's Legacy ) Emma Lirriper's deceased husband's youngest brother. ...though Doctor of what I am sure it would be hard to say unless Liquor, for neither Physic nor Music nor yet Law does Joshua Lirriper know a morsel of except continually being summoned to the County Court and having orders made upon him which he runs away from. (top)
List, Isaac ( The Old Curiosity Shop ) Cardplayer at the Valiant Soldier Inn. Conspires with Joe Jowl to have Nell's Grandfather rob Mrs Jarley. Was of a more slender figure - stooping, and high in the shoulders - with a very ill-favoured face, and a most sinister and villanous squint. (top)
Little, John ( 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)
Littimer ( David Copperfield ) PIX Manservant to James Steerforth, involved in the concealment of the elopement of Steerforth and Emily. He is later guilty of embezzlement and is captured with the help of Miss Mowcher. I believe there never existed in his station a more respectable-looking man. He was taciturn, soft-footed, very quiet in his manner, deferential, observant, always at hand when wanted, and never near when not wanted; but his great claim to consideration was his respectability. (top)
Lively, Mr ( Oliver Twist ) Trader in stolen goods in Field Lane. A salesman of small stature, who had squeezed as much of his person into a child's chair as the chair would hold, and was smoking a pipe at his warehouse door. (top)
Liz ( Bleak House ) Poor brickmaker's wife, a friend of Jenny. An ugly woman, very poorly clothed. (top)
Lobbs, Old ( Pickwick Papers ) Father of Maria. Well-to-do saddler in Samuel Weller's story The Parish Clerk-A Tale of True Love. (top)
Lobbs, Maria ( Pickwick Papers ) Pretty daughter of Old Lobbs, the great saddler. She is wooed by Nathaniel Pipkin but eventually marries her cousin Henry in Samuel Weller's story The Parish Clerk-A Tale of True Love. A prettier foot, a gayer heart, a more dimpled face, or a smarter form, never bounded so lightly over the earth they graced, as did those of Maria Lobbs. (top)
Lobley ( The Mystery of Edwin Drood ) PIX Boatman in the employ of Tartar. He was a jolly-favoured man, with tawny hair and whiskers, and a big red face. He was the dead image of the sun in old woodcuts, his hair and whiskers answering for rays all around him. Resplendent in the bow of the boat, he was a shining sight, with a man-of-war’s man’s shirt on—or off, according to opinion—and his arms and breast tattooed all sorts of patterns. (top)
Lobskini, Signor ( Sketches by Boz: Sentiment ) Singing master at Minerva House, run by the Crumpton sisters. (top)
Longford, Edmund ( The Haunted Man ) Ailing student at the university where Redlaw teaches chemistry. He is adversely effected by Redlaw's gift of forgetting past sorrows and is later restored by his old nurse, Milly Swidger. (top)
Lorry, Jarvis ( A Tale of Two Cities ) PIX An agent for Tellson's bank, Mr Lorry is instrumental in bringing Dr. Manette, who is imprisoned in Paris, back to England. He returns to Paris to look after the bank's interest after the Revolution starts and while there helps Lucie and Charles Darnay, bringing them back to England after Sydney Carton sacrifices his life to save Darnay. Very orderly and methodical he looked, with a hand on each knee, and a loud watch ticking a sonorous sermon under his flapped waist-coat, as though it pitted its gravity and longevity against the levity and evanescence of the brisk fire. He had a good leg, and was a little vain of it, for his brown stockings fitted sleek and close, and were of a fine texture; his shoes and buckles, too, though plain, were trim. He wore an odd little sleek crisp flaxen wig, setting very close to his head: which wig, it is to be presumed, was made of hair, but which looked far more as though it were spun from filaments of silk or glass. His linen, though not of a fineness in accordance with his stockings, was as white as the tops of the waves that broke upon the neighbouring beach, or the specks of sail that glinted in the sunlight far at sea. A face habitually suppressed and quieted, was still lighted up under the quaint wig by a pair of moist bright eyes that it must have cost their owner, in years gone by, some pains to drill to the composed and reserved expression of Tellson's Bank. He had a healthy colour in his cheeks, and his face, though lined, bore few traces of anxiety. But, perhaps the confidential bachelor clerks in Tellson's Bank were principally occupied with the cares of other people; and perhaps second-hand cares, like second-hand clothes, come easily off and on.
