Characters
- Margaret Lea: a bookstore owner's daughter, whom Vida Winter asks to write her biography. The primary narrator of the book.
- Vida Winter: a famous novelist who has eluded reporters as to her true past, and is now ready to reveal her secrets to Margaret.
- Isabelle Angelfield: the younger of George Angelfield's two children and the mother of twins Emmeline and Adeline.
- Charlie Angelfield: Isabelle's older brother, who harbours an obsessive incestuous and sadistic passion for his sister.
- Emmeline March: the calm, complacent twin. Generally presumed by most to be mentally retarded.
- Adeline March: the angry, violent twin. Formerly known as Adeline March (a secret used as one of the "three verifiable truths" that Miss Winter reveals to Margaret at the beginning of the story).
- Aurelius Love: a resident of the Angelfield village, raised by Mrs. Love, he befriends Margaret.
- John Digence/"John-the-dig": Angelfield's longtime gardener and the Missus' companion.
- The Missus: Angelfield's aged housekeeper who essentially raises the twins along with John-the-dig.
- Hester Barrow: governess to Adeline and Emmeline.
- Dr. Maudsley: the town doctor who, along with Hester, attempts to help the twins through experimentation.
- George Angelfield: Charlie and Isabelle's father, who ignores the former and dotes on the latter after his wife's death.
- Mathilde Angelfield: Charlie and Isabelle's mother, who dies giving birth to Isabelle.
- Judith: Vida Winter's housekeeper.
- Dr. Clifton: Vida Winter's doctor.
- Mrs. Love: a woman who lived in the vicinity of Angelfield and raised Aurelius from the time he was left on her porch as an infant.
- Ambrose Proctor: a boy who worked at the Angelfield estate when the twins were about 16, has a more important role in the story that we learn later.
Read more about this topic: The Thirteenth Tale
Famous quotes containing the word characters:
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—Clifford Irving (b. 1930)
“For the most part, only the light characters travel. Who are you that have no task to keep you at home?”
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“His leanings were strictly lyrical, descriptions of nature and emotions came to him with surprising facility, but on the other hand he had a lot of trouble with routine items, such as, for instance, the opening and closing of doors, or shaking hands when there were numerous characters in a room, and one person or two persons saluted many people.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)