Les catilinaires
Les catilinairesAmélie Nothomb
Characters in Les catilinaires
3 characters, main characters first.Main characters
Émile
The narrator; a retired man whose politeness makes him constitutionally unable to expel the unwanted visitor, even as the visits destroy everything he built his retirement around.
Antagonists
Palamède Bernardin
The neighbor whose daily wordless visits consume Émile and Juliette's retirement. His weapon is not aggression but the absolute refusal to observe the social cues that govern shared space.
Supporting characters
Juliette Ferrars
Émile's wife; reacts to Bernardin with a more visceral resistance that her husband's decency cannot match.