Bleak House
Characters in Bleak House
22 characters, main characters first.Main characters
Esther Summerson
An orphan who narrates half of the novel and comes to keep house at Bleak House for her guardian, John Jarndyce.
Antagonists
Mr Tulkinghorn
The Dedlocks' close-mouthed family lawyer, who makes a quiet business of collecting other people's secrets.
Joshua Smallweed
Grandfather Smallweed, a chair-bound, grasping old moneylender who bullies his family and his debtors alike.
Supporting characters
John Jarndyce
The kindly, wealthy owner of Bleak House and a party to the Jarndyce suit, who takes in Esther, Ada and Richard.
Lady Dedlock
Honoria, the proud and coolly composed wife of Sir Leicester, mistress of Chesney Wold and a leader of fashionable society.
Sir Leicester Dedlock
A proud, old-fashioned baronet of Chesney Wold, devoted to his wife and to the ancient name of his family.
Ada Clare
A gentle young ward in the Jarndyce suit who comes to live at Bleak House and becomes Esther's closest friend.
Richard Carstone
Ada's cousin and fellow ward of the court, a likeable young man who cannot settle on a career while the suit hangs over him.
William Guppy
A brash young law clerk at Kenge and Carboy who takes a keen interest in Esther and in where she came from.
Caroline Jellyby
Known as Caddy, the overworked eldest daughter of Mrs Jellyby, who befriends Esther and longs for an orderly home of her own.
Charlotte Neckett
Known as Charley, the young daughter of a debt collector, left to care for her little brother and sister, who later becomes Esther's maid.
Harold Skimpole
A charming friend of John Jarndyce who claims to understand nothing of money and lives cheerfully on other people's generosity.
Mr George
A big, honourable former trooper who keeps a shooting gallery in London with his devoted assistant Phil Squod.
Mr Snagsby
A timid, good-natured law-stationer who gives out copying work to the law-writers and lives in fear of his suspicious wife.
Inspector Bucket
A shrewd, genial detective officer, one of the earliest police detectives in English fiction.
Jo (Bleak House)
A destitute, illiterate boy who sweeps a street crossing in Holborn and is moved on wherever he goes.
Allan Woodcourt
A young surgeon of modest means and good heart, who cares for the poor and the sick of London.
Miss Flite
A small, eccentric old woman ruined by Chancery, who attends every sitting of the court and keeps a room full of caged birds.
Krook
An eccentric rag-and-bottle dealer whose neighbours call him the Lord Chancellor and his cluttered shop of old papers Chancery.
Lawrence Boythorn
John Jarndyce's loud, warm-hearted old schoolfriend, a neighbour of Chesney Wold locked in a long dispute with Sir Leicester.
Mrs Jellyby
A philanthropist absorbed in a scheme for an African settlement at Borrioboola-Gha while her own household falls into chaos.
Mr Vholes
A pale, eminently respectable Chancery lawyer who takes up Richard's interest in the Jarndyce suit.