Charles Dickens' Characters T-Z
T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z
Tacker ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) Chief mourner of Mr Mould, the undertaker. An obese person, with his waistcoat in closer connection with his legs than is quite reconcileable with the established ideas of grace; with that cast of feature which is figuratively called a bottle-nose; and with a face covered all over with pimples. He had been a tender plant once upon a time, but from constant blowing in the fat atmosphere of funerals, had run to seed. (top)
Tackleton ( Cricket on the Hearth ) Known as Gruff and Tackleton, the name of his toymaking business. He is the Scrooge of the story, a hard-hearted, unfeeling man who has lived off of the exploitation of children all his life. He is the employer of Caleb Plummer and schemes to marry May Fielding. Like Scrooge, he softens at the end of the story. (top)
Tadger, Brother ( Pickwick Papers ) Member who introduces Anthony Humm at the meeting of the Brick Lane Branch of the United Grand Junction Ebenezer Temperance Association. A little emphatic man, with a bald head and drab shorts. (top)
Tameroo ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) Bailey's successor as Mrs Todgers' servant at Todgers's Boarding House. The name, taken from an old English ballad, was given her by the boarders. She was a very little old woman, and always wore a very coarse apron with a bib before and a loop behind, together with bandages on her wrists, which appeared to be afflicted with an everlasting sprain. She was on all occasions chary of opening the street-door, and ardent to shut it again; and she waited at table in a bonnet. (top)
Tangle, Mr ( Bleak House ) A lawyer in the Jarndyce and Jarndyce court case. Mr Tangle knows more of Jarndyce and Jarndyce than anybody. He is famous for it--supposed never to have read anything else since he left school. (top)
Tapkins, Mrs ( Our Mutual Friend ) Lady from a socially prominent family who pays a visit to the newly fashionable Boffins along with daughters Frederica, Antonina, Euphemia, and Mrs Henry George Alfred Swishle, nee Tapkins. (top)
Geolinks: Portland Place (top)
Tapley, Mark ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) PIX Hostler at the Blue Dragon Inn who becomes servant and then partner to young Martin Chuzzlewit during the misfortune in America. He later marries Mrs Lupin, the Blue Dragon's landlady. The inn is renamed The Jolly Tapley. A young fellow, of some five or six and-twenty perhaps. One of the most careless, good-humoured, comical fellows in life.
Taplan, Mr H ( Sketches by Boz: The Mistaken Milliner (A Tale of Ambition) ) Comic gentleman who performs at the White Conduit tavern. (top)
Tappertit, Simon ( Barnaby Rudge ) PIX Locksmith Gabriel Varden's apprentice who is in love with Gabriel's daughter, Dolly. He is head of the Prentice Knights and as such becomes a leader of the mob during the Gordon Riots. During the fighting he loses his slender legs, his pride and joy. After the uprising he is fitted with wooden legs and becomes a bootblack, marrying the widow of a rag-and-bone man. An old-fashioned, thin-faced, sleek-haired, sharp-nosed, small-eyed little fellow, very little more than five feet high, and thoroughly convinced in his own mind that he was above the middle size; rather tall, in fact, than otherwise. Of his figure, which was well enough formed, though somewhat of the leanest, he entertained the highest admiration; and with his legs, which, in knee-breeches, were perfect curiosities of littleness, he was enraptured to a degree amounting to enthusiasm. Add to this that he was in years just twenty, in his looks much older, and in conceit at least two hundred.
Geolinks: Temple Bar (top)
Tappleton, Lieutenant ( Pickwick Papers ) Dr Slammer's second in the proposed duel with Nathaniel Winkle. (top)
Tartar ( The Mystery of Edwin Drood ) Retired navy man and friend of Crisparkle. He befriends Neville in London and works with Grewgious and Crisparkle in protecting Neville from John Jasper. As the novel ends abruptly it appears that Rosa Bud is quite taken with Tartar. "A handsome gentleman, with a young face, but with an older figure in its robustness and its breadth of shoulder; say a man of eight-and-twenty, or at the utmost thirty; so extremely sunburnt that the contrast between his brown visage and the white forehead shaded out of doors by his hat, and the glimpses of white throat below the neckerchief, would have been almost ludicrous but for his broad temples, bright blue eyes, clustering brown hair, and laughing teeth. (top)
Tatham, Mrs ( Sketches by Boz: The Pawnbrokers Shop ) Customer of the pawnbroker shop. Old sallow-looking woman. (top)
Tattycoram/Harriet Beadle ( Little Dorrit ) PIX Adopted by the Meagles from the Foundling Hospital, Harriet is given the name Tattycoram and is maid to Pet Meagles. She exhibits fits of temper and is counseled by Mr Meagle to "count five and twenty, Tattycoram." She is influenced away from the Meagles by the evil Miss Wade. She later is reunited with the Meagles and assists in the undoing of the Rigaud blackmail attempt. A handsome girl with lustrous dark hair and eyes, and very neatly dressed.
Geolinks: Foundling Hostpital (top)
Taunton Family ( Sketches by Boz: The Steam Excursion ) Widow with daughters Emily and Sophia who, along with their arch enemies the Briggs family, are passengers on the steam excursion. A good-looking widow of fifty, with the form of a giantess and the mind of a child. The pursuit of pleasure, and some means of killing time, were the sole end of her existence. She doted on her daughters, who were as frivolous as herself. (top)
Testator, Mr ( The Uncommercial Traveller - Chambers ) Occupant of Lyon's Inn who supplies his lodgings with furniture he finds in the cellar and is later visited by the mysterious former owner of the furniture. (top)
Tetterby family ( The Haunted Man ) Poor family touched by Redlaw's gift of forgetting past sorrows, which turns out to be a curse to them. Adolphus, a newsman, his wife Sophia, Adolphus Jr, a newspaper boy at the railway station, Johnny, who cares for the baby, Sally, called little Moloch. They are restored to their former loving natures by Milly Swidger. (top)
Thigsberry, Duke of ( The Old Curiosity Shop ) Subject of a story Mr Chuckster tells to Mr and Mrs Garland concerning the income of opera singer Violetta Stetta. (top)
Thingummy, Mrs ( Oliver Twist ) Old pauper women who attends Oliver Twist's birth. Rendered rather misty by an unwonted allowance of beer. (top)
Thomas ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Mortimer Knag's warehouseman. Thomas was a boy nearly half as tall as a shutter, and the warehouse was a shop about the size of three hackney coaches. (top)
Thomas ( Sketches by Boz: The Great Winglebury Duel ) Waiter at the Winglebury Arms coaching inn. The waiter pulled down the window-blind, and then pulled it up again - for a regular waiter must do something before he leaves the room - adjusted the glasses on the side-board, brushed a place that was NOT dusty, rubbed his hands very hard, walked stealthily to the door, and evaporated. (top)
Thomas ( Sketches by Boz: Mrs Joseph Porter ) Pastrycook and gossip. Thomas, the pastry-cook, says, there have been twelve dozen tarts ordered, besides blancmange and jellies. Upon my word! (top)
Thomas ( Pickwick Papers ) Waiter in Sam Weller's story of the man who killed himself eating crumpets. (top)
Thompson, Bill ( Sketches by Boz: The Streets – Night ) Performer at the Victoria Theatre. (top)
Thompson, Harry ( Sketches by Boz: The Tuggs's at Ramsgate ) Friend of the Waters bathing at Ramsgate. (top)
Thompson, Sir John ( Sketches by Boz: A Parliamentary Sketch ) Member of Parliament. (top)
Tibbs, Mr and Mrs ( Sketches by Boz: The Boarding House ) Landlady of a boarding house and her longsuffering husband. Mrs Tibbs was somewhat short of stature, and Mr Tibbs was by no means a large man. He had, moreover, very short legs, but, by way of indemnification, his face was peculiarly long. He was to his wife what the o is in 90 – he was of some importance with her – he was nothing without her. Mrs Tibbs was always talking. Mr Tibbs rarely spoke; but if it were at any time possible to put in a word, just when he should have said nothing at all, he did it. (top)
Tickit, Mrs ( Little Dorrit ) Cook and housekeeper for the Meagles. (top)
Tiffey, Mr ( David Copperfield ) Clerk at Spenlow and Jorkins. A little dry man...who wore a stiff brown wig that looked as if it were made of gingerbread. (top)
Tigg, Montague (Tigg Montague) ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) PIX Con man and swindler who first appears in the story as Montague Tigg and fronting for Chevy Slyme in trying to squeeze the assembled Chuzzlewit family for money. Later he appears in splendor as head of the fraudulent Anglo-Bengalee Disinterested Loan and Life Assurance Company and has changed his name to Tigg Montague. He dupes Jonas Chuzzlewit into joining the company, uses Jonas to fleece Pecksniff, and is murdered by Jonas.The gentleman was of that order of appearance, which is currently termed shabby-genteel, though in respect of his dress he can hardly be said to have been in any extremities, as his fingers were a long way out of his gloves, and the soles of his feet were at an inconvenient distance from the upper leather of his boots. His nether garments were of a blueish gray – violent in its colours once, but sobered now by age and dinginess – and were so stretched and strained in a tough conflict between his braces and his straps, that they appeared every moment in danger of flying asunder at the knees. His coat, in colour blue and of a military cut, was buttoned and frogged, up to his chin. His cravat was, in hue and pattern, like one of those mantles which hair-dressers are accustomed to wrap about their clients, during the progress of the professional mysteries. His hat had arrived at such a pass that it would have been hard to determine whether it was originally white or black. But he wore a moustache – a shaggy moustache too: nothing in the meek and merciful way, but quite in the fierce and scornful style: the regular Satanic sort of thing – and he wore, besides, a vast quantity of unbrushed hair. He was very dirty and very jaunty; very bold and very mean; very swaggering and very slinking; very much like a man who might have been something better, and unspeakably like a man who deserved to be something worse.
