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Charles Pooter

A middle-aged City clerk who narrates the diary, living at The Laurels with his wife Carrie. He is proud, easily flattered, prone to puns he finds hilarious, and obsessed with respectability, home improvement (including painting the bath red), and his standing with his employer Mr. Perkupp. He constantly suffers minor humiliations from tradesmen, servants, and his son Lupin, which he records with wounded dignity.

Carrie Pooter

Pooter's devoted but often exasperated wife, who manages the household, deals with servants and tradesmen, and frequently talks Pooter out of his more absurd schemes. She enjoys fashion, attends séances with enthusiasm, and is close friends with Mrs. James of Sutton, whose opinions she tends to adopt. She and Pooter have an affectionate, if bickering, marriage marked by small jokes and reconciliations.

Lupin Pooter

The Pooters' grown son, originally called Willie while working at a bank in Oldham, who returns home after being dismissed for taking no interest in his work and arriving hours late. Brash, slangy, and full of get-rich-quick schemes (including the disastrous Parachikka Chlorates investment), he cycles through jobs including a clerkship at Job Cleanands and Co. and eventually a position secured through Mr. Perkupp. He falls for Daisy Mutlar, is devastated when she marries Murray Posh instead, and later causes a crisis at Perkupp's firm by interfering with a client, Mr. Crowbillon.

Mr. Perkupp

Pooter's dignified and much-respected employer, head of an old City firm. He promotes Pooter to senior clerk, secures a job for Lupin, and later dismisses Lupin after he interferes with valued client Mr. Crowbillon's business without authorization. Despite the trouble Lupin causes, Perkupp assures Pooter he does not blame him and asks for his help smoothing things over with the client.

Gowing

One of Pooter's two closest friends, a somewhat tactless neighbor who drops in unannounced, complains loudly about paint smells, and repeatedly falls over the troublesome front-door scraper. He borrows Pooter's umbrella by mistake, recommends a faulty stylographic pen, and causes minor social disasters, but is quick to reconcile and often ends up siding with Lupin against Pooter.

Cummings

Pooter's other constant friend, who lives across the street and is an enthusiastic tricyclist. He is frequently ill or injured (including a fall down the stairs and a tricycle accident reported in the Bicycle News), and complains bitterly that no one visits him during his illnesses. He owns a prized meerschaum pipe won in a City raffle.

Sarah

The Pooters' household servant, who deals with tradesmen, lights fires, and is blamed (sometimes unfairly) for household mishaps such as a torn diary page and mismatched laundry. She shows little enthusiasm for Pooter's decorating enthusiasms, such as his red-enameled furniture.

Daisy Mutlar

A young woman courted intensely by Lupin Pooter, who brings her and her family into the Pooters' social circle. Despite Lupin's confidence that she would wait years for him, she instead marries the wealthy hat manufacturer Murray Posh, devastating Lupin.

Frank Mutlar

Daisy Mutlar's brother and a friend of Lupin's, who brings Murray Posh to the Pooters' house and later writes to announce Daisy's engagement to Posh in a casually cruel manner.

Murray Posh

A wealthy manufacturer known for '3-shilling hats,' who marries Daisy Mutlar and settles £10,000 on her and £10,000 on her sister 'Lillie Girl.' On Lupin's advice he invests £600 in the fraudulent-sounding Parachikka Chlorates, giving Lupin a bitter consolation after losing Daisy.

Mr. Padge

An unpleasant, portly acquaintance whom Pooter dislikes but tolerates, notable for a rude interjection during an argument about acting and for looking incongruously fine in a Volunteer uniform despite his baggy tunic.

Burwin-Fosselton

A member of the amateur 'Holloway Comedians' theatrical group who is obsessed with actor Henry Irving and insists on being addressed by his full double-barreled name. He cracks the Pooters' round table performing an impression, dominates conversation with Irving imitations, and writes an indignant letter to Pooter after a dispute about the merits of imitation versus originality.

Mrs. James of Sutton

A close friend of Carrie's whose opinions on fashion and decor (such as draping the mantelpiece with toy spiders and beetles) Carrie readily adopts, much to Pooter's private irritation. She participates enthusiastically in the household's table-turning séances and claims to receive a message from 'Captain Drinkwater,' an old family friend.

