Nicholas Jenkins

The narrator of the story, Jenkins is at a boarding school when the story opens and later attends college. He eventually becomes an employee of a publishing house and writes a book of his own. Jenkins' life is punctuated by what seems a series of unconnected events, though in truth the people he meets serve to unite all aspects of his life. He tends to be motivated to greater heights or to coast with little direction based largely on his companions of the moment. As he matures, he learns this about his personality and seems to pay more attention to those with whom he associates and to be more careful about his tendency to follow. Jenkins is greatly impacted by a chance meeting with a young man named Widmerpool who does not fit in with Jenkins and his group of close friends as a student. Jenkins watches...