Erewhon characters

Appears from the start

An unnamed young Englishman who seeks fortune beyond the edge of an isolated colonial sheep district. Curious, ambitious, and confident in the assumptions of his own society, he crosses a forbidden mountain range and becomes the reader's observer of Erewhon. His account mixes practical travel with an increasingly uneasy study of the country he enters.

First appears in chapter 2

A local man whom the narrator hires as a guide while trying to discover what lies beyond the known grazing country. Chowbok fears the mountains and the strange sounds associated with them, and his reluctance warns that the journey crosses a boundary respected by the people of the region.

First appears in chapter 11

A prosperous Erewhonian whose conduct would be treated as criminal in England. In Erewhon, however, his dishonesty is regarded much as another society might regard an illness: it brings treatment and sympathy rather than simple moral condemnation. His household gives the narrator a comfortable base in the capital.

First appears in chapter 11

Mr. Nosnibor's wife and the presiding figure of his well-to-do household. She receives the foreign visitor according to Erewhonian social expectations and helps introduce him to family life in the country.

First appears in chapter 16

The younger daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Nosnibor. The narrator is immediately drawn to her beauty and warmth, and their growing attachment gives him a personal stake in Erewhon beyond curiosity or ambition.

First appears in chapter 16

Arowhena's sister and another member of the Nosnibor household. She belongs to the family circle through which the narrator learns the manners and assumptions of prosperous Erewhonian society.

First appears in chapter 26

The sovereign of Erewhon. He receives the extraordinary foreign visitor as a public curiosity, while his court must also consider the danger represented by the narrator's knowledge of machines, objects the country has outlawed.

First appears in chapter 26

Erewhon's queen and the king's partner at court. She shares the royal interest in the visitor from beyond the mountains and in the unfamiliar world his presence suggests.