Later as Tigg Montague: He had a world of jet-black shining hair upon his head, upon his cheeks, upon his chin, upon his upper lip. His clothes, symmetrically made, were of the newest fashion and the costliest kind. Flowers of gold and blue, and green and blushing red, were on his waistcoat; precious chains and jewels sparkled on his breast; his fingers, clogged with brilliant rings, were as unwieldy as summer flies but newly rescued from a honey-pot. The daylight mantled in his gleaming hat and boots as in a polished glass. And yet, though changed his name, and changed his outward surface, it was Tigg. Though turned and twisted upside down, and inside out, as great men have been sometimes known to be; though no longer Montague Tigg, but Tigg Montague; still it was Tigg: the same Satanic, gallant, military Tigg. The brass was burnished, lacquered, newly-stamped; yet it was the true Tigg metal notwithstanding.
Timberry, Snittle ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Member of Crummles' acting troupe. (top)
Timkins ( Sketches by Boz: The Election for Beadle ) Candidate for beadle whose nine small children make him uniquely qualified. (top)
Timson, Rev Charles ( Sketches by Boz: A Passage in the Life of Mr Watkins Tottle ) Friend of Gabriel Parsons and rival with Watkins Tottle for the affection of Miss Lillerton. Lillerton chooses Timson and Tottle commits suicide. ...that's Timson, bred for the church, which I fear will never be bread for him. (top)
Tinkler, Mr ( Little Dorrit ) Valet of William Dorrit in Italy. He left a vague impression on Mr Dorrit’s mind that he was a well-conducted young fellow, who had been brought up in the study of his Catechism, by a widowed mother. (top)
Tipp ( David Copperfield ) Carman at the Murdstone and Grinby wine warehouse where David Copperfield works. Wore a red jacket. (top)
Tippin Family ( Sketches by Boz: The Tuggs's at Ramsgate ) Performers Mr and Mrs, with son and daughter, appearing on stage at Ramsgate. (top)
Tippins, Lady ( Our Mutual Friend ) High society friend of the Veneerings and a fixture at their dinner parties. Her deceased husband, Thomas, was knighted in mistake for somebody else by His Majesty King George the Third. An immense obtuse drab oblong face, like a face in a tablespoon. How the fascinating Tippins gets on when arraying herself for the bewilderment of the senses of men, is known only to the Graces and her maid; but perhaps even that engaging creature...could [not] dispense with a good deal of the trouble attendant on the daily restoration of her charms, seeing that as to her face and neck this adorable divinity is, as it were, a diurnal species of lobster--throwing off a shell every forenoon, and needing to keep in a retired spot until the new crust hardens. (top)
Tipslark ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Former suitor of Mrs Nickleby. (top)
Tisher, Mrs ( The Mystery of Edwin Drood ) Miss Twinkleton's assistant at the school for girls at Nun's House. A deferential widow with a weak back, a chronic sigh, and a suppressed voice, who looks after the young ladies’ wardrobes, and leads them to infer that she has seen better days. (top)
Titbull, Sampson ( The Uncommercial Traveller - Titbull's Alms-Houses ) Philanthropist who established alms houses in east London in 1723. (top)
Tix, Tom ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Bailiff who, along with Mr Scaley comes to take possession of the Mantalini's business for debt. A little man in brown, very much the worse for wear, who brought with him a mingled fumigation of stale tobacco and fresh onions. The clothes of this gentleman were much bespeckled with flue; and his shoes, stockings, and nether garments, from his heels to the waist buttons of his coat inclusive, were profusely embroidered with splashes of mud. (top)
Todd, Mr ( Sketches by Boz: The Streets – Morning ) Baker in Covent Garden whose good-looking young servant draws the attention of Betsy Clark.
Geolinks: Covent Garden (top)
Toddles ( Our Mutual Friend ) Boy who is minded by Betty Higden. Brother of Poddles. (top)
Todgers, Mr ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) Husband of Mrs Todgers who had deserted her. Mr Todgers...had cut his matrimonial career rather short, by unlawfully running away from his happiness, and establishing himself in foreign countries as a bachelor. (top)
Todgers, Mrs ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) PIX Proprietor of M. Todgers Commercial Boarding House located near the monument. Mrs Todgers is described as a "rather bony and hard featured lady." Pecksniff and his daughters stay at Todgers when visiting London. M. Todgers was a lady – rather a bony and hard-featured lady – with a row of curls in front of her head, shaped like little barrels of beer; and on the top of it something made of net – you couldn’t call it a cap exactly –which looked like a black cobweb. She had a little basket on her arm, and in it a bunch of keys that jingled as she came.
Geolinks: The Monument (top)
Tollimglower, Lady ( Pickwick Papers ) Former acquaintance and topic of conversation of Old Mrs Wardle. (top)
Tom ( David Copperfield ) Emily's father and Daniel Peggotty's brother-in-law. Drowned before the story begins. (top)
Tom ( A Tale of Two Cities ) Coachman on the Dover mail coach. (top)
Tom ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Ugly assistant to the fat lady in charge of the General Agency Office who later gets thumped by Frank Cheeryble. A lean youth with cunning eyes and a protruding chin. (top)
Tom ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) Assistant to Mr Mould the undertaker. (top)
Tom ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) Police officer and associate of Chevy Slyme. (top)
Tom ( Sketches by Boz: Hackney-coach Stands ) Coachman. (top)
Tom ( Sketches by Boz: Mrs Joseph Porter ) The Gattleton's servant who plays the part of a fisherman in their private theatrical. (top)
Tom ( Sketches by Boz: A Passage in the Life of Mr Watkins Tottle ) Gabriel Parsons gardener. ...a gardener in a blue apron, who let himself out to do the ornamental for half-a-crown a day and his ‘keep.’ (top)
Tom ( Pickwick Papers ) Mr Wardle's coachman. (top)
Tom ( Pickwick Papers ) Servant at the Leather Bottle in Cobham. A stout country lad. (top)
Tom ( Pickwick Papers ) Waiter at the George and Vulture. (top)
Tomkinley, Mr ( The Old Curiosity Shop ) Teacher at the school where Abel Garland attended with whom Abel accompanied on a trip to Margate, the only time he was ever away from his parents. (top)
Tomkins ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Student at Dotheboys Hall. He suggests that Smike has run away and receives a beating for his trouble. (top)
Tomkins, Miss ( Pickwick Papers ) Lady in charge of the Westgate House school in Bury St Edmunds. (top)
Tomlinson, Mrs ( Pickwick Papers ) Post office keeper at Rochester who attends the charity ball at the Bull Inn. (top)
Tommy ( Sketches by Boz: The Parlour Orator ) A little greengrocer with a chubby face who disagrees with Rogers' oration. (top)
Tommy ( Pickwick Papers ) Waterman (one who waters the horses at a cab stand) who hails a cab for Samuel Pickwick at the Golden Cross. A strange specimen of the human race, in a sackcloth coat, and apron of the same, who, with a brass label and number round his neck, looked as if he were catalogued in some collection of rarities. (top)
Tompkins, Alfred ( Sketches by Boz: The Boarding House ) Boarder at Mrs Tibbs' boarding house. Mr Tomkins was a clerk in a wine-house; he was a connoisseur in paintings, and had a wonderful eye for the picturesque. (top)
Tompkins, Mr ( Sketches by Boz: The Beadle - The Parish Engine - The Schoolmaster ) Parishioner whose monument 'displays little round angels' faces.' (top)
Toodle ( Dombey and Son ) PIX Husband of Polly, father of Rob and four other children. Works on the railroad. A plump and apple-faced man.
