Minor Characters
Monsieur Binet
Yonville’s tax collector and amateur lathe-spinner. Binet is a quiet, unsociable man who dines regularly at the Golden Lion and spends all his free time happily working at his lathe. Emma propositions him for money, but he refuses.
Justin
Homais’s teenaged assistant, who falls in love with Emma in the second half of the book. Emma tricks Justin into leading her to the arsenic in Homais’s laboratory, and Justin is tormented by guilt when he learns of her death.
The Viscount
A mysterious, elegant man who dances with Emma at the ball. She knows nothing about him, but in her mind he represents a romantic ideal.
The Beggar
A mentally ill man with infected eyelids, who follows the evening coach begging for money and singing a song about young love.
Abbé Bournisien
Yonville’s priest.
Monsieur Guillaumin
Yonville’s resident lawyer, Lheureux’s sometime accomplice, and Léon’s first employer.
Félicité
Emma’s young maid, who steals all her clothes after she dies.
Héloïse Dubuc
Charles’s first wife.
Catherine Leroux
An old farmer who receives a lifetime achievement award at the agricultural fair.
Monsieur Canivet
– A famous doctor who amputates Hippolyte’s leg after Charles’s botched operation.
Lagardy
A famous singer. Emma and Charles attend his performance in Rouen.
Irma, Napoléon, and Athalie
The Homais children.
Mère Rolet
The wet nurse for Emma's daughter, Berthe.
Madame Lefrançois
The widowed innkeeper in the town of Yonville-l’Abbaye, where the Bovarys live.
Marquis d’Andervilliers
The nobleman who gives the ball to which Charles and Emma are invited, and which fuels Emma's passion for luxury and romance.