Geolinks: Clerkenwell, Temple Bar (top)
Losberne, Dr. ( Oliver Twist ) PIX Impetuous doctor who treats Oliver and Rose in illness. A friend of the Maylie family. A surgeon in the neighbourhood, known through a circuit of ten miles round as 'the doctor,' had grown fat, more from good-humour than from good living: and was as kind and hearty, and withal as eccentric an old bachelor, as will be found in five times that space, by any explorer alive. (top)
Lowten ( Pickwick Papers ) Clerk to the solicitor Perker. Spends evenings singing comic songs with other law clerks at the Magpie and Stump. A puffy-faced young man. (top)
Lucas, Solomon ( Pickwick Papers ) Owner of a costume shop in Eatanswill patronized by the Pickwickians for the fancy party at the home of Mrs Leo Hunter. (top)
Luffey, Mr ( Pickwick Papers ) Member of the Dingley Dell cricket team. (top)
Lukin ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Former suitor of Mrs Nickleby. (top)
Lumbey, Doctor ( Nicholas Nickleby ) The Kenwigs' doctor. He was a stout bluff-looking gentleman, with no shirt-collar to speak of, and a beard that had been growing since yesterday morning; for Doctor Lumbey was popular, and the neighbourhood was prolific. (top)
Lummy Ned ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) Former guard on the Salisbury coach whose immigration to the United States insprires Martin Chuzzlewit to do the same. (top)
Lupin, Mrs ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) PIX Landlady of the Blue Dragon Inn. Eventually marries Mark Tapley. The mistress of the Blue Dragon was in outward appearance just what a landlady should be: broad, buxom, comfortable, and good-looking, with a face of clear red and white, which by its jovial aspect, at once bore testimony to her hearty participation in the good things of the larder and the cellar, and to their thriving and healthful influences. She was a widow, but years ago had passed through her state of weeds, and burst into flower again; and in full bloom she had continued ever since; and in full bloom she was now; with roses on her ample skirts, and roses on her boddice, roses in her cap, roses in her cheeks, – ay, and roses, worth the gathering too, on her lips, for that matter. She had still a bright black eye, and jet black hair; was comely, dimpled, plump, and tight as a gooseberry; and though she was not exactly what the world calls young, you may make an affidavit, on trust, before any mayor or magistrate in Christendom, that there are a great many young ladies in the world (blessings on them, one and all!) whom you wouldn’t like half as well, or admire half as much, as the beaming hostess of the Blue Dragon. (top)
M
Mackin, Mrs ( Sketches by Boz: The Pawnbrokers Shop ) Customer in the pawn shop who confronts Jinkins. (top)
Macklin, Mrs ( Sketches by Boz: The Streets – Night ) Customer of the muffin boy. (top)
MacStinger, Alexander ( Dombey and Son ) Younger son of Mrs MacStinger "aged two years and three months." (top)
MacStinger, Charles ( Dombey and Son ) Eldest son of Mrs MacStinger "popularly known about the scenes of his youthful sports, as Chowley". (top)
MacStinger, Juliana ( Dombey and Son ) Daughter of Mrs MacStinger "the picture of her mother." (top)
MacStinger, Mrs ( Dombey and Son ) PIX Captain Cuttle's widowed landlady at Brig Place. The Captain is terrified of her and is constantly trying to avoid her. She eventually coerces the Captain's friend, Jack Bunsby, into marriage. (top)
Madgers, Winifred ( Mrs Lirriper's Legacy ) Maid in the boarding house of Mrs Lirriper. she was what is termed a Plymouth Sister, and the Plymouth Brother that made away with her was quite right, for a tidier young woman for a wife never came into a house and afterwards called with the beautifullest Plymouth Twins. (top)
Maggy ( Little Dorrit ) PIX Handicapped granddaughter of Mrs Bangham and faithful friend of Amy Dorrit. She was about eight-and-twenty, with large bones, large features, large feet and hands, large eyes, and no hair. Her large eyes were limpid and almost colorless; they seemed to be very little affected by light, and to stand unnaturally still. There was also that attentive listening expression in her face, which is seen in the faces of the blind; but she was not blind, having one tolerably serviceable eye. Her face was not exceedingly ugly, though it was only redeemed from being so by a smile; a good-humoured smile, and pleasant in itself, but rendered pitiable by being constantly there. A great white cap, with a quantity of opaque frilling that was always flapping about, apologised for Maggy’s baldness; and made it so very difficult for her old black bonnet to retain its place upon her head, that it held on round her neck like a gipsy’s baby. (top)
Magnus, Peter ( Pickwick Papers ) Samuel Pickwick's fellow traveler to Ipswich where Magnus plans to propose to Miss Witherfield, the lady in yellow curl papers. A red-haired man with an inquisitive nose and blue spectacles...an important-looking, sharp-nosed, mysterious-spoken personage, with a bird-like habit of giving his head a jerk every time he said any thing.
Geolinks: Whitechapel (top)
Magwitch, Abel ( Great Expectations ) PIX A convict whom Pip helps in the marshes after his escape from the prison ship. He is recaptured and transported to Australia where he gains a fortune which he secretly uses to increase Pip's "expectations". He secretly returns to England as Provis and confronts Pip with the secret source of his good fortune. Magwitch is recaptured and dies before he can be executed. Magwitch is also found to be the father of Estella. A fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg. A man with no hat, and with broken shoes, and with an old rag tied round his head. A man who had been soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briars; who limped, and shivered, and glared and growled; and whose teeth chattered in his head as he seized me by the chin.
Geolinks: The Temple, The Tower (top)
Malderton, Frederick ( Sketches by Boz: Horatio Sparkins ) The Malderton's eldest son. ...in full-dress costume, was the very beau idéal of a smart waiter. (top)
Malderton, Marianne ( Sketches by Boz: Horatio Sparkins ) The Malderton's youngest daughter. (top)
Malderton, Mr ( Sketches by Boz: Horatio Sparkins ) Affluent father of Teresa, Frederick, Thomas, and Marianne. Mr Malderton was a man whose whole scope of ideas was limited to Lloyd's, the Exchange, the India House, and the Bank. A few successful speculations had raised him from a situation of obscurity and comparative poverty, to a state of affluence. As frequently happens in such cases, the ideas of himself and his family became elevated to an extraordinary pitch as their means increased; they affected fashion, taste, and many other fooleries, in imitation of their betters, and had a very decided and becoming horror of anything which could, by possibility, be considered low. (top)
Malderton, Mrs ( Sketches by Boz: Horatio Sparkins ) Malderton's wife. ...a little fat woman. (top)
Malderton, Teresa ( Sketches by Boz: Horatio Sparkins ) Malderton's eldest (age 28) daughter. ...a very little girl, rather fat, with vermilion cheeks, but good-humoured, and still disengaged, although, to do her justice, the misfortune arose from no lack of perseverance on her part. In vain had she flirted for ten years. (top)
Malderton, Thomas ( Sketches by Boz: Horatio Sparkins ) Youngest child of the Maldertons. ...with his white dress-stock, blue coat, bright buttons, and red watch-ribbon, strongly resembled the portrait of that interesting, but rash young gentleman, George Barnwell. (top)
Maldon, Jack ( David Copperfield ) Cousin of Annie Strong with whom he is suspected of having an affair. He was rather a shallow sort of young gentleman, I thought, with a handsome face, a rapid utterance, and a confident, bold air. (top)
Mallard, Mr ( Pickwick Papers ) Clerk for Serjeant Snubbin. An elderly clerk, whose sleek appearance and heavy gold watch-chain presented imposing indications of the extensive and lucrative practice of Mr. Serjeant Snubbin. (top)
Mallowford, Lord ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Lord burnt to death in his bed, an occasion that caused Arthur Gride to consider himself lucky. (top)
Manette, Dr. Alexandre ( A Tale of Two Cities ) PIX A prisoner in the Bastille in Paris for eighteen years. He is released and accompanies his daughter, Lucie, and Jarvis Lorry to England. He returns to Paris after the outbreak of the revolution and, as a former prisoner, is able to secure Darnay's release from the revolutionaries. However, a statement written during Manette's long incarceration in the Bastille is later discovered and incriminates Darnay's family. Darnay is again imprisoned and later escapes when Sydney Carton takes his place. He had a white beard, raggedly cut, but not very long, a hollow face, and exceedingly bright eyes. The hollowness and thinness of his face would have caused them to look large, under his yet dark eyebrows and his confused white hair, though they had been really otherwise; but, they were naturally large, and looked unnaturally so. His yellow rags of shirt lay open at the throat, and showed his body to be withered and worn. He, and his old canvas frock, and his loose stockings, and all his poor tatters of clothes, had, in a long seclusion from direct light and air, faded down to such a dull uniformity of parchment-yellow, that it would have been hard to say which was which.