Geolinks: Camden Town (top)
Toodle, Jemima ( Dombey and Son ) Polly Toodle's unmarried younger sister who cares for the Toodle children while Polly is employed by Mr Dombey. A younger woman not so plump, but apple-faced also.
Geolinks: Camden Town (top)
Toodle, Polly (Richards) ( Dombey and Son ) PIX Little Paul Dombey's nurse, known in the Dombey household as Richards. She is dismissed when she takes Paul to visit her family in a poorer section of London. She re-enters the story when Captain Cuttle asked her to look after Sol Gill's Shop, the Wooden Midshipman. She is the mother of Rob the Grinder who falls in with bad company and becomes a minor villain in the story. Dickens describes Polly as a plump rosy-cheeked wholesome apple-faced young woman.
Geolinks: Camden Town (top)
Toodle, Rob (Biler)(Grinder) ( Dombey and Son ) PIX Eldest son of the Toodles. He "goes wrong" and is used by James Carker who installs him in Sol Gill's establishment as a spy.
Geolinks: Camden Town (top)
Tootle, Tom ( Our Mutual Friend ) Patron of the Six Jolly Fellowship-Porters public house who's going to be married next month. He is instrumental in the rescue and reanimation of Rogue Riderhood after nearly drowning. (top)
Toots ( Dombey and Son ) PIX Scatterbrained classmate of Paul Dombey Jr at Dr Blimber's Academy. Toots falls helplessly in love with Florence Dombey and pursues her, in his absentminded way, until Florence marries Walter Gay. In the end Toots marries Susan Nipper. Quote: "it's of no consequence." (top)
Tope ( The Mystery of Edwin Drood ) Head verger at Cloisterham Cathedral. He and his wife rent rooms to John Jasper, in the gatehouse, and to Datchery, in their own house. Tope is based on William Miles, the head verger of Rochester Cathedral at the time the novel was written. (top)
Tope, Mrs ( The Mystery of Edwin Drood ) Wife of Tope, head verger at Cloisterham Cathedral. (top)
Topper ( A Christmas Carol ) Friend of Fred's who, at the Christmas party, has his eye on the plump sister of Fred's wife during the game of blind man's buff. (top)
Toppit, Miss ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) Literary Lady at the levee for Elijah Pogram. Wore a brown wig of uncommon size. (top)
Topsawyer ( David Copperfield ) Man who dies from drinking the ale at the inn in Yarmouth in a story the waiter, William, uses to trick David Copperfield out of his glass of ale. (top)
Tottle, Watkins ( Sketches by Boz: A Passage in the Life of Mr Watkins Tottle ) Bachelor who finds himself in want of a wife. His friend Gabriel Parsons rescues him from looming debtors prison on the condition that he marry Miss Lillerton and reward Gabriel from from Miss Lillerton's money. Miss Lillerton instead falls for Rev Charles Timson and the disconsolate Tottle drowns himself in Regent's Canal. He was about fifty years of age; stood four feet six inches and three-quarters in his socks – for he never stood in stocking at all – plump, clean, and rosy. (top)
Towlinson ( Dombey and Son ) Mr Dombey's manservant. Later marries the housemaid Anne. They settle in Oxford Market in the general greengrocery and herb and leech line. (top)
Tox, Lucretia ( Dombey and Son ) PIX Paul Dombey Sr's sister, Mrs Chick's, friend. She has designs to marry Paul Sr. after his first wife dies. Paul marries Mrs Granger instead, breaking Miss Tox's heart, but she stays loyal to him through later hardships. A long lean figure, wearing such a faded air that she seemed not to have been made in what linen-drapers call 'fast colours' originally, and to have, by little and little, washed out. (top)
Tozer ( Dombey and Son ) Along with Briggs, a roommate of Paul Dombey at Dr Blimber's school. He was constantly galled and tormented by a starched white cambric neckerchief, which he wore at the express desire of Mrs Tozer, his parent, who, designing him for the Church, was of opinion that he couldn't be in that forward state of preparation too soon. (top)
Trabb ( Great Expectations ) Tailor who makes Pip a new suit of clothes before he goes to London, also in charge of the mourners at Pip's sister's funeral. He was a prosperous old bachelor, and his open window looked into a prosperous little garden and orchard, and there was a prosperous iron safe let into the wall at the side of his fireplace, and I did not doubt that heaps of his prosperity were put away in it in bags. (top)
Trabb's Boy ( Great Expectations ) Assistant to Trabb, the tailor, who terrorizes Pip. He later leads Herbert to the limekiln to rescue Pip from Orlick. Mr Trabb's boy was the most audacious boy in all that countryside. When I had entered he was sweeping the shop, and he had sweetened his labours by sweeping over me. He was still sweeping when I came out into the shop with Mr Trabb, and he knocked the broom against all possible corners and obstacles, to express (as I understood it) equality with any blacksmith, alive or dead. (top)
Traddles, Tommy ( David Copperfield ) PIX Fellow pupil with David Copperfield and Steerforth at Salem House. David's best friend and best man at David's wedding to Dora Spenlow. He later becomes a lawyer and marries Sophy Crewler. In a tight sky-blue suit that made his arms and legs like German sausages, or roly-poly puddings, he was the merriest and most miserable of all the boys. He was always being caned — I think he was caned every day that half-year, except one holiday Monday when he was only ruler’d on both hands — and was always going to write to his uncle about it, and never did. Later: He was a sober, steady-looking young man of retiring manners, with a comic head of hair, and eyes that were rather wide open.
Geolinks: Gray's Inn, Holborn, Tottenham Court Road (top)
Trampfoot ( The Uncommercial Traveller - Poor Mercantile Jack ) One of the policeman who accompanies the Uncommercial Traveller to sailor's haunts in Liverpool. (top)
Trent, Fred ( The Old Curiosity Shop ) Nell's brother, a gambler, is interested in his grandfather's money through his friend Dick Swiveller. He was a young man of one-and-twenty or thereabouts; well made, and certainly handsome, though the expression of his face was far from prepossessing, having in common with his manner and even his dress, a dissipated, insolent air which repelled one. (top)
Trent, Nell ( The Old Curiosity Shop ) PIX Known as Little Nell, she is the principal character in the story. Aged nearly fourteen, she lives with her grandfather, when he falls into the clutches of Daniel Quilp she helps him escape London. The hardships endured during their wanderings are too much for the delicate Nell and she dies in a quiet village where she and her grandfather had gained employment. Her very small and delicate frame imparted a peculiar youthfulness to her appearance. Though more scantily attired than she might have been she was dressed with perfect neatness, and betrayed no marks of poverty or neglect. (top)
Trimmers, Mr ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Benevolent friend of the Cheerybles who brings the cases of those in need to the brothers. (top)
Trott, Alexander ( Sketches by Boz: The Great Winglebury Duel ) Umbrella maker who is challenged to a duel by Horace Hunter for the hand of Emily Brown. In a scheme to get out of the duel he ends up marrying Julia Manners. Mr Trott was a young man, had highly promising whiskers, an undeniable tailor, and an insinuating address." (top)
Trotter, Job ( Pickwick Papers ) Manservant of the rascal Alfred Jingle and brother of Dismal Jemmy Hutley. The stranger in the mulberry-coloured suit, who had a large, sallow, ugly face: very sunken eyes, and a gigantic head, from which depended a quantity of lank black hair.
Geolinks: Covent Garden (top)
Trotwood, Betsey ( David Copperfield ) PIX David Copperfield's great aunt. David runs away from London when he is installed at Murdstone and Grinby's warehouse and goes to Dover to live with Betsey. She helps David get a start in life and, when she loses her fortune, goes to London to live with David. David describes her as A tall, hard-featured lady, but by no means ill-looking. There was an inflexibility in her face, in her voice, in her gait and carriage, amply sufficient to account for the effect she had made upon a gentle creature like my mother; but her features were rather handsome than otherwise, though unbending and austere. Dickens' friend and biographer John Forster called Betsey "a gnarled and knotted piece of female timber, sound to the core" (Forster, 1899, v. 2, p. 132).
