The Lifted Veil characters

Appears from the start

A sickly, introspective Englishman who narrates his life while awaiting a death he believes he has foreseen. As a young man he feels alienated from his practical family and longs for affection and artistic sympathy. After an illness, he begins experiencing involuntary visions of future events and hearing the unspoken thoughts of people around him. The power gives him knowledge without companionship and makes ordinary society almost unbearable.

Appears from the start

Latimer's older brother and their father's favored heir. Alfred is healthy, confident, conventional, and comfortable with the worldly ambitions that repel Latimer. His engagement to Bertha Grant places her continually within Latimer's family circle.

Appears from the start

A beautiful, self-possessed young woman engaged to Alfred. Her playful mockery and emotional reserve fascinate Latimer, especially because hers is the one mind his strange perception cannot read. That silence lets him imagine a sympathy between them that he cannot find in other people.

Appears from the start

The prosperous, practical father of Alfred and Latimer. He admires his elder son's vigor and has little patience with Latimer's frailty, inwardness, or lack of interest in the future planned for him.

Appears from the start

Latimer's friend from his student days, a disciplined medical researcher whose confidence in observation contrasts with Latimer's private and inexplicable perceptions. He later visits Latimer as an accomplished physician and brings an experimental curiosity to a crisis in the household.

First appears in chapter 2

Bertha's maid, whose sharp attention and private resentment make her a troubling presence in Latimer's household. When she becomes gravely ill, Meunier attempts an experimental procedure at her bedside.