Geolinks: Soho Square (top)
Manette, Lucie ( A Tale of Two Cities ) PIX Daughter of Dr. Manette. She is taken to Paris by Jarvis Lorry when her father is released from prison. She marries Charles Darnay but is adored from afar by Sydney Carton, who feels unworthy of her. When Darnay is imprisoned in Paris by the revolutionaries Carton helps him escape, taking Darnay's place due to their resemblance. As Darnay and Lucie escape to England, Carton makes the supreme sacrifice. A young lady of not more than seventeen, in a riding-cloak, and still holding her straw travelling-hat by its ribbon in her hand. As his eyes rested on a short, slight, pretty figure, a quantity of golden hair, a pair of blue eyes that met his own with an inquiring look, and a forehead with a singular capacity (remembering how young and smooth it was), of rifting and knitting itself into an expression that was not quite one of perplexity, or wonder, or alarm, or merely of a bright fixed attention, though it included all the four expressions.
Geolinks: Soho Square, Vauxhall Gardens (top)
Mann, Mrs ( Oliver Twist ) Matron of a baby farm where Oliver is raised to age 9. (top)
Manners, Julia ( Sketches by Boz: The Great Winglebury Duel ) Buxom richly-dressed female of about forty who falls for Alexander Trott in a case of mistaken identity. She marries him anyway. (top)
Manning, Sir Geoffrey ( Pickwick Papers ) Friend of Wardle on whose land the Pickwickians attend a shooting party. (top)
Mantalini, Madame ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Dressmaker in Cavandish Square, she hires Kate Nickleby as a favor to her uncle Ralph Nickleby, to whom she owes money. Her shiftless husband, Alfred, borrows heavily from Ralph and eventually bankrupts his wife's business. A buxom person, handsomely dressed and rather good-looking, but much older than [her husband].
Geolinks: Cavendish Square (top)
Mantalini, Alfred ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Husband of Madame Mantalini. A shiftless idler who lives by flattering his older wife until he has gone through all of her money. Ends up working for a laundress who has bailed him out of debtor's prison. He had whiskers and a moustache, both dyed black and gracefully curled. (top)
Maplesone Family ( Sketches by Boz: The Boarding House ) Mrs Maplesone, a widow with daughters Julia and Matilda. They become lodgers at Mrs Tibbs' boarding house where they are all three courted by the gentlemen who also board there. Julia marries Mr Simpson whom she later leaves, Matilda marries Septimus Hicks, who deserts her. Mrs Maplesone is wooed by Mr Calton whom she sues for breach of promise. Mrs Maplesone was an enterprising widow of about fifty: shrewd, scheming, and good-looking. (top)
The Marchioness ( The Old Curiosity Shop ) PIX Dick Swiveller's nickname for the little servant (Sharp-witted and cunning) kept locked below stairs by the Brasses. Sally Brass is revealed to be her mother. Swiveller later marries her giving her the name of Sophronia Sphynx athough everafter calling her the Marchioness. A small slipshod girl in a dirty coarse apron and bib, which left nothing of her visible but her face and feet. She might as well have been dressed in a violin-case. (top)
Margaret ( Pickwick Papers ) Mr Winkle Sr's maid. (top)
Margaret, Aunt ( Sketches by Boz: A Christmas Dinner ) Poor relation and guest at the Christmas dinner. Upon which aunt George leaves the room to welcome the new comer, and grandmamma draws herself up rather stiff and stately, for Margaret married a poor man without her consent, and poverty not being a sufficiently weighty punishment for her offence, has been discarded by her friends, and debarred the society of her dearest relatives. But Christmas has come round, and the unkind feelings that have struggled against better dispositions during the year, have melted away before its genial influence, like half-formed ice beneath the morning sun. (top)
Marigold, Doctor ( Doctor Marigold ) Doctor Marigold, so named after the doctor who delivered him, is a cheap jack, a travelling auctioneer of inexpensive goods. He marries an ill-tempered woman and they have a daughter, Sophy. When the child Sophy dies, the mother, who has abused her, is filled with remorse and drowns herself in the river. Now alone, Marigold adopts a deaf-and-dumb girl whom he names Sophy after his dead daughter. A middle-aged man of a broadish build. (top)
Marigold, Sophy ( Doctor Marigold ) Doctor Marigold's daughter. Abused by her mother, she dies a child. Little Sophy was such a brave child! She grew to be quite devoted to her poor father, though he could do so little to help her. She had a wonderful quantity of shining dark hair, all curling natural about her. It is quite astonishing to me now, that I didn’t go tearing mad when I used to see her run from her mother before the cart, and her mother catch her by this hair, and pull her down by it, and beat her. (top)
Marigold, Willum ( Doctor Marigold ) Doctor Marigold's father. It was in his lifetime supposed by some that his name was William, but my own father always consistently said, No, it was Willum. (top)
Marker, Mrs ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Client of the General Agency Office who is seeking a cook. Russell Place, Russell Square; offers eighteen guineas; tea and sugar found. Two in family, and see very little company. Five servants kept. No man. No followers. (top)