Geolinks: Lincolns Inn Fields (top)
Trundle, Mr ( Pickwick Papers ) Friend of Mr Wardle who marries his daughter Isabella Wardle. (top)
Tuckle, Mr ( Pickwick Papers ) Footman who presides over the Bath "Swarry." A stoutish gentleman in a bright crimson coat with long tags, vividly red breeches, and a cocked hat. (top)
Tuggs, Charlotte ( Sketches by Boz: The Tuggs's at Ramsgate ) Daughter of Joseph and Mrs Tuggs and sister to Simon. Fast ripening into that state of luxuriant plumpness. (top)
Tuggs, Joseph ( Sketches by Boz: The Tuggs's at Ramsgate ) A grocer who comes into a deal of money and determines to live it up a little. He is swindled by the Waters family. A little dark-faced man, with shiny hair, twinkling eyes, short legs, and a body of very considerable thickness, measuring from the centre button of his waistcoat in front, to the ornamental buttons of his coat behind. (top)
Tuggs, Mrs ( Sketches by Boz: The Tuggs's at Ramsgate ) Wife of Joseph and mother to Charlotte and Simon. The figure of the amiable Mrs Tuggs, if not perfectly symmetrical, was decidedly comfortable. (top)
Tuggs, Simon ( Sketches by Boz: The Tuggs's at Ramsgate ) Son of Joseph and Mrs Tuggs and brother to Charlotte. After his father comes into money he changes his name to Cymon. ...was differently constituted in mind, from the remainder of his family. There was that elongation in his thoughtful face, and that tendency to weakness in his interesting legs, which tells so forcibly of a great mind and romantic disposition. (top)
Tulkinghorn ( Bleak House ) PIX Family lawyer to the Dedlocks. When he finds out Lady Dedlock's secret past, and tries to gain from it, he is murdered by Lady Dedlock's former maid, Hortense. He is of what is called the old school--a phrase generally meaning any school that seems never to have been young--and wears knee-breeches tied with ribbons, and gaiters or stockings. One peculiarity of his black clothes and of his black stockings, be they silk or worsted, is that they never shine. Mute, close, irresponsive to any glancing light, his dress is like himself. He never converses when not professionaly consulted. He is found sometimes, speechless but quite at home, at corners of dinner-tables in great country houses and near doors of drawing-rooms, concerning which the fashionable intelligence is eloquent, where everybody knows him and where half the Peerage stops to say "How do you do, Mr Tulkinghorn?" He receives these salutations with gravity and buries them along with the rest of his knowledge.
Geolinks: Lincolns Inn Fields (top)
Tungay ( David Copperfield ) PIX Creakle's assistant at Salem House where David Copperfield attends school. Tungay has a wooden leg, having lost his leg in Creakle's service in former employment in the hops business. [Tungay] was an obstinate barbarian who had formerly assisted in the hop business, but had come into the scholastic line with Mr Creakle, in consequence, as was supposed among the boys, of his having broken his leg in Mr Creakle’s service, and having done a deal of dishonest work for him, and knowing his secrets. I heard that with the single exception of Mr Creakle, Tungay considered the whole establishment, masters and boys, as his natural enemies, and that the only delight of his life was to be sour and malicious. I heard that Mr Creakle had a son, who had not been Tungay’s friend, and who, assisting in the school, had once held some remonstrance with his father on an occasion when its discipline was very cruelly exercised, and was supposed, besides, to have protested against his father’s usage of his mother. I heard that Mr Creakle had turned him out of doors, in consequence; and that Mrs and Miss Creakle had been in a sad way, ever since. (top)
Tupman, Tracy ( Pickwick Papers ) PIX A member of the Pickwick club and traveling companion to Mr Pickwick in the story's adventures. A middle-aged bachelor with a weakness for the ladies. On his right sat Mr. Tracy Tupman--the too susceptible Tupman, who to the wisdom and experience of maturer years superadded the enthusiasm and ardour of a boy in the most interesting and pardonable of human weaknesses--love. Time and feeding had expanded that once romantic form; the black silk waistcoat had become more and more developed; inch by inch had the gold watch-chain beneath it disappeared from within the range of Tupman's vision; and gradually had the capacious chin encroached upon the borders of the white cravat: but the soul of Tupman had known no change --admiration of the fair sex was still its ruling passion. (top)
Tupple, Mr ( Sketches by Boz: The New Year ) Guest at Dobble's New Year's Eve party. That's a junior clerk in the same office; a tidy sort of young man, with a tendency to cold and corns, who comes in a pair of boots with black cloth fronts, and brings his shoes in his coat-pocket, which shoes he is at this very moment putting on in the hall. (top)
Turveydrop, Mr ( Bleak House ) PIX Owner of a dance academy on Newman Street and a "model of deportment." His son, Prince, gives dancing lessons and supports his father. He was a fat old gentleman with a false complexion, false teeth, false whiskers, and a wig. He had a fur collar, and he had a padded breast to his coat, which only wanted a star or a broad blue ribbon to be complete. He was pinched in, and swelled out, and got up, and strapped down, as much as he could possibly bear. He had such a neckcloth on (puffing his very eyes out of their natural shape), and his chin and even his ears so sunk into it, that it seemed as though be must inevitably double up if it were cast loose. He had under his arm a hat of great size and weight, shelving downward from the crown to the brim, and in his hand a pair of white gloves with which he flapped it as he stood poised on one leg in a high-shouldered, round-elbowed state of elegance not to be surpassed. He had a cane, he had an eye-glass, he had a snuff-box, he had rings, he had wristbands, he had everything but any touch of nature; he was not like youth, he was not like age, he was not like anything in the world but a model of deportment. (top)
Turveydrop, Prince ( Bleak House ) Son of Mr Turveydrop, owner of a dance academy. Prince, named for the Prince Regent, gives dancing lessons and supports his father. Prince marries Caddy Jellyby. a little blue-eyed fair man of youthful appearance with flaxen hair parted in the middle and curling at the ends all round his head. He had a little fiddle, which we used to call at school a kit, under his left arm, and its little bow in the same hand. His little dancing-shoes were particularly diminutive, and he had a little innocent, feminine manner.
Geolinks: Kensington (top)
Twemlow, Melvin ( Our Mutual Friend ) Friend of the Veneerings and a fixture at their dinner parties. He lives off of a small allowance from his cousin, Lord Snigsworth. Grey, dry, polite, susceptible to east wind, First-Gentleman-in-Europe collar and cravat, cheeks drawn in as if he had made a great effort to retire into himself some years ago, and had got so far and had never got any farther. (top)
Twinkleton, Miss ( The Mystery of Edwin Drood ) Principal of a school for girls at Nun's House in Cloisterham where Rosa Bud and Helena Landless attend. She is assisted by Mrs Tisher. Miss Twinkleton later becomes Rosa's chaperone in London. Miss Twinkleton has two distinct and separate phases of being. Every night, the moment the young ladies have retired to rest, does Miss Twinkleton smarten up her curls a little, brighten up her eyes a little, and become a sprightlier Miss Twinkleton than the young ladies have ever seen. Every night, at the same hour, does Miss Twinkleton resume the topics of the previous night, comprehending the tenderer scandal of Cloisterham, of which she has no knowledge whatever by day, and references to a certain season at Tunbridge Wells (airily called by Miss Twinkleton in this state of her existence 'The Wells'), notably the season wherein a certain finished gentleman (compassionately called by Miss Twinkleton, in this stage of her existence, 'Foolish Mr. Porters') revealed a homage of the heart, whereof Miss Twinkleton, in her scholastic state of existence, is as ignorant as a granite pillar. (top)
Twist, Oliver ( Oliver Twist ) PIX Oliver is born in a workhouse where he is mistreated by Bumble, the beadle (Quote: 'Please, sir, I want some more'). He is apprenticed to Sowerberry, the undertaker, and runs away to London where he falls in with Fagin and his band of pickpockets. Oliver is charged with theft, actually committed by the Artful Dodger, and later cleared. The object of the theft, Mr Brownlow, takes Oliver into his home. He is recaptured by Nancy and returned to Fagin's band. Nancy later tries to help Oliver and is murdered. Through the efforts of Rose Maylie and Mr Brownlow the story of Oliver's real parentage is revealed. A parish child - the orphan of a workhouse - the humble half-starved drudge - to be cuffed and buffeted through the world, - despised by all, and pitied by none.
Geolinks: Newgate Prison, Smithfield (top)
U
Upwitch, Richard ( Pickwick Papers ) Green grocer pressed into service as a juror in the trial of Bardell and Pickwick. (top)
V
Varden, Dolly ( Barnaby Rudge ) PIX Coquettish daughter of Gabriel and Martha, friend of Emma Haredale. She is the object of a spurned infatuation by Simon Tappertit. When Joe Willet's love for her is unrequited he goes for a soldier. He returns during the Gordon Riots to find Dolly seized by the mob, rescues her, and later marries her. When and where was there ever, such a plump, roguish, comely, bright-eyed, enticing, bewitching, captivating, maddening little puss in all this world, as Dolly! (top)
Varden, Gabriel ( Barnaby Rudge ) PIX Honest locksmith and owner of the Golden Key where Simon Tappertit is apprenticed. Father of Dolly and long-suffering husband of Martha. He is a friend (and former sweetheart) of Barnaby's mother and, after the Gordon riots, helps clear Barnaby's name. A round, red-faced, sturdy yeoman, with a double chin, and a voice husky with good living, good sleeping, good humour, and good health. He was past the prime of life, bluff, hale, hearty, and in a green old age: at peace with himself, and evidently disposed to be so with all the world.
