- Jasper Milvain — a journalist who prioritises financial gain and social prominence over artistic integrity. After a broken engagement with Marian Yule, Milvain marries her cousin (and Edwin Reardon's widow), Amy, who received a legacy of £10,000 on her uncle's death. By the novel's end, Milvain secures an editorship of a periodical "The Current" partly due to determination, partly due to largesse made possible by his wife's inheritance.
- Edwin Reardon — a talented, but weak-willed writer of uncommercial novels who suffers from writer's block. A modicum of early critical praise is disappointed after his marriage to Amy Yule (and fathering of Willie), when Reardon is unable to provide for his family through his chosen profession. After Reardon fails, he takes refuge in the steady income of a clerkship proffered by a friend. Reardon is deserted by his wife, who cannot endure poverty and social degradation. They are briefly reconciled when their child becomes ill and dies; but Reardon, whose health has been broken by depression and poor living, is himself seriously ill, and his death soon follows.
- Amy Reardon – wife of Edwin Reardon, daughter of Edmund Yule, niece of Alfred Yule, and cousin of Marian Yule. Amy married Edwin after he enjoyed success with his novel On Neutral Ground, and the couple have had a son, Willie. However, she has become increasingly disillusioned with and exasperated at Edwin at his failure to produce subsequent novels and his continual inactivity. weakness, and passivity with respect to new writing.
- Alfred Yule — writer. Yule is a vehement foe of Clement Fadge, the editor who provided Milvain's first opportunity. His frustrations over meagre financial prospects and a stalled career are repeatedly visited on his wife whose lower-class background and limited education are a continual source of irritation. He dies blind.
- Marian Yule — cousin of Amy Reardon and daughter of Alfred Yule. A sympathetic portrait of a woman torn between family ties, the possibility of marriage, and the need to earn a living. Loyal to her fiancee Jasper Milvain, she ultimately is forced to acknowledge that he is not prepared to marry her after her financial circumstances have been reduced, and indeed does not even love her. She breaks off the engagement, despite still being in love with him.
- Harold Biffen — habitually (almost contentedly) down-and-out friend of Reardon. Biffen scrapes an existence from tutoring. The novel that he has worked on for many years, Mr Bailey, Grocer, is eventually published, but attracts little notice. He runs out of money and is unwilling to ask his brother for more. He develops an unrequited infatuation with Amy Reardon. Under the strain of this limerence, he commits suicide.
- Dora Milvain — Jasper Milvain's younger sister, who moves to London following her mother's death. With Jasper's encouragement, Dora enters onto a career writing for children and encounters early success. Eventually, she marries Mr. Whelpdale.
- Maud Milvain — Jasper Milvain's sister, who also moves to London following her mother's death. Begins writing as well, but is not as ambitious as her sister. She marries the wealthy Mr. Dolomore.
- Mr. Whelpdale — friend of Milvain and future husband of Dora Milvain. Whelpdale is a compulsive lover with four broken engagements behind him (in each, the woman's choice). Having abandoned fiction-writing, Whelpdale concentrates on a business assisting clients in publishing and revising novels. Eventually, his business finds commercial backing. The character of Whelpdale is based on Lord Northcliffe.[3] At the time of writing, Northcliffe published a few inexpensive weekly papers, most notably Answers — he would later go on to become the preeminent figure in Edwardian popular journalism.
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