Hardfur Huttle

A confident, philosophically opinionated acquaintance who delivers grand speeches against 'the happy medium' and respectability, urging people to go 'first class or third.' He later summons Pooter urgently to a hotel at midnight to discuss a lucrative business opportunity involving a wealthy American client.

Farmerson

The neighborhood ironmonger, hired to fix the Pooters' bells and move the troublesome scraper. He turns up unexpectedly at the grand Mansion House Ball in fine society dress, startling Pooter with his familiarity.

Mr. Crowbillon

A valuable client of Mr. Perkupp's firm who is nearly lost as a customer after a dispute involving Lupin's unauthorized interference, but who writes back praising Lupin's intelligence over the firm's usual service.

Mr. Franching of Peckham

A respectable acquaintance of the Pooters who appears at social events like the Mansion House Ball and later recommends Pooter to Hardfur Huttle for a business opportunity.

The Laurels, Brickfield Terrace, Holloway

The Pooters' six-roomed suburban home, featuring a front breakfast-parlour, a small front garden with ten steps to a chained front door, and a back garden running down to a railway line whose noise the landlord discounted £2 off the rent to offset. The house is the site of most of the diary's domestic mishaps, including painted furniture, a troublesome door scraper, and a memorable dinner party.

Mansion House

The grand venue where Pooter and Carrie attend a ball hosted by the Lord and Lady Mayoress to 'meet the Representatives of Trades and Commerce,' a major highlight of their social life featuring champagne, dancing, and an awkward encounter with the ironmonger Farmerson.

Broadstairs

The seaside town the Pooters choose for their summer holiday after some indecision, a 'Good old' favorite destination that Carrie initially objects to before settling on it for lack of time to consider alternatives.

Watney Lodge

The home of the Finsworth family, decorated with knick-knacks, painted milk-stools, a hand-painted wooden banjo, and watercolor views of India attributed to an artist named 'Simpz,' where the Pooters attend an awkward Sunday dinner interrupted by a muddy collie dog.

The Holloway Comedians

An amateur theatrical group to which Burwin-Fosselton belongs, known for performing dramatic imitations of famous actors like Henry Irving at social gatherings, sometimes to the point of becoming a tiresome obsession.

The Front-Door Scraper

A recurring hazard outside The Laurels over which nearly every visitor—including Gowing, a butcher, and others—trips or falls, prompting repeated but never-completed plans to have it removed or repaired by the ironmonger Farmerson.

Pooter's Diary

The handwritten diary itself, the central conceit of the narrative, which Pooter treasures as a record of his daily life; at one point pages are mysteriously torn out (suspected to have been used by a sweep to light a fire), causing him great distress.

Pinkford's Enamel Paint

A patent red enamel paint Pooter becomes enthusiastically obsessed with, using it to redecorate flower-pots, a servant's washstand, the spines of his Shakespeare volumes, a coal-scuttle, and—most controversially—the bathtub, much to Carrie's displeasure.

Stylographic Pen

A patent pen recommended by Gowing for nine-and-sixpence that leaks ink constantly, causing Pooter public embarrassment at the office when his knocking to clear it draws mockery from a junior clerk named Pitt in front of Mr. Perkupp.

Meerschaum Pipe

A pipe Cummings wins in a City raffle and proudly shows off to Pooter, warning him to handle it carefully so as not to spoil its coloring with moisture from his hands.

The Bicycle News

A periodical that Cummings, an avid tricyclist, references repeatedly as having reported on his minor accidents and illnesses, treating his own mishaps as newsworthy events that others in the Pooters' circle find mildly absurd.

Table-Turning Séances

An evening pastime taken up by Carrie and her circle (including Mrs. James and Cummings), in which the household holds séances around a table said to spell out messages, including a supposed communication from 'Captain Drinkwater' and cryptic words like 'BOSH' and 'POSH' that seem to hint at real events in the family's life.

Parachikka Chlorates

A dubious investment scheme promoted by Lupin, into which both Pooter and Cummings sink £20 each and which Murray Posh is later talked into investing £600, providing Lupin with bitter satisfaction after losing Daisy Mutlar to Posh.