Geolinks: Clerkenwell, London Bridge, Soho Square (top)
Varden, Martha ( Barnaby Rudge ) PIX Overbearing wife of Gabriel, mother of Dolly. A woman of "uncertain temper" and a fanatical protestant, her fanaticism is tempered after the riots when she witnesses the heroics of her husband. ...did not want for personal attractions, being plump and buxom to look at, though like her fair daughter, somewhat short in stature. (top)
Veck, Toby (Trotty) ( The Chimes ) PIX Poor ticket porter whose dream on New Year's Eve forms the basis of the story. (top)
Veneering, Hamilton ( Our Mutual Friend ) Husband of Anastatia. High society new-money couple at whose frequent dinner parties the story of John Harmon is discovered. Hamilton buys his way into Parliament and is later bankrupt and the couple flee to Calais. Forty, wavy-haired, dark, tending to corpulence, sly, mysterious, filmy – a kind of sufficiently well-looking veiled-prophet, not prophesying. (top)
Veneering Anastatia ( Our Mutual Friend ) Wife of Hamilton. Fair, aquiline-nosed and fingered, not so much light hair as she might have, gorgeous in raiment and jewels, enthusiastic, propitiatory, conscious that a corner of her husband’s veil is over herself. (top)
Venus, Mr ( Our Mutual Friend ) PIX Taxidermist and general practitioner in bones. He enters into a scheme with Silas Wegg to blackmail Noddy Boffin, thinks better of it, and later tells Boffin of the plan. He is lovesick over Pleasant Riderhood who objects to his business. She later relents and marries him. A sallow face with weak eyes, surmounted by a tangle of reddish-dusty hair. The owner of the face has no cravat on, and has opened his tumbled shirt-collar to work with the more ease. For the same reason he has no coat on: only a loose waistcoat over his yellow linen. His eyes are like the over-tried eyes of an engraver, but he is not that; his expression and stoop are like those of a shoemaker, but he is not that...Preserver of Animals and Birds, Articulator of human bones, thirty-two, and a bachelor. (top)
The Vengeance ( A Tale of Two Cities ) Female revolutionist and friend of Madame Defarge. At the final execution she is left pondering the absence of Madame Defarge. A short, rather plump wife of a starved grocer. (top)
Verisopht, Lord Frederick ( Nicholas Nickleby ) PIX Foppish companion of Sir Mulberry Hawk. Hawk is planning to fleece him and when Verisopht tries to interfere in Hawk's plan of revenge on Nicholas Nickleby they duel, and Verisopht is killed. Exhibited a suit of clothes of the most superlative cut, a pair of whiskers of similar quality, a moustache, a head of hair, and a young face.
Geolinks: Regent Street (top)
Vholes, Mr ( Bleak House ) PIX Richard Carstone's solicitor in Symond's Inn, recommended by Skimpole, who lures Richard deeper into the Chancery case that will ultimately lead to Richard's despair and death. A sallow man with pinched lips that looked as if they were cold, a red eruption here and there upon his face, tall and thin, about fifty years of age, high-shouldered, and stooping. Dressed in black, black-gloved, and buttoned to the chin, there was nothing so remarkable in him as a lifeless manner and a slow, fixed way he had of looking at Richard. (top)
Vholes, Emma, Jane, and Caroline ( Bleak House ) Daughters of Mr Vholes who declares that his desire is so to discharge the duties of life as to leave them a good name. (top)
Villam (corruption of Willam) ( Pickwick Papers ) Ostler at the Bull Inn Whitechapel. (top)
Vuffin, Mr ( The Old Curiosity Shop ) Proprietor of a travelling entertainment troupe consisting of a giant, and a little lady without legs or arms. (top)
W
Wackles, Jane ( The Old Curiosity Shop ) Youngest (scarcely 16 years old) sister of Melissa and Sophy and instructor of the art of needle-work, marking and samplery at her mother's school for young ladies. (top)
Wackles, Melissa ( The Old Curiosity Shop ) Elder (35 years old or thereabouts) sister of Sophy and Jane, and teacher of English grammar, composition, geography, and the use of the dumb-bells at her mother's school for young ladies. (top)
Wackles, Mrs ( The Old Curiosity Shop ) Mother of Melissa, Jane, and Sophy and proprietor of a school for young ladies where she is in charge of corporal punishment, fasting, and other tortures and terrors...An excellent but rather venomous old lady of three-score. (top)
Wackles, Sophy ( The Old Curiosity Shop ) Middle sister of Melissa and Jane and instructor of writing, arithmetic, dancing, music, and general fascination at her mother's school for young ladies. First love of Dick Swiveller. Swiveller reluctantly leaves her and enters into a scheme, hatched by Nell's brother Fred Trent, to marry Nell and inherit the grandfather's money. Sophy marries Alick Cheggs, a market gardener.
Wade, Miss ( Little Dorrit ) PIX Dark figure who lures Tattycoram away from the kind-hearted Meagles whom she hates because of Pet Meagles' marriage to Henry Gowan, who had jilted her. Handsome young Englishwoman.
Geolinks: The Adelphi, Park Lane (top)
Wakefield Family ( Sketches by Boz: The Steam Excursion ) Passengers on the steam excursion. Mr and Mrs with their small daughter The girl was about six years old...was dressed in a white frock with a pink sash and a dog's-eared-looking little spencer, a straw bonnet and green veil, six inches by three and a half. (top)
Walker ( David Copperfield ) Great grandfather of Miss Mowcher. He came of a long line of Walkers. (top)
Walker ( Pickwick Papers ) Alias Sam Weller uses when talking to Job Trotter. (top)
Walker, H. ( Pickwick Papers ) Reformed drinker and new member introduced to the flock at the Brick Lane Branch of the United Grand Junction Ebenezer Temperance Association. Tailor, wife, and two children. When in better circumstances, owns to having been in the constant habit of drinking ale and beer; says he is not certain whether he did not twice a week, for twenty years, taste 'dog's nose,' which your committee find upon inquiry, to be compounded of warm porter, moist sugar, gin, and nutmeg (a groan, and 'So it is!' from an elderly female). Is now out of work and pennyless; thinks it must be the porter (cheers) or the loss of the use of his right hand; is not certain which, but thinks it very likely that, if he had drank nothing but water all his life, his fellow workman would never have stuck a rusty needle in him, and thereby occasioned his accident (tremendous cheering). Has nothing but cold water to drink, and never feels thirsty (great applause). (top)
Walker, Mick ( David Copperfield ) Co-worker of David Copperfield at Murdstone and Grimby's warehouse. He wore a ragged apron and a paper cap. He informed me that his father was a bargeman, and walked, in a black velvet head-dress, in the Lord Mayor's Show. (top)
Walker, Mrs ( Sketches by Boz: The Streets – Night ) Customer of the muffin boy. She makes sure her husband has his muffin and tea after his walk home from his job at the docks. (top)
Walker, Mr ( Sketches by Boz: A Passage in the Life of Mr Watkins Tottle ) Inmate at Solomon Jacobs' sponging house. (top)
Warden, Michael ( The Battle of Life ) Spendthrift lover of Marion Jeddler. Marion supposedly runs away with Warden which, in the end, turns out to be untrue. Later the reformed Warden marries Marion. (top)
Warden ( Sketches by Boz: The Drunkard's Death ) Hopeless drunk whose wife has died of want and neglect. His children, sons Henry, John, and William, and daughter Mary, suffer from his debauchery until finally he drowns in the Thames. (top)
Warden, Henry ( Sketches by Boz: The Drunkard's Death ) Son of the drunkard, Warden and brother of Mary, John, and William. Henry is killed by a gamekeeper. His brother, William, in turn murders the gamekeeper. (top)
Warden, John ( Sketches by Boz: The Drunkard's Death ) Son of the drunkard, Warden and brother of Henry, Mary, and William. John emigrates to America. (top)
Warden, Mary ( Sketches by Boz: The Drunkard's Death ) Daughterof the drunkard, Warden and sister of Henry, John, and William. Mary takes care of Warden for a time but finally gives him up for lost and deserts him. (top)
Warden, William ( Sketches by Boz: The Drunkard's Death ) Son of the drunkard, Warden and brother of Mary, John, and Henry. William murders the gamekeeper who killed Henry, goes on the lam, and is caught and hanged. (top)
Wardle ( Pickwick Papers ) PIX Yeoman farmer and owner of Manor Farm at Dingley Dell. Pickwick and his friends visit Manor Farm frequently. Wardle's daughter Emily marries Pickwickian Augustus Snodgrass. Alfred Jingle tries to elope with Miss Rachel, Wardle's sister, but is caught and bought off by Wardle. A stout old gentleman, in a blue coat and bright buttons, corduroy breeches and top-boots.
