Gemma Doyle | |
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First appearance | A Great and Terrible Beauty |
Last appearance | The Sweet Far Thing |
Created by | Libba Bray |
Information | |
Nickname(s) | Pet (father only) Gem (Felicity, Ann, Pippa, and Tom) Lady Hope (Hajin) Most High (Gorgon) |
Aliases | Dog Mealy Em, Gemma Dowd, Duchess of Doyle |
Gender | Female |
Occupation | Student |
Title | Miss |
Family | Virginia Doyle (mother), John Doyle (father), Tom Doyle (brother), Mrs. William Doyle (grandmother) |
Spouse(s) | Kartik |
Ann Bradshaw | |
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Gemma Doyle Trilogy character | |
First appearance | A Great and Terrible Beauty |
Last appearance | The Sweet Far Thing |
Created by | Libba Bray |
Information | |
Aliases | Nan Washbrad |
Gender | Female |
Occupation | Student/Governess/Actress/Singer |
Title | Miss |
Family | Merchant uncle who is paying for her schooling. |
Relatives | Mrs. Wharton (distant cousin) and her husband and children; Charlotte and Caroline |
Felicity Worthington | |
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First appearance | A Great and Terrible Beauty |
Last appearance | The Sweet Far Thing |
Created by | Libba Bray |
Information | |
Nickname(s) | Fee |
Aliases | Maleficent Oddity Ralingworth, Miss Anthrope |
Gender | Female |
Occupation | Student |
Title | Miss |
Family | Lady Worthington (mother), Sir George Phineas Worthington (father), Polly (cousin) |
Spouse(s) | Horace Markham (fiancé, briefly) Pippa Cross (friend/lover) |
Pippa Cross | |
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A Great and Terrible Beauty character | |
First appearance | A Great and Terrible Beauty |
Last appearance | The Sweet Far Thing |
Created by | Libba Bray |
Information | |
Nickname(s) | Pip (by Gemma, Ann and Felicity) Miss Pippa (by factory girls) |
Gender | female |
Occupation | Student/Evil Ringleader |
Title | Miss |
Family | Mrs. Cross (mother) Mr. Cross (father) |
Spouse(s) | Mr. Bumble (fiancé) Felicity Worthington (friend/lover) |
The characters in the Gemma Doyle Trilogy appear in a group of three fantasy novels by Libba Bray, set in late 19th-century England, and published between 2003 and 2007: A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, and the The Sweet Far Thing. The leading characters include Gemma Doyle herself, who is able to enter the magical "Realms"; Ann Bradshaw, Felicity Worthington and Pippa Cross, Gemma's fellow-students at the boarding school Spence Academy; some of the staff at that school, including the evil "Circe"; and members of "The Order", a secret society. Male characters include Kartik and other members of the "Rakshana". There are also characters drawn from upper-class English society. Supernatural beings play an important role in the story—centaurs and forest people, a Gorgon, lost souls called "Winterland creatures" and "Trackers", and the skeletal "Poppy Warriors".
Gemma Doyle (born in Shropshire, June 21, 1879) is the heroine of Libba Bray's novels A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, and The Sweet Far Thing. She is described as being rather tall, taller than most of her peers, with "pale" skin, a "decent" profile, and "a straight nose and a good jaw". What differentiates her most from others is perhaps her mane of red hair and brilliant green eyes, two assets that she inherited from her mother.
Gemma lived most of her life in India. In June 1895, Gemma's mother, Virginia Doyle, is killed after hearing that someone named Circe is near, leaving Gemma with her strange amulet in the shape of the Crescent Eye. The Doyle family moves back to England. Gemma, then only sixteen, is sent to Spence Academy rather abruptly. Her first friend there is roommate and scholarship student Ann Bradshaw, and shortly after, she meets witty and wealthy Felicity Worthington and the beautiful, but shallow, Pippa Cross, at that time Felicity's best friend. All four girls strike up a rather unconventional relationship as they find themselves entangled in the mysterious Order.