Markleham, Mrs ( David Copperfield ) PIX Mother of Annie Strong and mother-in-law of Doctor Strong. Also known as The Old Soldier. Her name was Mrs Markleham; but our boys used to call her the Old Soldier, on account of her generalship, and the skill with which she marshalled great forces of relations against the Doctor. She was a little, sharp-eyed woman, who used to wear, when she was dressed, one unchangeable cap, ornamented with some artificial flowers, and two artificial butterflies supposed to be hovering above the flowers. There was a superstition among us that this cap had come from France, and could only originate in the workmanship of that ingenious nation: but all I certainly know about it, is, that it always made its appearance of an evening, wheresoever Mrs Markleham made HER appearance; that it was carried about to friendly meetings in a Hindoo basket; that the butterflies had the gift of trembling constantly; and that they improved the shining hours at Doctor Strong’s expense, like busy bees. (top)
Markham ( David Copperfield ) Friend of Steerforth and fellow reveler, with Grainger, at David Copperfield's dinner party at Buckingham Street. Gay and lively fellow...youthful-looking and not more than twenty. Always spoke of himself indefinitely, as 'a man', and seldom or never in the first person singular. (top)
Marley, Jacob ( A Christmas Carol ) PIX Scrooge's former partner, who died seven Christmas Eves ago. Jacob, in life, was a penny-pinching miser like Scrooge and is suffering for it in the afterlife. His ghost comes to haunt Scrooge, hoping to change Scrooge's life and therefore avoid Marley's fate. Marley in his pigtail, usual waistcoat, tights and boots; the tassels on the latter bristling, like his pigtail, and his coat-skirts, and the hair upon his head. The chain he drew was clasped about his middle. It was long, and wound about him like a tail; and it was made (for Scrooge observed it closely) of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel. His body was transparent; so that Scrooge, observing him, and looking through his waistcoat, could see the two buttons on his coat behind. (top)
Maroon, Captain ( Little Dorrit ) Horse trader from Gloucestershire who sells Mrs Captain Barbary's horse to Edward Dorrit, for which he can't pay, and is sent to the Marshalsea. A gentleman with tight drab legs, a rather old hat, a little hooked stick, and a blue neckerchief. (top)
Martha ( Dombey and Son ) Daughter of John, about Florence Dombey's age. "Ugly, misshapen, peevish, ill-conditioned, ragged, dirty - but beloved!" (top)
Martha ( Oliver Twist ) Old pauper women who attends the deathbed of Old Sally. (top)
Martha ( Sketches by Boz: A Passage in the Life of Mr Watkins Tottle ) Servant of the Parsons. (top)
Martin ( Pickwick Papers ) Tall rawboned gamekeeper for Sir Geoffrey Manning. (top)
Martin ( Pickwick Papers ) Benjamin Allen's aunt's coachman. A surly looking man with his legs dressed like the legs of a groom, and his body attired in the coat of a coachman. (top)
Martin, Amelia ( Sketches by Boz: The Mistaken Milliner (A Tale of Ambition) ) Milliner and dressmaker with ambitions to become a singer for which she has no talent. Pale, tallish, thin, and two-and-thirty. (top)
Martin, Betsy ( Pickwick Papers ) Reformed drinker and new member introduced to the flock at the Brick Lane Branch of the United Grand Junction Ebenezer Temperance Association. Widow, one child, and one eye. Goes out charing and washing, by the day; never had more than one eye, but knows her mother drank bottled stout, and shouldn't wonder if that caused it (immense cheering). Thinks it not impossible that if she had always abstained from spirits, she might have had two eyes by this time (tremendous applause). Used, at every place she went to, to have eighteen pence a day, a pint of porter, and a glass of spirits; but since she became a member of the Brick Lane Branch, has always demanded three and sixpence instead (the announcement of this most interesting fact was received with deafening enthusiasm). (top)
Martin, Captain ( Little Dorrit ) Marshalsea Prisoner whose story William Dorrit uses to try to convince Amy to accept Young John Chivery's proposal. (top)
Martin-Jack ( Pickwick Papers ) Bagman's uncle and friend of Tom Smart who figures in the tale The Bagman's Uncle told to Samuel Pickwick at Bristol. xxx (top)
Martin, Tom ( Pickwick Papers ) Butcher imprisoned in the Fleet Prison with Samuel Pickwick. A gentleman, prematurely broad for his years, clothed in a professional blue jean frock, and top-boots with circular toes. (top)
Marton, Mr ( The Old Curiosity Shop ) Kindly schoolmaster who befriends Nell and her grandfather. He meets up with them again at the end of their journey and obtains a situation for them in the village church where he has been appointed clerk at a salary of 35 pounds per year. He had a kind face. In his plain old suit of black, he looked pale and meagre. (top)
Mary ( Pickwick Papers ) Pretty housemaid of George Nupkins, mayor of Ipswich, whom Samuel Weller pursues throughout the novel. Later Arabella Allen's maid and finally hired as housemaid by Samuel Pickwick. She marries Weller at the end of the novel. (top)
Mary ( Sketches by Boz: Seven Dials ) Resident of Seven Dials who takes takes the opposing side in the row created when Sarah Sulliwin's husband buys a drink for another woman.