Geolinks: The Borough (top)
Wardle, Emily ( Pickwick Papers ) Mr Wardle's daughter who marries Augustus Snodgrass. Sister of Isabella. Short girl--black eyes. (top)
Wardle, Isabella ( Pickwick Papers ) Mr Wardle's daughter who marries Trundle. Sister to Emily. A very amiable and lovely girl. (top)
Wardle, Old Mrs ( Pickwick Papers ) Mr Wardle's selectively deaf mother. A very old lady, in a lofty cap and faded silk gown–no less a personage than Mr. Wardle's mother–occupied the post of honour on the right-hand corner of the chimney-piece; and various certificates of her having been brought up in the way she should go when young, and of her not having departed from it when old, ornamented the walls, in the form of samplers of ancient date, worsted landscapes of equal antiquity, and crimson silk tea-kettle holders of a more modern period. (top)
Wardle, Rachael ( Pickwick Papers ) Mr Wardle's spinster sister (aged 50 at least). She courts Tupman but is lured into elopement by Jingle, who is after her money. Rachael and Jingle are caught before a marriage can take place and Jingle is bought off by Mr Wardle. Elderly lady–thin face–rather skinny.
Geolinks: The Borough (top)
Waterbrook, Mr ( David Copperfield ) Mr Wickfield's agent with whom Agnes Wickfield stays while in London. He and Mrs Waterbrook reside at Ely Place, Holborn. A middle-aged gentleman, with a short throat, and a good deal of shirt-collar, who only wanted a black nose to be the portrait of a pug-dog. (top)
Waterbrook, Mrs ( David Copperfield ) Wife of Mr Waterbrook. A large lady — or who wore a large dress: I don’t exactly know which, for I don’t know which was dress and which was lady. (top)
Waterhouse ( The Uncommercial Traveller - Poor Mercantile Jack ) See Pegg. (top)
Waters, Belinda ( Sketches by Boz: The Tuggs's at Ramsgate ) Wife and accomplice of con man Captain Walter Waters. Black-eyed young lady. (top)
Waters, Captain Walter ( Sketches by Boz: The Tuggs's at Ramsgate ) With his wife, Belinda, a pair of swindlers who take Joseph Tuggs for 1500 pounds. (top)
Watkins, Mr ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Kate Nickleby's god-father, an old friend of the Nickleby's whom Kate's father had bailed out of jail. (top)
Watty, Mr ( Pickwick Papers ) Bankrupt case that Mr Perker evades. A rustily-clad, miserable-looking man, in boots without toes and gloves without fingers. There were traces of privation and suffering--almost of despair--in his lank and care-worn countenance. (top)
Weedle, Anastatia ( The Uncommercial Traveller - Bound for the Great Salt Lake ) Mormon girl headed for Great Salt Lake, Utah aboard the ship Amazon. She is travelling with the Jobson family. A pretty girl, in a bright Garibaldi, this morning elected by universal suffrage the Beauty of the Ship. (top)
Wegg, Silas ( Our Mutual Friend ) PIX Rascally street vendor hired by Mr Boffin to read to him. After installing himself in the Boffin household he goes about trying to get a piece of the Boffin fortune. He is undone when his partner, Mr Venus, is stricken with regret and tells Boffin of the scheme. A knotty man, and a close-grained, with a face carved out of very hard material, that had just as much play of expression as a watchman’s rattle. When he laughed, certain jerks occurred in it, and the rattle sprung. Sooth to say, he was so wooden a man that he seemed to have taken his wooden leg naturally, and rather suggested to the fanciful observer, that he might be expected – if his development received no untimely check – to be completely set up with a pair of wooden legs in about six months.
Geolinks: Cavendish Square (top)
Weller, Samuel ( Pickwick Papers ) PIX Mr Pickwick's servant is one of the most popular characters in Dickens' works. He councils his master with Cockney wisdom and is thoroughly devoted to Pickwick. Samuel's father, Tony Weller, is equally entertaining. He was habited in a coarse -striped waistcoat, with black calico sleeves, and blue glass buttons: drab breeches and leggings. A bright red handkerchief was wound in a very loose and unstudied style round his neck, and an old white hat was carelessly thrown on one side of his head.
Geolinks: The Borough, The Tower, Waterloo Bridge, Whitechapel (top)
Weller, Susan (nee Susan Clarke) ( Pickwick Papers ) Second wife of Tony Weller who falls under the influence of the hypocritical Reverend Stiggins. She dies leaving a legacy to Tony and his son Sam Weller. A rather stout lady of comfortable appearance.
Geolinks: Brick Lane (top)
Weller, Tony ( Pickwick Papers ) PIX Father of Sam Weller, a coachman and repository of Cockney wisdom. His wife, Susan, is proprietor of the Marquis and Granby Inn in Dorking. Susan falls in with the hypocritical Reverend Stiggins, of the Brick Lane Temperance Association, who the frequently-imbibing Tony later exposes. Stout, red-faced, elderly man...It is very possible that at some earlier period of his career, Mr. Weller's profile might have presented a bold, and determined outline. His face, however, had expanded under the influence of good living, and a disposition remarkable for resignation; and its bold fleshy curves had so far extended beyond the limits originally assigned them, that unless you took a full view of his countenance in front, it was difficult to distinguish more than the extreme tip of a very rubicund nose. His chin, from the same cause, had acquired the grave and imposing form which is generally described by prefixing the word "double" to that expressive feature, and his complexion exhibited that peculiarly mottled combination of colours which is only to be seen in gentlemen of his profession, and underdone roast beef. Round his neck he wore a crimson travelling shawl, which merged into his chin by such imperceptible gradations, that it was difficult to distinguish the folds of the one, from the folds of the other. Over this, he mounted a long waistcoat of a broad pink-striped pattern, and over that again, a wide-skirted green coat, ornamented with large brass buttons, whereof the two which garnished the waist, were so far apart, that no man had ever beheld them both, at the same time. His hair, which was short, sleek, and black, was just visible beneath the capacious brim of a low-crowned brown hat. His legs were encased in knee-cord breeches, and painted top-boots: and a copper watch-chain terminating in one seal, and a key of the same material, dangled loosely from his capacious waist-band.
Geolinks: Cheapside, Leadenhall Street, Whitechapel (top)
Wemmick, John ( Great Expectations ) PIX Jaggers' confidential clerk and friend of Pip who lives in a delightfully strange house with his father whom he calls the Aged Parent. A dry man, rather short in stature, with a square wooden face, whose expression seemed to have been imperfectly chipped out with a dull-edged chisel. There were some marks in it that might have been dimples, if the material had been softer and the instrument finer, but which, as it was, were only dints. The chisel had made three or four of these attempts at embellishment over his nose, but had given them up without an effort to smooth them off. I judged him to be a bachelor from the frayed condition of his linen ... He had glittering eyes-small, keen, and black and thin wide mottled lips. He had had them, to the best of my belief, from forty to fifty years.
Geolinks: Newgate Prison (top)
Mr Wemmick Sr - The Aged Parent ( Great Expectations ) John Wemmick's hard-of-hearing father who lives with his son. (top)
West, Dame ( The Old Curiosity Shop ) Grandmother of the 'little scholar', Harry. (top)
Westlock, John ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) Former pupil of Pecksniff and friend of Tom Pinch although they disagree about Pecksniff's character. He is instrumental in exposing Jonas Chuzzlewit and later marries Tom's sister Ruth Pinch. Good-looking youth.
