Bleak House characters

Appears from the start

An orphaned young woman brought up to believe she should expect little from life. She becomes companion to Ada Clare at Bleak House and also narrates much of the story. Modest, observant, and practical, she has a gift for making troubled households more humane while remaining uncertain about her own origins.

Appears from the start

The kindly master of Bleak House and guardian of Esther, Ada, and Richard. He has inherited a connection to the ruinous Jarndyce and Jarndyce lawsuit but detests the case and warns his young wards not to build their lives around it.

Appears from the start

A warm-hearted young ward in Jarndyce and Jarndyce who comes to live at Bleak House with Esther. She quickly becomes Esther's closest friend and is quietly devoted to her cousin Richard.

Appears from the start

Ada's energetic cousin and another ward in the Jarndyce suit. Amiable but restless, he tries several professions without settling and is dangerously tempted by the possibility that the Chancery case will someday make him rich.

Appears from the start

The elegant, remote wife of Sir Leicester Dedlock. Though surrounded by wealth and social deference at Chesney Wold, she is chronically bored until a piece of copied legal handwriting stirs a powerful response she tries to conceal.

Appears from the start

Lady Dedlock's much older husband, a wealthy baronet devoted to family rank and tradition. His pride can make him seem rigid, but his attachment to his wife is sincere and deeper than the formal manners of Chesney Wold suggest.

Appears from the start

The Dedlocks' controlled and formidable lawyer. After noticing Lady Dedlock's reaction to a law-copyist's handwriting, he begins a patient inquiry into the writer and her interest in him. He treats private knowledge as a means of preserving the social order he serves.

First appears in chapter 2

An ambitious young clerk in the law office of Kenge and Carboy. He is immediately struck by Esther and pursues both her and any information that might explain her resemblance to a grand lady whose portrait he has seen.

First appears in chapter 3

A solitary, impoverished law-writer lodging above Krook's shop. His fine hand attracts Tulkinghorn's attention, but his dependence on opium and his hidden past leave few obvious traces of who he once was.

First appears in chapter 3

A homeless boy who earns pennies sweeping a crossing. He is treated as a nuisance by officials and survives at society's edge, yet what he witnessed concerning Nemo makes him important to people far more powerful than he is.

First appears in chapter 3

The eccentric, illiterate proprietor of a rag-and-bottle shop surrounded by discarded legal papers. He calls himself the Lord Chancellor of his cluttered court and hoards documents whose value he cannot read.

First appears in chapter 4

A young surgeon whose calm competence and generosity distinguish him even when he has little money or status. He meets Esther through Bleak House and becomes a trusted friend of the household before leaving England as a ship's doctor.

Also known as Charley

First appears in chapter 5

The responsible eldest child of the Neckett family. After her father's death, she works to care for her younger siblings and later enters Esther's service, where her loyalty and directness make her much more than an ordinary maid.

First appears in chapter 6

Lady Dedlock's French maid, proud, watchful, and conscious that she remains an outsider within the grand household whose habits she has learned.

First appears in chapter 8

A police inspector whose friendly, conversational manner masks a highly methodical investigator. He observes servants and aristocrats with equal care and is skilled at letting suspects underestimate how much he already knows.

First appears in chapter 8

An elderly moneylender who dominates his family from his chair and takes a predatory interest in every scrap of property connected with the Chancery suit. His granddaughter Judy and grandson Bart help him pursue debts and papers.