Balzac and The Little Chinese Seamstress - Characters

Characters

• The narrator — Written in Chinese characters, his name in English translates as "Horse Sword Bell," but in the original French version this is not specified, as he mentions only that the characters making up his name can be drawn as a man riding a horse, a long sword, and a ringing bell. He is a seventeen-year-old violin player, and once is referred to in the novel as "the fiddler." and "very intelligent." He enjoys the Western books that he receives from Four-Eyes greatly and is attracted instantly to The Little Seamstress, despite Luo’s relationship with her. He procures an abortion for her when Luo is visiting his mother.

• Luo — Luo is the only character in the novel with a recognizable name. Luo, is an eighteen-year-old who has a talent for storytelling, is the one who comes up with the idea of trading one of Four-Eyes’ books for labor. He reads novels by Balzac to The Little Seamstress in order to educate her. He takes away her virginity and impregnates her, and after she leaves, he burns every one of the forbidden books that he and the narrator own.

• The Little Seamstress, the daughter of a famous local tailor, the Little Seamstress is a rare beauty. She has had no formal education and cannot read, so Luo and the narrator read to her. She is impregnated by Luo, and subsequently gets an abortion. As the novel progresses, the Little Seamstress learns about the outside world by reading the foreign books with Luo’s help. She eventually leaves the mountain and everything that she has known to start a new life in the city.

• The Village Headman,the leader of the village to which the narrator and Luo are sent for reeducation, is a fifty-year-old “ex-opium farmer turned Communist cadre.” One day, he even blackmails Luo to fix his teeth in return for not sending the narrator to jail.

• Four-Eyes,the son of a writer and a poet, must wear thick glasses to compensate for his nearsightedness. He possesses a suitcase full of forbidden "reactionary" Western novels that the Narrator and Luo covet, and eventually steal. He is referred to as a character who is used to humiliation. He ends up leaving the mountain when his mother convinces the government to end his re-education early and gets Four-Eyes a job at a newspaper.

• The Miller is an old man who lives alone and is a repository of local "folk" songs. The Miller narrates one part of the novel and provides songs to the boys, who then relate them to Four-Eyes. He is one of the characters who chooses not to be involved with the revolution.

• The Tailor, the father of the Little Seamstress and the only tailor on the mountain, is a rich and popular man. He is old but energetic and widely travelled. At one point in the story, the narrator recounts "The Count of Monte Cristo" to him while he spends the night with the narrator and Luo. Through this experience, he gains a slight air of sophistication, and the story begins to influence the clothes that he makes.

• The Gynaecologist, a man around 40 years old with “grizzled lanky hair sharp features,” performs the Little Seamstress’ illegal abortion in return for a book by Honoré de Balzac.