Summer characters

Appears from the start

A young woman raised in the isolated New England village of North Dormer as Lawyer Royall's ward. Brought down as a child from the impoverished settlement known as the Mountain, she has little formal education and works reluctantly in the village library. Proud, restless, and hungry for a larger life, she resists both the town's limitations and the future her guardian imagines for her.

Also known as Lawyer Royall

Appears from the start

Charity's guardian, a widowed lawyer whose abilities have declined in the narrow life of North Dormer. He rescued Charity from the Mountain when she was a small child and raised her in his home. His mixture of paternal concern, loneliness, authority, and desire makes her position in the household deeply uncomfortable.

First appears in chapter 2

A young architect from New York who comes to North Dormer to study and sketch its older buildings. Cultivated, curious, and attentive to Charity, he represents the wider world she wants to enter, though differences of class and experience remain between them.

First appears in chapter 2

A prominent woman connected to North Dormer's small library and to the family with whom Lucius Harney is associated. Her social standing and interest in preserving the local past help create the circumstances that bring Harney and Charity together.

First appears in chapter 4

Charity's friend in North Dormer, a good-natured young seamstress who shares local news. Her observations about Harney later force Charity to consider how little she knows of his life beyond the village.

First appears in chapter 9

A polished young woman from Harney's own social circle. Charity becomes aware of her first as evidence of the wealthy, conventional world to which Harney belongs and from which Charity feels excluded.

First appears in chapter 9

Ally's sister, now living a precarious life in Nettleton. A brief sight of her during Charity's excursion exposes the harsh forms that poverty and social judgment can take beyond North Dormer.

First appears in chapter 15

A woman in Nettleton whom Charity consults in desperation after realizing she is pregnant. Her shabby practice and manner make the proposed procedure seem frightening and unsafe.

First appears in chapter 17

Charity's biological mother, who remained on the Mountain when Mr. Royall carried Charity away as a child. Charity's need to understand her origins eventually leads her back to this gravely poor and remote parent.