Geolinks: Seven Dials (top)
Mary ( Pickwick Papers ) Maid at Dingley Dell. (top)
Mary ( Pickwick Papers ) Hand-maiden at the Peacock in Eatanswill. (top)
Mary Anne ( David Copperfield ) Incompetent maid to David and Dora Copperfield. (top)
Mary Anne ( Great Expectations ) "Little servant" of Wemmick. ...who, it seemed, retired to the bosom of her family on Sunday afternoons. (top)
Mary Anne ( Our Mutual Friend ) Favorite pupil and household assistant of Miss Peecher. (top)
Mary Anne ( Little Dorrit ) Cousin to the Bleeding Heart Yard gossips who works as a seamstress and supplies information about Mrs Merdle's dresses. (top)
Mat ( The Old Curiosity Shop ) Cardplayer at the Valiant Soldier Inn. The man with the rough voice was a burly fellow of middle age, with large black whiskers, broad cheeks, a coarse wide mouth, and bull neck, which was pretty freely displayed as his shirt-collar was only confined by a loose red neckerchief. He wore his hat, which was of a brownish-white, and had beside him a thick knotted stick. (top)
Matinter, Misses ( Pickwick Papers ) Ladies looking for partners at the ball in Bath. (top)
Matthew ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Servant for the Gregsburys. A very pale, shabby boy, who looked as if he had slept underground from his infancy, as very likely he had. (top)
Maunders ( The Old Curiosity Shop ) Legendary entertainer remembered by Mr Vuffin. 'I remember the time when old Maunders had in his cottage in Spa Fields in the winter time when the season was over, eight male and female dwarfs setting down to dinner every day, who was waited on by eight old giants in green coats, red smalls, blue cotton stockings, and high-lows: and there was one dwarf as had grown elderly and wicious who whenever his giant wasn't quick enough to please him, used to stick pins in his legs, not being able to reach up any higher. I know that's a fact, for Maunders told it to me himself.' (top)
Maxwell, Mrs ( Sketches by Boz: The Bloomsbury Christening ) Attendee at the christening of the Kitterbell's infant son. (top)
Maxey, Caroline ( Mrs Lirriper's Lodging ) Short-tempered maid of Mrs Lirriper. Caroline attacks one of the lodgers who has offended her and is sent to prison. A good-looking black-eyed girl. (top)
Maylie, Mrs ( Oliver Twist ) Mother of Harry and the adopted mother of Rose. Well advanced in years; but the high-backed oaken chair in which she sat, was not more upright than she. Dressed with the utmost nicety and precision, in a quaint mixture of by-gone costume, with some slight concessions to the prevailing taste, which rather served to point the old style pleasantly than to impair its effect. (top)
Maylie, Harry ( Oliver Twist ) Son of Mrs Maylie. He aids in the chase of Bill Sikes. Later he gives up a career in politics to becomes a country parson and marries Rose. He seemed about five-and-twenty years of age, and was of the middle height; his countenance was frank and handsome; and his demeanor easy and prepossessing. (top)
Maylie, Rose ( Oliver Twist ) PIX A poor girl adopted by Mrs Maylie, she and Mr Brownlow endeavor to help Oliver through Nancy. When Nancy's conversation with Rose on London Bridge is overheard by Claypole, Nancy is murdered by Sikes. Rose is the sister of Oliver's mother, Agnes Fleming. She later marries Harry. In the lovely bloom and spring-time of womanhood; at that age, when, if ever angels be for God's good purposes enthroned in mortal forms, they may be, without impiety, supposed to abide in such as hers.
Geolinks: London Bridge (top)
M'Choakumchild ( Hard Times ) Schoolmaster in Gradgrind's school where fancy and imagination are discouraged in favor of hard facts. He and some one hundred and forty other schoolmasters, had been lately turned at the same time, in the same factory, on the same principles, like so many pianoforte legs. He had been put through an immense variety of paces, and had answered volumes of head-breaking questions. Orthography, etymology, syntax, and prosody, biography, astronomy, geography, and general cosmography, the sciences of compound proportion, algebra, land-surveying and levelling, vocal music, and drawing from models, were all at the ends of his ten chilled fingers. He had worked his stony way into Her Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council's Schedule B, and had taken the bloom off the higher branches of mathematics and physical science, French, German, Latin, and Greek. He knew all about all the Water Sheds of all the world (whatever they are), and all the histories of all the peoples, and all the names of all the rivers and mountains, and all the productions, manners, and customs of all the countries, and all their boundaries and bearings on the two and thirty points of the compass. Ah, rather overdone, M'Choakumchild. If he had only learnt a little less, how infinitely better he might have taught much more! (top)
Meagles, Lillie ( Little Dorrit ) Twin sister to Mr and Mrs Meagles daughter Pet who died when we could just see her eyes – exactly like Pet’s – above the table, as she stood on tiptoe holding by it. (top)
Meagles, Mr ( Little Dorrit ) PIX Kindhearted retired banker. Meagles befriends Arthur Clennam, Amy Dorrit, and Daniel Doyce. The Meagles adopt Tattycoram from the Foundling Hospital.
Geolinks: Foundling Hostpital, Park Lane (top)
Meagles, Mrs ( Little Dorrit ) Wife of Mr Meagles and mother of Pet. Comely and healthy, with a pleasant English face which had been looking at homely things for five-and-fifty years or more, and shone with a bright reflection of them. (top)
Meagles, Minnie (Pet) ( Little Dorrit ) Daughter of Mr and Mrs Meagles. Arthur Clennam falls in love with Pet but she falls for the rake Henry Gowan against her parents' wishes. Pet was about twenty. A fair girl with rich brown hair hanging free in natural ringlets. A lovely girl, with a frank face, and wonderful eyes; so large, so soft, so bright, set to such perfection in her kind good head. She was round and fresh and dimpled and spoilt, and there was in Pet an air of timidity and dependence which was the best weakness in the world, and gave her the only crowning charm a girl so pretty and pleasant could have been without. (top)
Meg (Margaret) ( The Chimes ) Daughter of poor ticket porter Trotty Veck. Marries Richard on New Year's Day. (top)
Melchisedech ( Bleak House ) Solicitor in Clifford's Inn to whom Mr Tulkinghorn refers Mr George in order to be rid of him.
