Characters A-BDickens' Characters A-B
A
Adams ( David Copperfield ) Top student when David attends Dr. Strong's school in Canterbury. (top)
Arabella Allen ( Pickwick Papers ) Black-eyed beauty, sister of Benjamin Allen. Marries Nathaniel Winkle. (top)
Benjamin Allen ( Pickwick Papers ) Medical student, brother of Arabella, and drinking buddy of Bob Sawyer. (top)
The Avenger ( Great Expectations ) A servant boy hired by Pip. Pip has such a hard time finding things to keep him busy "that I sometimes sent him to Hyde Park Corner to see what o'clock it was." (top)
B
Badger, Bayham ( Bleak House ) Doctor, cousin of Kenge, to whom Richard Carstone is apprenticed. Badger's wife Laura talks incessantly about her two former husbands, Capt Swosser and Professor Dingo. (top)
Bagnet Family ( Bleak House )
Musical, military family headed by Matthew, an old army friend of George Rouncewell. Bagnet's wife, the old girl, knows Matthew so well that he always calls upon her to supply his opinion. The Bagnet children: Quebec, Malta, and Woolwich are named for the military bases where the family has been stationed. Matthew is guarantor to George's loan from Smallweed, when Smallweed calls in the debt George is forced to deliver a document Smallweed needs to help lawyer Tulkinghorn learn Lady Dedlock's secret. (top)Bagstock, Major Joseph ( Dombey and Son ) Neighbor of Miss Tox and friend of Paul Dombey who introduces Paul to Edith Granger and Mrs Skewton. The Major describes himself as "tough, Sir, tough, and de-vilish sly!" (top)
Bailey, (Benjamin) ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) Street-wise servant boy at Todger's Boarding House. Later goes to work for Tigg Montigue and is nearly killed in a coach accident. (top)
Mrs Bangham ( Little Dorrit ) Charwoman and messenger in the Marshalsea prison. She attends the birth of Amy Dorrit. (top)
Miss Barbary ( Bleak House ) 'Godmother' who raises Esther Summerson. Later found to be Esther's aunt, the sister of Lady Dedlock. (top)
Bardell, Martha ( Pickwick Papers ) Landlady of Samuel Pickwick in Goswell Street. Mrs. Bardell is duped by unscrupulous lawyers, Dodson and Fogg, into bringing a breach of promise to marry suit against Pickwick. When Pickwick refuses to pay damages and is consigned to the Fleet prison, Dodson and Fogg sue Mrs Bardell for costs and have her consigned to the Fleet. Pickwick pays the penitent Bardell's costs to get her released. (top)
Barkis ( David Copperfield ) A carrier between Blunderstone and Yarmouth. He marries Clara Peggotty. Quote: Barkis is willin' (top)
Barley, Old Bill ( Great Expectations ) Clara Barley's bedridden father, a retired ship's purser, who suffers with gout which he treats with an abundance of rum and pepper. (top)
Barley, Clara ( Great Expectations ) Herbert Pocket's fiancee, she cares for her invalid father, Old Bill Barley, in a waterside house at Mill Pond Bank where Magwitch is hidden. After her father's death she marries Herbert. (top)
Barnacles ( Little Dorrit ) Family that controls the Circumlocution Office, where everything goes round in circles, and nothing ever gets done. Includes Lord Decimus Tite Barnacle, his wife, Lady Jemima Bilberry, nephew Tite Barnacle, and his son Clarence Barnacle (Barnacle Junior). (top)
Barsad, John/Soloman Pross ( A Tale of Two Cities ) Barsad testifies against Charles Darnay at the treason trial at the Old Bailey. Later Barsad turns up as a spy in Paris and is found to be the brother of Miss Pross. Threatened with exposure, Barsad helps Sydney Carton exchange places with Charles Darnay in prison. (top)
Bates, Charles ( Oliver Twist ) Member of Fagin's band of thieves. He mends his ways after Fagin is captured. (top)
Bazzard ( The Mystery of Edwin Drood ) Clerk to Hiram Grewgious who writes an unproduced tragedy, The Thorn of Anxiety. Grewgious admits that Bazzard has a strange power over him. (top)
