Characters
- Mr McIlvaine: first-person narrator
- Martin Pemberton: Freelance journalist, who writes scathing reviews and is at odds with his father
- Augustus Pemberton: gained wealth from the slave trade and the production of low grade war goods during the American Civil War
- Harry Wheelwright: the only friend of Martin Pemberton. McIlvaine doesn't like him
- Emily Tisdale: fiancée and schoolfriend of Martin
- Revd. Charles Grimshaw: in the circle of Augustus Pemberton
- Edmund Donne: One of the few policemen in New York who is not corrupt.
- Dr. Sartorius: Doctor with a Faust-like thirst for knowledge . He worked in military hospitals during the Civil War. In this role he appears in E.L. Doctorow's later novel, The March. McIlvaine gives the origin of his name, the Latin word for dressmaker.
Read more about this topic: The Waterworks
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