Geolinks: Clifford's Inn (top)
Melia ( Dombey and Son ) Maidservant at Dr Blimber's school. (top)
Mell, Charles ( David Copperfield ) PIX Assistant schoolmaster at Salem House Academy attended by David Copperfield. David befriends Mell and finds that Mell's mother lives in an almshouse which he innocently tells Steerforth. Steerforth uses this information to discredit Mell and have him dismissed. Mell later emigrates to Australia and becomes headmaster at Colonial Salem House Grammar School in Port Middlebay where he is married and has children, daughter Helena among them. He was a gaunt, sallow young man, with hollow cheeks, and a chin almost as black as Mr Murdstone's; but there the likeness ended, for his whiskers were shaved off, and his hair, instead of being glossy, was rusty and dry. He was dressed in a suit of black clothes which were rather rusty and dry too, and rather short in the sleeves and legs; and he had a white neck-kerchief on, that was not over-clean. I did not, and do not, suppose that this neck-kerchief was all the linen he wore, but it was all he showed or gave any hint of. (top)
Mell, Mrs ( David Copperfield ) PIX Mother of Charles Mell and companion to Mrs Fibbitson who dotes on her son and loves his poor flute playing. (top)
Mellows, J ( The Uncommercial Traveller - An Old Stage-Coaching House ) Proprietor of the Dolphin's Head, an old coaching inn made redundant by the coming of the railroad. (top)
Melvilleson, Miss M. ( Bleak House ) A lady of some pretensions to musical ability...engaged by Mr J. G. Bogsby to sing at a series of concerts called Harmonic Assemblies, or Meetings, which it would appear are held at the Sol's Arms under Mr Bogsby's direction pursuant to the Act of George the Second. (top)
Mender of Roads ( A Tale of Two Cities ) Ignorant but faithful revolutionary also known as Jacques five. He witnesses Gaspard traveling under the carriage on his way to kill the Marquis de St Evremonde. "Why, how old are you?" "Thirty-five," said the mender of roads, who looked sixty. (top)
Mercury ( Bleak House ) Collectively, the powdered footmen of the Dedlock's. (top)
Mercy ( The Uncommercial Traveller - Nurse's Stories ) The Uncommercial Traveller's childhood nurse, the daughter of a shipwright, who tells him scary stories before bed. This female bard - may she have been repaid my debt of obligation to her in the matter of nightmares and perspirations! - reappears in my memory as the daughter of a shipwright. Her name was Mercy, though she had none on me. (top)
Merdle, Mr ( Little Dorrit ) PIX Unscrupulous banker who is believed by all to be the Man of the Age. Investing in his enterprises ruins thousands including the Dorrits, and Arthur Clennam. Merdle commits suicide when his fraud is uncovered.
Geolinks: Cavendish Square (top)
Merdle, Mrs ( Little Dorrit ) PIX Socialite wife of Mr Merdle and mother of Edmund Sparkler by a previous marriage. The lady was not young and fresh from the hand of Nature, but was young and fresh from the hand of her maid. She had large unfeeling handsome eyes, and dark unfeeling handsome hair, and a broad unfeeling handsome bosom, and was made the most of in every particular.
Geolinks: Cavendish Square (top)
Micawber, Emma ( David Copperfield ) PIX Long suffering wife of Mr Micawber whom she swears she will never leave despite his financial difficulties. A thin and faded lady, not at all young, with a baby at her breast. This baby was one of twins; and I may remark here that I hardly ever, in all my experience of the family, saw both the twins detached from Mrs Micawber at the same time. One of them was always taking refreshment.
Geolinks: Camden Town, City Road (top)
Micawber, Master (Little Wilkins) ( David Copperfield ) Oldest son of Mr Micawber.
Geolinks: Camden Town, City Road (top)
Micawber, Miss (Little Emma) ( David Copperfield ) Oldest daughter of Mr Micawber.
Geolinks: Camden Town, City Road (top)
Micawber, Wilkins ( David Copperfield ) PIX Enters the story when David Copperfield takes lodging at his home. Continually in debt and looking for "something to turn up" he ends up in debtor's prison. On his release he rambles through the story in various occupations (later taking the alias of Mortimer to escape creditors) eventually employed at Mr Wickfield's office where he exposes the dastardly deeds of Uriah Heep. In gratitude for this his debts are paid and he emigrates to Australia, where he becomes a magistrate. A stoutish, middle-aged person, in a brown surtout and black tights and shoes, with no more hair upon his head (which was a large one, and very shining) than there is upon an egg, and with a very extensive face. His clothes were shabby, but he had an imposing shirt-collar on. He carried a jaunty sort of a stick, with a large pair of rusty tassels to it; and a quizzing-glass hung outside his coat, - for ornament, I afterwards found, as he very seldom looked through it, and couldn't see anything when he did. The character is drawn heavily on Dickens' father.
Geolinks: Camden Town, City Road, Kings Bench Prison, Piccadilly (top)
Miff, Mrs ( Dombey and Son ) "Wheezy little pew-opener" at the church where Mr Dombey marries Edith Granger and later where Walter Gay marries Florence Dombey. A vinegary face has Mrs Miff, and a mortified bonnet, and eke a thirsty soul for sixpences and shillings. Beckoning to stray people to come into pews, has given Mrs Miff an air of mystery; and there is reservation in the eye of Mrs Miff, as always knowing of a softer seat, but having her suspicions of the fee. (top)
Miggot, Mrs ( The Uncommercial Traveller - Chambers ) Parkle's laundress at Gray's Inn Square. (top)
Miggs ( Barnaby Rudge ) PIX Maid in the Varden household. Comically allies with Martha Varden against her husband. Miggs aids the rioters when they attempt to capture Gabriel. She is discharged after the riots and becomes a jailor in a woman's prison. This Miggs was a tall young lady, very much addicted to pattens in private life; slender and shrewish, of a rather uncomfortable figure, and though not absolutely ill-looking, of a sharp and acid visage. As a general principle and abstract proposition, Miggs held the male sex to be utterly contemptible and unworthy of notice; to be fickle, false, base, sottish, inclined to perjury, and wholly undeserving. (top)
Mike ( Great Expectations ) A client of Jaggers. A gentleman with one eye, in a velveteen suit and knee-breeches. (top)
Miller, Mr ( Pickwick Papers ) Friend of Mr Wardle. A little hard-headed, Ripstone pippin-faced man. (top)
Millers ( Great Expectations ) One of Mrs Pocket's maids (along with Flopson) who helps control the Pocket's 'tumbled up' children. (top)
Milvey, Reverend Frank ( Our Mutual Friend ) Reverend who assists the Boffins in the adoption of Johnny. Reverend Milvey also conducts the funeral of Betty Higden and the marriage of Eugene Wrayburn and Lizzie Hexam. Husband of Margaretta. He was quite a young man, expensively educated and wretchedly paid, with quite a young wife and half a dozen quite young children. He was under the necessity of teaching and translating from the classics, to eke out his scanty means, yet was generally expected to have more time to spare than the idlest person in the parish, and more money than the richest. (top)
