Gradgrind, Adam Smith. A younger son of Mr. Gradgrind. I: iv.

Gradgrind, Jane. Mr. Gradgrind's younger daughter. I: iv, xvi; II: ix; III: i.

Gradgrind, Louisa. Eldest child of Mr. Gradgrind.

...

There was an air of jaded sullenness in . . . the girl; yet, struggling through the dissatisfaction of her face, there was a light with nothing to rest upon, a fire with nothing to burn, a starved imagination keeping life in itself somehow, which brightened its expression, not with the brightness natural to cheerful youth, but with uncertain, eager, doubtful flashes, which had something painful in them, analogous to the changes of a blind face groping its way.

She becomes the wife of Josiah Bounderby, who says to the guests at the breakfast-table, after the marriage ceremony has been performed,

"I have watched her bringing up, and I believe she is worthy of me. At the same time, not to deceive you, I believe I am worthy of her. So I thank you, on both our parts, for the goodwill you have shown towards us; and the best wish I can give the unmarried part of the present company is this: I hope every bachelor may find as good a wife as I have found; and I hope every spinster may find as good a husband as my wife has found." The current of their wedded life does not run smooth, however. Utter incompatibility of temper, utter want of mutual love or sympathy, pave the way for a plausible acquaintance-a polished, easy man of the world—to approach her with insidious declarations of love, and to propose an elopement. Resisting the temptation, she flees to her father's house, and implores him to save her. He recommends to her husband to allow her to stay there for a while, that she may have the opportunity she so much needs for repose and reflection; but Mr. Bounderby requires that she shall return to his bed and board by the next day noon; and as she fails to do so, he refuses to have anything more to do with her, and leaves her in her father's charge. I: iii, iv, vi-ix, xiv-xvi; II: i-iii, v-xii; III: i-ix.

Gradgrind, Malthus. A son of Mr. Gradgrind. I: iv.

Gradgrind, Thomas. Mr. Gradgrind's youngest son; a selfish, ill-natured, sensual, mercenary whelp. He is employed as a clerk in Bounderby's Bank, and, being a dissipated and extravagant idler, robs it of some hundred and fifty pounds. For a time he succeeds in throwing suspicion upon an innocent factory-operative, but his own guilt is soon established, and he flees from the country to avoid arrest and imprisonment. I: iii, iv; vii-ix, xiv, xvi; II: i-iii, v-viii, x-xii; III: ii-ix.

Harthouse, Mr. James. A friend of Mr. Gradgrind's; a thorough gentleman, made to the model of the time, weary of everything, and putting no more faith in anything than Lucifer. He is "five and thirty, good-looking, good figure, good teeth, good voice, dark hair, bold eyes." II: i-iii, v, vii-xii; III: ii, iii. Jupe, Cecilia, or Sissy. The daughter of a clown. She has been kindly permitted to attend the school controlled by Mr. Gradgrind; but Mr. Bounderby thinks that she has a bad influence over the other children, and advises that the privilege should be withdrawn. The two gentlemen accordingly visit the "Pegasus' Arms" at Pod's End, to inform her father of their intention; but they find that Signor Jupe, — always a half-cracked man, — having got old and stiff in the joints, so that he cannot perform his parts satisfactorily, and having got his daughter into the school, and therefore, as he seems to think, got her well provided for, has run off to parts unknown. Under these circumstances Mr. Gradgrind decides to take charge of the girl, and educate and support her. She accompanies him home, and makes herself very useful and companionable in his family. When Louisa is about to fall into the meshes of Mr. Harthouse, Sissy visits that gentleman, and persuades and shames him into leaving the neighborhood; and when Mr. Gradgrind's son is about to be arrested for the robbery of Bounderby's Bank, she sends him to her father's old employer, Mr. Sleary, who conceals him, and gets him safely abroad. I: ii, iv-ix, xiv, xv; II: ix; III: i, ii, iv-ix.

Jupe, Signor. A clown in Sleary's circus; father of Sissy Jupe, and owner of the "highly trained performing dog Merrylegs." I: ii, iii, v, vi, ix; III: ii, viii.

Kidderminster, Master. A member of Sleary's Circus Troupe; a diminutive boy, with an old face, who assists Mr. Childers in his daring vaulting-act as the Wild Huntsman of the North American Prairies; taking the part of his infant son, and being carried upside down over his father's shoulder, by one foot, and held by the crown of his head, heels upwards, in the palm of his father's hand, according to the violent paternal manner in which wild huntsmen may be observed to fondle their offspring. I: vi; II: vii. M'Choakumchild, Mr. Teacher in Mr. Gradgrind's model school.

He and some hundred and forty other schoolmasters had been lately turned at the same time, in the same factory, on the same principles, like so many pianoforte legs. He had been put through an immense variety of paces, and had answered volumes of headbreaking questions. Orthography, etymology, syntax, and prosody, biography, astronomy, geography, and general cosmography, the sciences of compound proportion, algebra, land surveying and

levelling, vocal music, and drawing from models, were all at the ends of his ten chilled fingers. He had worked his stony way into her Majesty's most Honorable Privy Council's Schedule B, and had taken the bloom off the higher branches of mathematics and physical science, French, German, Latin, and Greek. He knew all about the water-sheds of all the world (whatever they are), and all the histories of all the peoples, and all the names of all the rivers and mountains, and all the productions, manners, and customs of all the countries, and all their boundaries and bearings on the two and thirty points of the compass. Ah! rather overdone, M'Choakumchild. If he had only learnt a little less, how infinitely better he might have taught much more! I: i-iii, ix, xiv. Merrylegs. Signor Jupe's trained performing-dog. I: iii, v-viii; III: viii.