Geolinks: Furnival's Inn (top)
Westwood ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Second for Sir Mulberry Hawk in the duel with Lord Frederick Verisopht. Described, along with Captain Adams, second for Verisopht, as Both utterly heartless, both men upon town, both thoroughly initiated in its worst vices, both deeply in debt, both fallen from some higher estate, both addicted to every depravity for which society can find some genteel name and plead its most depraving conventionalities as an excuse, they were naturally gentlemen of most unblemished honour themselves, and of great nicety concerning the honour of other people. (top)
Whiffen ( Pickwick Papers ) Town crier at Eatanswill. (top)
Whiffers, Mr ( Pickwick Papers ) Footman at the Bath "swarry" who resigns after being required to eat cold meat. A gentleman in orange-coloured plush. (top)
Whilks, Mr ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) Man whom Sairey Gamp mistakes Seth Pecksniff for when Pecksniff summons her after the death of Anthony Chuzzlewit. Gamp mistakenly believes that Mrs Whilks is ready to deliver her baby. (top)
Whimple, Mrs ( Great Expectations ) Landlady of the house at Mill Pond Bank where Old Bill Barley and his daughter, Clara, live. Magwitch is kept secretly in the house waiting for the escape out of Britain. An elderly woman of a pleasant and thriving appearance. (top)
White, Mrs ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) Hostess of a ball "where all the beauty and fashion of New York was assembled", an account of which appears in the newspaper the New York Sewer. (top)
White, Young ( Sketches by Boz: The Dancing Academy ) Neighbor of Augustus Cooper. Augustus covets White's lifestyle and vows to emulate it. Young White, at the gas-fitter's over the way, three years younger than him, had been flaring away like winkin' - going to the theatre - supping at harmonic meetings - eating oysters by the barrel - drinking stout by the gallon - even out all night, and coming home as cool in the morning as if nothing had happened. (top)
White, Betsy ( The Uncommercial Traveller - Poor Mercantile Jack ) Prostitute who preys on the Liverpool sailors. (top)
Whitrose, Lady Belinda ( Our Mutual Friend ) One of the models for Jenny Wren's dolls' dresses. (top)
Wickfield, Agnes ( David Copperfield ) PIX Childhood friend of David Copperfield and daughter of Betsey Trotwood's lawyer Mr Wickfield. Becomes David's wife after the death of Dora. Although her face was quite bright and happy, there was a tranquillity about it, and about her — a quiet, good, calm spirit — that I never have forgotten; that I shall never forget. (top)
Mr Wickfield ( David Copperfield ) Father of Agnes and lawyer to Betsey Trotwood. His overindulgence of wine causes him to be vulnerable to the schemes of Uriah Heep, who becomes his partner and attempts to ruin him. His hair was quite white now, though his eyebrows were still black. He had a very agreeable face, and, I thought, was handsome. There was a certain richness in his complexion, which I had been long accustomed, under Peggotty’s tuition, to connect with port wine; and I fancied it was in his voice too, and referred his growing corpulency to the same cause. He was very cleanly dressed, in a blue coat, striped waistcoat, and nankeen trousers; and his fine frilled shirt and cambric neckcloth looked unusually soft and white, reminding my strolling fancy (I call to mind) of the plumage on the breast of a swan. (top)
Wickham, Mrs ( Dombey and Son ) Paul Dombey Jrs' nurse after Polly Toodle is discharged. (top)
Wicks, Mr ( Pickwick Papers ) Law clerk in the office of Dodson and Fogg. (top)
Wildspark, Tom ( Pickwick Papers ) Tony Weller's friend (which he pronounces Vildspark) who was acquitted of manslaughter charge by having an alibi. (top)
Wilfer, Bella ( Our Mutual Friend ) PIX Sister of Lavinia and Cecilia and daughter of R.W. and Mrs Wilfer. It is specified in old John Harmon's will that his son John should marry Bella in order to gain his inheritance. When John disappears and is presumed drowned she is left "a widow without ever being married." She leaves her home and goes to live with the Boffins where she is wooed by John Rokesmith, alias of John Harmon. She refuses him at first but later falls in love with him and they marry. She finds out later that he is really John Harmon and that they have gained his inheritance. A girl of about nineteen, with an exceedingly pretty figure and face, but with an impatient and petulant expression both in her face and in her shoulders (which in her sex and at her age are very expressive of discontent). (top)
Geolinks: Fenchurch Street (top)
(née) Wilfer, Cecilia ( Our Mutual Friend ) Married sister of Bella and Lavinia and daughter of R.W. and Mrs Wilfer. She is married when the story begins and only mentioned when held up as an example to her sisters by Mrs Wilfer. (top)
Wilfer, Lavinia ( Our Mutual Friend ) Sister of Bella and Cecilia and daughter of R.W. and Mrs Wilfer. Obstinate and quarrelsome, she takes possession of Bella's beau, George Sampson, when Bella goes to live with the Boffins. (top)
Wilfer, Mrs ( Our Mutual Friend ) Difficult and quarrelsome wife of R.W. and mother to Bella, Cecilia, and Lavinia. A tall woman and an angular. Her lord being cherubic, she was necessarily majestic, according to the principle which matrimonially unites contrasts. She was much given to tying up her head in a pocket-handkerchief, knotted under the chin. This head-gear, in conjunction with a pair of gloves worn within doors, she seemed to consider as at once a kind of armour against misfortune. (top)
Wilfer, Reginald (R.W.)(Rumty) ( Our Mutual Friend ) PIX Father of daughters Cecilia, Lavinia, and Bella, his favorite. R.W. attends the wedding of of Bella to Rokesmith, unbeknownst to his overbearing wife. He was clerk in the drug-house of Chicksey, Veneering, and Stobbles. His chubby, smooth, innocent appearance was a reason for his being always treated with condescension when he was not put down...So boyish was he in his curves and proportions, that his old schoolmaster meeting him in Cheapside, might have been unable to withstand the temptation of caning him on the spot. (top)
Wilkins ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) Young man whose wife Sairey Gamp mistakenly believes has died when Poll Sweedlepipe tries to tell her that young Bailey has been killed. (top)
Wilkins ( Pickwick Papers ) Alias for Samuel Pickwick that Sam Weller uses when talking to Job Trotter. (top)
Wilkins ( Pickwick Papers ) Sub gardener on Captain Boldwig's estate. (top)
Wilkins, Dick ( A Christmas Carol ) Scrooge's fellow apprentice at Fezziwig's warehouse. (top)
Wilkins, Samuel ( Sketches by Boz: Miss Evans and the Eagle ) Jouneyman carpenter who courts Jemima Evans. A journeyman carpenter of small dimensions; decidedly below the middle size – bordering, perhaps, upon the dwarfish. His face was round and shining and his hair carefully twisted into the outer corner of each eye, till it formed a variety of that description of semi-curls, usually known as ‘haggerawators.’ His earnings were all-sufficient for his wants, varying from eighteen shillings to one pound five, weekly: his manner undeniable – his sabbath waistcoats dazzling. (top)
Willet, Joe ( Barnaby Rudge ) PIX Son of John Willet who resents his father's treatment of him. He joins the army and loses an arm in the defense of Savannah, Georgia during the American Revolution. He arrives back in London during the Gordon Riots, rescues Dolly Varden from the clutches of the mob, and later marries her. The couple become proprietors of the rebuilt Maypole Inn. A broad-shouldered strapping young fellow of twenty, whom it pleased his father still to consider a little boy, and to treat accordingly.
Geolinks: The Monument, Thames Street, Whitechapel (top)
Willet, John ( Barnaby Rudge ) PIX Proprietor of the Maypole Inn and father of Joe. Father and son quarrel when John treats the adult Joe as a child and Joe leaves, joining the army. John witnesses the destruction of the Maypole by the mob during the Gordon Riots. He is later reconciled with his son who, along with wife Dolly, become proprietors of the rebuilt Maypole. A burly, large-headed man with a fat face, which betokened profound obstinacy and slowness of apprehension, combined with a very strong reliance upon his own merits.
Geolinks: The Monument (top)
William ( David Copperfield ) PIX Waiter at the inn in Yarmouth where David Copperfield catches the stage for London who tricks David out of his ale and then his meal. He was a twinkling-eyed, pimple-faced man, with his hair standing upright all over his head; and as he stood with one arm a-kimbo, holding up the glass to the light with the other hand, he looked quite friendly. (top)
William [2] ( David Copperfield ) Coachman on the coach David Copperfield takes from Canterbury to London and tricks David out of his coach box seat. (top)
William ( Great Expectations ) Waiter at the Blue Boar. (top)
William ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Waiter at the Saracen's Head. (top)
William ( Sketches by Boz: Our Next-door Neighbour ) Young man who supports his widowed mother by copying documents and dies from overwork and care. (top)
William ( Sketches by Boz: Astley's ) Impertinent member of the of the family attending a performance at Astley's along with his fourteen-year-old brother George.