Milvey, Margaretta ( Our Mutual Friend ) Wife of Rev Frank Milvey. A pretty, bright little woman, something worn by anxiety, who had repressed many pretty tastes and bright fancies, and substituted in their stead, schools, soup, flannel, coals, and all the week-day cares and Sunday coughs of a large population, young and old. (top)
Mills, Julia ( David Copperfield ) Friend and confidant of Dora Spenlow and David Copperfield's go-between during his courtship with Dora. A young woman of about twenty. She later goes to live in India. Miss Mills having been unhappy in a misplaced affection, and being understood to have retired from the world on her awful stock of experience, but still to take a calm interest in the unblighted hopes and loves of youth. (top)
Mills, Mr ( David Copperfield ) Father of Julia. When David Copperfield visits Dora Spenlow at the Mills' home he must wait for Mr Mills to go out, which he takes his good time doing, much to David's annoyance. (top)
Mim ( Doctor Marigold ) Owner of a travelling circus who sells his deaf-and-dumb daughter to Doctor Marigold. (top)
Minns, Augustus ( Sketches by Boz: Mr Minns and His Cousin ) Clerk at Somerset House, cousin to Octavius Budden, and godfather to Octavius' son Alexander Augustus Budden. A bachelor, of about forty as he said – of about eight-and-forty as his friends said. He was always exceedingly clean, precise, and tidy; perhaps somewhat priggish and the most retiring man in the world. He usually wore a brown frock-coat without a wrinkle, light inexplicables without a spot, a neat neckerchief with a remarkably neat tie, and boots without a fault: moreover, he always carried a brown silk umbrella with an ivory handle. He was a clerk in Somerset-house, or, as he said himself, he held ‘a responsible situation under Government.’
Geolinks: Somerset House (top)
Mithers and Lady Mithers ( David Copperfield ) Lady Mithers is a client of Miss Mowcher. Mowcher refuses to tell Steerforth which of her particular arts Lady Mithers takes advantage of. 'What were you doing for Lady Mithers?' asked Steerforth...'Never YOU mind! You'd like to know whether I stop her hair from falling off, or dye it, or touch up her complexion, or improve her eyebrows, wouldn't you? (top)
Mitts, Mrs ( The Uncommercial Traveller - Titbull's Alms-Houses ) Youngest pensioner in the Titbull's Almshouse in east London. She marries a one-armed Greenwich pensioner. (top)
Mivens, Mr (The Zephyr) ( Pickwick Papers ) Fellow prisoner with Samuel Pickwick in the Fleet Prison. A man in a broad-skirted green coat, with corduroy knee-smalls and gray cotton stockings, was performing the most popular steps of a hornpipe, with a slang and burlesque caricature of grace and lightness, which, combined with the very appropriate character of his costume, was inexpressibly absurd. (top)
Mizzler, Marquis of ( The Old Curiosity Shop ) Quarrels with Lord Bobby over a bottle of champaigne in a story Mr Chuckster relates to Mr and Mrs Garland (top)
Mobbs ( Nicholas Nickleby ) A student at Dotheboys Hall. His step-mother reprimands him for complaining of the food and stops his halfpenny allowance. (top)
Moddle, Augustus ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) PIX Melancholy youngest gentleman at Todgers's Boarding House. He falls in love with Mercy Pecksniff and is heartbroken when she marries Jonas Chuzzlewit. He reluctantly courts Charity Pecksniff but on the day of their wedding runs off to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania). (top)
Mogley ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Former suitor of Mrs Nickleby. (top)
Molly ( Great Expectations ) Jagger's maid whom he had successfully defended in a murder trial. It is discovered that Molly had a child with Magwitch. Jaggers gives her little girl (Estella) to Miss Havisham to raise. She was a very handsome young woman, and I believe had some gypsy blood in her. (top)
Monflathers, Miss ( The Old Curiosity Shop ) PIX Head of the Boarding and Day Establishment in the town where Mrs Jarley's Waxwork was exhibiting. Nell had no difficulty in finding out Miss Monflathers's Boarding and Day Establishment, which was a large house, with a high wall, and a large garden-gate with a large brass plate, and a small grating through which Miss Monflathers's parlour-maid inspected all visitors before admitting them; for nothing in the shape of a man - no, not even a milkman - was suffered, without special licence, to pass that gate. Even the tax-gatherer, who was stout, and wore spectacles and a broad-brimmed hat, had the taxes handed through the grating. More obdurate than gate of adamant or brass, this gate of Miss Monflathers's frowned on all mankind. The very butcher respected it as a gate of mystery, and left off whistling when he rang the bell. (top)
Montague, Julia ( Sketches by Boz: The Mistaken Milliner (A Tale of Ambition) ) Singer at the White Conduit tavern. (top)
Montague, Tigg ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) See Montague Tigg (top)
Mordlin, Brother ( Pickwick Papers ) Member of the Brick Lane Branch of the United Grand Junction Ebenezer Temperance Association who has adapted Charles Dibdin's 'Who hasn't heard of a Jolly Young Waterman?' to the tune of the Old Hundredth which is sung at the Association's meeting under the delusion that is is a song about temperance. Anthony Humm now moved that the assembly do regale itself with a song. With a view to their rational and moral enjoyment, Brother Mordlin had adapted the beautiful words of 'Who hasn't heard of a Jolly Young Waterman?' to the tune of the Old Hundredth, which he would request them to join him in singing (great applause). He might take that opportunity of expressing his firm persuasion that the late Mr. Dibdin, seeing the errors of his former life, had written that song to show the advantages of abstinence. It was a temperance song (whirlwinds of cheers). The neatness of the young man's attire, the dexterity of his feathering, the enviable state of mind which enabled him in the beautiful words of the poet, to
'Row along, thinking of nothing at all,'
all combined to prove that he must have been a water-drinker (cheers). (top)
Morfin, Mr ( Dombey and Son ) Assistant manager at Dombey and Son. Morfin aids John Carker when he overhears John's mistreatment at the hands of his brother James. Morfin later marries Harriet Carker. (top)
Morgan, Becky ( The Old Curiosity Shop ) Villager upon whose death the sextant and his assistant David debate the age of. (top)
Mould, Mr ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) Undertaker and his family: Mrs Mould and two Miss Moulds. He arranges the funeral of Anthony Chuzzlewit and recommends Sairey Gamp to prepare the body. A little elderly gentleman, bald, and in a suit of black; with a note-book in his hand, a massive gold watch-chain dangling from his fob, and a face in which a queer attempt at melancholy was at odds with a smirk of satisfaction; so that he looked as a man might who, in the very act of smacking his lips over choice old wine, tried to make believe it was physic.