Belle ( A Christmas Carol ) Scrooge's former fiancee whom he had forgotten until reminded by the Ghost of Christmas Past. (top)
Benjamin ( Barnaby Rudge ) Member of the 'Prentice Knights with Simon Tappertit. (top)
Betsy (Bet) ( Oliver Twist ) Prostitute and friend of Nancy. Goes mad after identifying Nancy's body. (top)
Bevan, Mr ( Martin Chuzzlewit ) Boston doctor whom Martin and Mark meet at Pawkins' Boarding House in New York and one of the few positive characters they meet in the America. Bevan later loans them money to return to England. (top)
Biddy ( Great Expectations ) Mr. Wopsle's great aunt's granddaughter. She loves Pip but he ignores her as his fortunes improve. When Pip realizes that he loves her too she has married Joe Gargery. (top)
Billickin, Mrs. ( The Mystery of Edwin Drood ) London landlady of Rosa Bud and her chaperone, Miss Twinkleton. She insists on using the title 'Billickin' in business matters fearing being taken advantage of because she is a woman. Mrs. Billickin and Miss Twinkleton take a comical dislike for each other. (top)
Bitzer ( Hard Times ) A student in Gradgrind's school of hard facts. Later a light porter in Bounderby's bank. (top)
Blackpool, Stephen ( Hard Times ) A worker in Bounderby's mill. His wife is a drunk and he befriends Rachael. He falls out with his employer and leaves to look for work elsewhere. He is accused of robbing the bank and before his name is cleared he falls down a well and dies. Later he is cleared with the discovery that the robbery was committed by young Tom Gradgrind. (top)
Blathers ( Oliver Twist ) Bow Street Runner (London Policemen) who, along with Duff, investigates the attempted robbery of the Maylie home. (top)
Blimber, Dr ( Dombey and Son ) Headmaster of the school in Brighton where Paul Dombey Jr attends. Blimber is assisted at the school by his wife and daughter Cornelia. Dickens describes Blimber as "a portly gentleman in a suit of black, with strings at the knees, and stockings below them. He had a bald head, highly polished; a deep voice; and a chin so very double, that it was a wonder how he ever managed to shave into the creases. (top)
Boffin, Noddy ( Our Mutual Friend )
John Harmon's servant. When John's son is supposed drowned, Boffin and his wife inherit the Harmon fortune, for a time. (top)Boffin, Henrietta ( Our Mutual Friend )
Noddy Boffin's wife. (top)Bounderby, Josiah ( Hard Times ) Coketown Banker, mill owner, and "self-made man" proud that he raised himself in the streets after being abandoned as a child. His story is exposed as a sham when Mrs. Pegler, his loving mother whom he has discarded, is found. Bounderby marries his friend Gradgrind's daughter, Louisa, and later discards her. (top)
Bowley, Sir Joseph ( The Chimes ) Member of Parliament who condescendingly calls himself "the poor man's friend and father" and exhorts Trotty to "Live hard and temperately, be respectful, exercise your self-denial, bring up your family on next to nothing, pay your rent as regularly as the clock strikes, be punctual in your dealings". His wife is Lady Bowley. (top)
Brandley, Mrs ( Great Expectations ) Widowed society woman and old friend of Miss Havisham with whom Estella is "placed" in Richmond to be sponsored in London society. She has a daughter several years older than Estella. (top)
Brass, Sally ( The Old Curiosity Shop )
Sister and partner of Quilp's unscrupulous attorney, Sampson Brass. She is the mother of the Marchioness, the below-stairs maid. (top)Brass, Sampson ( The Old Curiosity Shop )
"An attorney of no good repute" Brass served as Daniel Quilp's lawyer. He helps Quilp get the Curiosity Shop from Nell's grandfather and when he tries to help Quilp frame Kit Nubbles he is undone with the help of his clerk Dick Swiveler and the Marchioness, his below-stairs maid. (top)Bray, Madeline ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Girl with whom Nicholas falls in love when he first sees her at an employment office. She cares for her selfish, invalid father who tries to sell her in marriage to Arthur Gride, assisted by Ralph Nickleby. Her father dies and the scheme is exposed. She marries Nicholas at the end of the story. (top)