William, Sweet ( The Old Curiosity Shop ) Entertainer who makes his living doing card tricks. Called Sweet William as a pleasant satire upon his ugliness. A silent gentleman who earned his living by showing tricks upon the cards, and who had rather deranged the natural expression of his countenance by putting small leaden lozenges into his eyes and bringing them out at his mouth, which was one of his professional accomplishments. (top)
Williams, William ( Our Mutual Friend ) Patron of the Six Jolly Fellowship-Porters public house. (top)
Williamson, Mrs ( Sketches by Boz: The Great Winglebury Duel ) Stout landlady of the Winglebury Arms. (top)
Willis, Mr ( Sketches by Boz: A Passage in the Life of Mr Watkins Tottle ) Inmate at Solomon Jacobs' sponging house. A young fellow of vulgar manners, dressed in the very extreme of the prevailing fashion. (top)
Willis Sisters ( Sketches by Boz: The Four Sisters ) Four elderly sisters who settled into our parish thirteen years ago. (top)
Wilson, Caroline ( Sketches by Boz: Sentiment ) Student at Minerva house run by the Crumpton sisters. Bosom friend of Emily Smithers by virtue of Caroline being the ugliest girl in Hammersmith, or out of it.. (top)
Wilson, Mr ( Sketches by Boz: The Parlour Orator ) Defender of Snobee as candidate for Parliament. (top)
Wilson, Mr ( Sketches by Boz: Mrs Joseph Porter ) Plays the part of Iago in the Gattleton's private theatrical. (top)
Wilson, Mr and Mrs ( Sketches by Boz: The Bloomsbury Christening ) Second godfather and godmother of their neighbor's, the Kitterbell's, infant son. (top)
Winkle, Nathaniel ( Pickwick Papers ) PIX Member of the Pickwick club and traveling companion to Pickwick and his friends. Winkle is supposedly the sportsman of the group but all of his attempts at sporting activities prove him a humbug. He marries Arabella Allen, which upsets his father. Later Winkle's father comes to London and sees his daughter-in-law for himself, and is reconciled to the marriage. the sporting Winkle; communicating additional lustre to a new green shooting-coat, plaid neckerchief, and closely-fitted drabs.
Geolinks: George and Vulture (top)
Winkle Senior ( Pickwick Papers ) Father of Nathaniel Winkle who owns a wharf on the canal. He opposes his son's marriage to Arabella Allen but is later reconciled to it. A little old gentlemen in a snuff-coloured suit, with a head and face the precise counterpart of those belonging to Mr. Winkle junior, excepting that he was rather bald. (top)
Wisbottle, Mr ( Sketches by Boz: The Boarding House ) Boarder at Mrs Tibbs' boarding house. A high Tory. He was a clerk in the Woods and Forests Office, which he considered rather an aristocratic employment; he knew the peerage by heart, and could tell you off-hand where any illustrious personage lived. He had a good set of teeth, and a capital tailor. (top)
Wisk, Miss ( Bleak House ) Activist fiance of Mr Quale whose manner was grim. (top)
Witherden, Mr ( The Old Curiosity Shop ) Notary to whom Abel Garland is articled. He aids the Single Gentleman in the capture of Brass and in bringing down Quilp. Short, chubby, freshcoloured, brisk, and pompous. (top)
Witherfield, Miss ( Pickwick Papers ) The lady in yellow curl papers whom Samuel Pickwick accidentally meets in her room at Ipswich. She is courted by Pickwick's fellow traveler to Ipswich, Peter Magnus. Middle aged lady. (top)
Withers ( Dombey and Son ) Mrs Skewton's "wan page" who pushes her wheeled chair. (top)
Withers, Old Luke ( The Old Curiosity Shop ) Cardplayer referred to in a tale by Isaac List. (top)
Wititterly, Henry ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Julia's husband. An important gentleman of about eight-and-thirty, of rather plebeian countenance, and with a very light head of hair.
Geolinks: Belgrave Square (top)
Wititterly, Julia ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Kate Nickleby becomes a companion to Julia after leaving Madame Mantalini's. Julia becomes jealous of Kate when Sir Mulberry Hawk begins to pay visits to their Belgravia home. Nicholas removes Kate from the home after he fights with Hawk. The lady had an air of sweet insipidity, and a face of engaging paleness; there was a faded look about her, and about the furniture, and about the house. She was reclining on a sofa in such a very unstudied attitude, that she might have been taken for an actress all ready for the first scene in a ballet, and only waiting for the drop curtain to go up.
Geolinks: Belgrave Square (top)
Wobbler, Mr ( Little Dorrit ) Clerk who "doesn't know anything about it" at the Circumlocution Office. (top)
Wolf, Mr ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) Business associate of Tigg Montague. Literary character...remarkably clever weekly paper. (top)
Woodcourt, Allan ( Bleak House ) A young surgeon who falls in love with Esther Summerson before going away as ship's doctor to India. On his return to England he learns that Esther is engaged to John Jarndyce. When Jarndyce learns that Esther is in love with Woodcourt he releases her to marry him. Described by Esther Summerson: I believe--at least I know--that he was not rich. All his widowed mother could spare had been spent in qualifying him for his profession. It was not lucrative to a young practitioner, with very little influence in London; and although he was, night and day, at the service of numbers of poor people and did wonders of gentleness and skill for them, he gained very little by it in money. He was seven years older than I. (top)
Woodcourt, Mrs ( Bleak House ) Proud mother of Allan Woodcourt. She was a pretty old lady, with bright black eyes, but she seemed proud. She came from Wales and had had, a long time ago, an eminent person for an ancestor, of the name of Morgan ap-Kerrig--of some place that sounded like Gimlet--who was the most illustrious person that ever was known and all of whose relations were a sort of royal family. He appeared to have passed his life in always getting up into mountains and fighting somebody; and a bard whose name sounded like Crumlinwallinwer had sung his praises in a piece which was called, as nearly as I could catch it, Mewlinnwillinwodd. (top)
Wopsle, Mr ( Great Expectations ) Parish clerk and friend of the Gargerys. He aspires to enter the church but instead becomes an actor with the stage name of Waldengarver. Pip sees him perform Hamlet in London. Mr Wopsle, united to a Roman nose and a large shining bald forehead, had a deep voice which he was uncommonly proud of; indeed it was understood among his acquaintance that if you could only give him his head, he would read the clergyman into fits; he himself confessed that if the Church was "thrown open," meaning to competition, he would not despair of making his mark in it. The Church not being "thrown open," he was, as I have said, our clerk. But he punished the Amens tremendously; and when he gave out the psalm - always giving the whole verse - he looked all round the congregation first, as much as to say, "You have heard my friend overhead; oblige me with your opinion of this style!"
Wopsle's great-aunt was Pip's first teacher: she was a ridiculous old woman of limited means and unlimited infirmity, who used to go to sleep from six to seven every evening, in the society of youth who paid twopence per week each, for the improving opportunity of seeing her do it.
Geolinks: Warren's Blacking Factory (top)
Wosky, Dr ( Sketches by Boz: The Boarding House ) Medical man of Mrs Bloss who encourages her hypochondria. He was a little man with a red face, – dressed of course in black, with a stiff white neckerchief. He had a very good practice, and plenty of money, which he had amassed by invariably humouring the worst fancies of all the females of all the families he had ever been introduced into. (top)
Wozenham, Miss ( Mrs Lirriper's Lodging, Mrs Lirriper's Legacy ) Proprietor of a boarding house lower down on the other side of the way in competition with Mrs Lirriper's establishment. Miss Wozenham having her opinions and me having mine. (top)
Wrayburn, Eugene ( Our Mutual Friend ) PIX Lawyer and friend of Mortimer Lightwood. He becomes interested in the Harmon case and meets Lizzie Hexam and falls in love with her. She loves him also but tries to distance herself from him because they come from different classes of society. Lizzie leaves London to get away from Bradley Headstone, the school teacher who also loves her, and Wrayburn. Eugene finds her and is followed by Headstone who attempts to murder him. Lizzie nurses Wrayburn back to health and they are married.
Geolinks: Vauxhall Bridge (top)
Wren, Jenny aka Fanny Cleaver ( Our Mutual Friend ) PIX Sharp and sassy maker of doll's clothes, pincushions, and pen-wipers. Crippled (my back’s bad, and my legs are queer), she lives with her drunken father whom she refers to as her bad child. Lizzie Hexam, after the death of her father, takes lodging with Jenny who helps Lizzie escape London when pursued by Bradley Headstone and Eugene Wrayburn. It was difficult to guess the age of this strange creature, for her poor figure furnished no clue to it, and her face was at once so young and so old. Twelve, or at the most thirteen, might be near the mark.
Wrymug, Mrs ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Client of the General Agency Office who is seeking a cook. Pleasant Place, Finsbury. Wages, twelve guineas. No tea, no sugar. Serious family. (top)
Wugsby, Jane ( Pickwick Papers ) The prettier of Mrs Colonel Wugsby's two daughters. (top)
Wugsby, Mrs Colonel ( Pickwick Papers ) Samuel Pickwick's whist opponent at the Bath ball, mother of Jane. (top)
X
Y
Yawler ( David Copperfield ) Student at Salem House before David Copperfield's time there. With his nose on one side (top)