Plump as any partridge was each Miss Mould, and Mrs M. was plumper than the two together. So round and chubby were their fair proportions, that they might have been the bodies once belonging to the angels’ faces in the shop below, grown up, with other heads attached to make them mortal. Even their peachy cheeks were puffed out and distended, as though they ought of right to be performing on celestial trumpets.
Geolinks: Westminster Abbey (top)
Miss Mowcher ( David Copperfield ) PIX Dwarf hairdresser and manicurist of Steerforth. David Copperfield, expecting to meet Miss Mowcher for the first time reports: I looked at the doorway and saw nothing. I was still looking at the doorway, thinking that Miss Mowcher was a long while making her appearance, when, to my infinite astonishment, there came waddling round a sofa which stood between me and it, a pursy dwarf, of about forty or forty-five, with a very large head and face, a pair of roguish grey eyes, and such extremely little arms, that, to enable herself to lay a finger archly against her snub nose, as she ogled Steerforth, she was obliged to meet the finger half-way, and lay her nose against it. Her chin, which was what is called a double chin, was so fat that it entirely swallowed up the strings of her bonnet, bow and all. See sidebar on Copperfield page. (top)
Mudberry, Mrs ( Pickwick Papers ) Neighbor of Martha Bardell alluded to during the trial of Bardell and Pickwick. Kept a mangle. (top)
Mudge, Mr ( Pickwick Papers ) Secretary of the Brick Lane Branch of the United Grand Junction Ebenezer Temperance Association. Chandler's shop-keeper, an enthusiastic and disinterested vessel, who sold tea to the members. (top)
Muggs, Sir Alfred ( Sketches by Boz: Sentiment ) Friend of Cornelius Brook Dingwall MP who recommends Minerva House, run by the Crumpton sisters, for Cornelius' daughter Lavinia. (top)
Mr F's Aunt ( Little Dorrit ) PIX Companion to Flora Finching (Aunt to her late husband) and one of the funniest characters in Dickens. Dickens describes her as An amazing little old woman, with a face like a staring wooden doll too cheap for expression, and a stiff yellow wig perched unevenly on the top of her head, as if the child who owned the doll had driven a tack through it anywhere, so that it only got fastened on. She has an amazing capacity for uttering totally non-sensible barbs which being totally uncalled for by anything said by anybody, and traceable to no association of ideas, confounded and terrified the mind. (top)
Mullins, Jack ( Our Mutual Friend ) Patron of the Six Jolly Fellowship-Porters public house. (top)
Mullit, Professor ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) American 'Professor of Education' whom Martin Chuzzlewit meets at Mrs Pawkins' boarding house in America. He has since written some powerful pamphlets, under the signature of "Suturb", or Brutus reversed. He is one of the most remarkable men in our country, sir. (top)
Murderer, Captain ( The Uncommercial Traveller - Nurse's Stories ) Seafaring serial killer who bakes his brides into meat pies in the stories told to the Uncommercial Traveller by his nurse, Mercy. Hundreds of times did I hear this legend of Captain Murderer, in my early youth, and added hundreds of times was there a mental compulsion upon me in bed, to peep in at his window as the dark twin peeped, and to revisit his horrible house, and look at him in his blue and spotty and screaming stage, as he reached from floor to ceiling and from wall to wall. (top)
Murdstone, Edward ( David Copperfield ) PIX Second husband of Clara Copperfield whom David Copperfield dislikes. He is a stern disciplinarian and sends David off to Salem House School and later consigns him to the warehouse of Murdstone and Grinby. His hair and whiskers were blacker and thicker, looked at so near, than even I had given them credit for being. A squareness about the lower part of his face, and the dotted indication of the strong black beard he shaved close every day, reminded me of the wax-work that had travelled into our neighbourhood some half-a-year before. This, his regular eyebrows, and the rich white, and black, and brown, of his complexion - confound his complexion, and his memory! - made me think him, in spite of my misgivings, a very handsome man. I have no doubt that my poor dear mother thought him so too. (top)
Murdstone, Jane ( David Copperfield ) PIX Sister of Edward Murdstone who moves in with David Copperfield and his mother after her marriage to Murdstone. David describes her as a gloomy-looking lady she was; dark, like her brother, whom she greatly resembled in face and voice; and with very heavy eyebrows, nearly meeting over her large nose. She kept the purse in a very jail of a bag which hung upon her arm by a heavy chain, and shut up like a bite. I had never, at that time, seen such a metallic lady altogether as Miss Murdstone was. She surfaces again in the novel as the "confidential friend" of Dora Spenlow. (top)
Murphy ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Subject of one of Mrs Nickleby attempted remembrances. A lady in our neighbourhood when we lived near Dawlish, I think her name was Rogers; indeed I am sure it was if it wasn't Murphy, which is the only doubt I have. (top)
Mutanhed, Lord ( Pickwick Papers ) Richest young man in Bath. Long hair, and the particularly small forehead. (top)
Muzzle, Mr ( Pickwick Papers ) Footman to Ipswich mayor George Nupkins. An under-sized footman, with a long body and short legs. (top)