Bray, Walter ( Nicholas Nickleby ) Tyrannical father of Madeline. Heavily in debt, and living in the Rules of the King's Bench debtor's prison, he promises his daughter's hand in marriage to Arthur Gride in return for the forgiveness of his debt to Gride and Ralph Nickleby. He dies on the morning of the wedding thus saving Madeline from the unwanted marriage. (top)
Brick, Jefferson ( Martin Chuzzlewit )
War correspondent for the New York Rowdy Journal, edited by Colonel Diver. (top)Britain, Benjamin ( The Battle of Life ) Manservant of Dr. Jeddler. He later marries Clemency Newcome and together they run the comfortable Nutmeg-Grater and Thimble Inn. (top)
Brogley, Mr ( Dombey and Son ) Second Hand furniture broker with a shop in Bishopsgate Street. Brogley takes possession of the Wooden Midshipman when Sol Gills cannot pay his debts. Sol is loaned money from Paul Dombey to pay the debt. Walter Gay stays with Brogley when he returns from being shipwrecked. (top)
Browdie, John ( Nicholas Nickleby )
Son of a small corn-factor. He gives money to Nicholas Nickleby on his escape from Dotheboys Hall. John marries Matilda Price. Later assists in Smike's escape from Squeers in London. (top)Brown, Good Mrs. ( Dombey and Son ) An ugly old rag and bone vendor and mother of Alice Marwood (Brown). She kidnaps Florence Dombey and steals her clothes. Later she helps Dombey find Carker and Edith after their elopement. Dickens describes Good Mrs Brown as a "very ugly old woman, with red rims round her eyes, and a mouth that mumbled and chattered of itself when she was not speaking". (top)
Brown, Alice (alias Marwood) ( Dombey and Son ) Daughter of Good Mrs Brown and cousin of Edith Granger. (top)
Brownlow ( Oliver Twist ) Befriends Oliver after he is charged with pickpocketing. He later establishes Oliver's true identity and adopts him. (top)
Bucket ( Bleak House )
Detective in charge of finding Tulkinghorn's murderer. After Lady Dedlock's disappearance Sir Leicester hires Bucket to find her. He later uncovers the will that is instrumental in clearing up the Jarndyce and Jarndyce chancery case. (top)Bud, Rosa ( The Mystery of Edwin Drood )
Betrothed to Edwin Drood in childhood, they later agree that they cannot marry. Edwin disappears and John Jasper declares his love for Rosa. In terror she flees to London to her guardian, Grewgious.
"The pet pupil of the Nuns' House is Miss Rosa Bud, of course called Rosebud; wonderfully pretty, wonderfully childish, wonderfully whimsical. An awkward interest (awkward because romantic) attaches to Miss Bud in the minds of the young ladies, on account of its being known to them that a husband has been chosen for her by will and bequest, and that her guardian is bound down to bestow her on that husband when he comes of age". (top)
Bumble (Oliver Twist) Beadle at the workhouse where Oliver is born. He mistreats the residents in his care and becomes the symbol of Dickens' distaste for the workhouse system. Marries Mrs. Corney and later is disgraced and becomes a resident in the same workhouse. (top)
Bunsby, Jack ( Dombey and Son )
Seafaring friend of Captain Cuttle who is always called in times of crisis for advise. The advise given confounds everyone listening except his friend Cuttle, who values it immensely. Bunsby is later trapped into marriage by Mrs MacStinger. Bunsby's ship is the Cautious Clara. Bunsby is described by Dickens as having "one stationary eye in the mahogany face, and one revolving one, on the principle of some lighthouses". (top)Buzfuz, Serjeant ( Pickwick Papers ) Barrister who represents Mrs Bardell in her suit against Samuel Pickwick. He bullies the witnesses into giving incriminating testimony and Pickwick is falsely convicted. (top)