Pegler, Mrs. Mother of Josiah Bounderby; a mysterious old woman, tall and shapely, though withered by time. Her son, growing rich, becomes ashamed of her, and gives her thirty pounds a year to keep away from him, and not claim any relationship with him; but the secret is at last divulged, under the most ridiculous circumstances, through the agency of the inquisitive and superserviceable Mrs. Sparsit. I: xii; II: vi, viii; III: iv, v. Rachael. A factory-hand; a friend of Stephen Blackpool's. I: x-xiii; II: iv, vi; III: iv-vi, ix.

Scadgers, Lady. Great-aunt to Mrs. Sparsit; an immensely fat old woman with an inordinate appetite for butcher's meat, and a mysterious leg, which has refused to get out of bed for fourteen years. I: vii; II: viii; III: ix.

Slackbridge. A trades-union agitator and orator. II: iv; III : iv. Sleary, Josephine. Daughter of a circus proprietor; a pretty, fair-haired girl of eighteen, noted for her graceful Tyrolean floweract. I vi; II: vii.

Sleary, Mr. Proprietor of a "Horse-riding," or circus; a stout man, with one fixed eye and one loose eye, a voice (if it can be called so) like the efforts of a broken old pair of bellows, a flabby surface, and a muddled head, which is never sober, and never drunk. He is troubled with asthma, and his breath comes far too thick and heavy for the letter "s." I: vi, ix ; III, vii, viii. Sparsit, Mrs. Mr. Bounderby's housekeeper; an elderly lady highly connected, with a Coriolanian style of nose, and dense black eyebrows. Mr. Bounderby gives her a hundred a year, disguising the payment under the name of an "annual compliment." I: vii, xi, xvi; II: i, iii, vi, viii-xi; III: iii, v, ix.

STORIES

THE LAMPLIGHTER'S STORY

Barker, Miss Fanny. Niece to an old astrologer, who takes Tom Grig to be pointed out by the stars as her destined husband. He describes her as having "a graceful carriage, an exquisite shape, a sweet voice, a countenance beaming with animation and expression, and the eye of a startled fawn." She has also, he says, five thousand pounds in cash; and this attraction, added to the others, inclines Tom to marry her; but when he finds that her uncle has borrowed and spent the whole sum in an unsuccessful search for the philosopher's stone, he alters his mind, and declares that the scheme is "no go," at which the uncle is enraged, and the niece is delighted; she being in love with another young man. Emma. Daughter of a crazy astrologer who has spent fifteen years in conducting fruitless experiments having for their object the discovery of the philosopher's stone. Her father designs marrying her to his partner, "the gifted Mooney;" but he utterly refuses to take her, alleging that his "contemplation of womankind" has led him to resolve that he "will not adventure on the troubled sea of matrimony."

Galileo, Isaac Newton Flamstead. The Christian names of the son of the crazy astrologer who takes Tom Grig to be "the favorite of the planets." He is a tall, thin, dismal-faced young gentleman, in his twenty-first year; though his father, absorbed in chimerical projects, considers him "a mere child," and has n't provided him with a new suit of clothes since he was fourteen. Grig, Tom. A lamplighter, who, on going his rounds one day, is accosted by one of the strangest and most mysterious-looking old gentlemen ever seen. This person proves to be a very learned astrologer, who is on the point of discovering the philosopher's stone, which will turn everything into gold. He imagines that he has found in Tom a noble stranger, whose birth is shrouded in uncertainty, and who is destined by the stars to be the husband of his young and lovely niece. He therefore takes him into his house forthwith, and introduces him to the lady. She is greatly disturbed, and suggests that the stars must have made a mistake; but is silenced by her uncle. After this, Tom accompanies the old gentleman to the observatory, where Mr. Mooney another scientific gentleman-casts his nativity, and horrifies him by predicting his death at exactly thirty-five minutes, twentyseven seconds, and five-sixths of a second, past nine o'clock, a. M.,

on that day two months. Tom makes up his mind, that, while alive, he had better be rich than poor, and so assents to the proposed marriage. The preliminaries are nearly concluded, when suddenly the crucible containing the ingredients of the miraculous stone explodes with a tremendous crash, and the labors of fifteen years are destroyed in an instant. Moreover, a mistake is discovered in the old gentleman's computation; and it turns out that Tom is to live to a green old age, -eighty-seven, at least. Upon this, not caring for a portionless bride who does n't love him, he utterly refuses to marry the lovely niece, whereupon her uncle, in a rage, wets his forefinger in some of the liquor from the crucible that was spilt on the floor, and draws a small triangle upon the forehead of the young lamplighter, who instantly finds himself in the watch-house, with the room swimming before his eyes. Mooney, Mr., called THE GIFTED. A learned philosopher, with the dirtiest face we can possibly know of in this imperfect state of existence.

TO BE READ AT DUSK

Baptista, Giovanni. A Genoese courier, who tells the story of an English lady, who sees in her dreams a face which haunts her: she dreads meeting the person who bears it, meets him finally, and disappears with him.

Carolina. Maid to Clara, and on excellent terms with Giovanni Baptista.

Clara. The English lady who sees ghosts.

Dellombra, Signor. The materialized ghost.

Dodger, Ananias. An American gentleman of great wealth and mean biography.

James, Mr. An Englishman who sees the phantom of his twin brother John.

John, Mr. An Englishman who sends his phantom on an errand. Robert. Servant to Mr. John.

Wilhelm.

Servant to Mr. James.

THE LAZY TOUR OF TWO IDLE APPRENTICES

Ellen. A very gloomy bride.

Goodchild, Francis. A laboriously idle man, who had no better idea of idleness than that it was useless industry.

Idle, Thomas. A passive idler, a born and bred idler, a consistent idler, who practised what he would have preached, if he had not been too idle to preach; a one entire and perfect chrysolite of idleness.