Gordon is a 30-year-old poet who deliberately embraces poverty as a rebellion against the capitalist obsession with money. Coming from a downwardly-mobile middle-class family, he resents social expectations and works a low-paying job at a used bookstore instead of pursuing a conventional career. He struggles to write his epic poem, London Pleasures, blaming his lack of creativity on financial anxiety and his bleak surroundings.

Rosemary is a young woman who works at the advertising firm New Albion, where she initially met Gordon. She is practical, neatly dressed despite her low wages, and lives in a strict tenant house that forbids male visitors. She cares deeply for Gordon but often finds herself exasperated by his endless theorizing about wealth and his stubborn pride.

Ravelston is a wealthy, self-proclaimed socialist who edits a leftist literary journal titled Antichrist. He feels guilty about his upper-class status and attempts to support struggling writers. He constantly tries to persuade Gordon to adopt socialism, though he secretly feels out of place in the working-class environments he idealizes.

Julia is Gordon's sister, a self-effacing woman who works at a tea shop and lives in relative poverty. She surrendered her own educational and business opportunities so her family could afford to send Gordon to expensive boarding schools. Despite having very little money herself, she continues to provide her brother with loans and cares for their impoverished relatives.

Mrs. Wisbeach is Gordon's authoritarian landlady at the apartment building for single men. About 45 years old, she enforces strict rules for her tenants, explicitly forbidding them from bringing women to their rooms or brewing tea. She frequently spies on the residents and monitors their mail, embodying the petty tyranny of middle-class respectability.

Flaxman is a fellow lodger at Mrs. Wisbeach's tenant house. He is a sociable man who frequently invites his neighbors out for drinks. Gordon often rebuffs his friendliness out of embarrassment over having no money, though Flaxman remains generally tolerant of these rejections.

Hermione is Ravelston's wealthy girlfriend. Unlike him, she openly embraces her upper-class status and holds deep contempt for the poor and working classes. She frequently criticizes Ravelston's socialist ideals and his choice of impoverished companions.

Doring is an acquaintance of Gordon's who hosts literary tea parties. Gordon looks forward to these gatherings for intellectual stimulation, though he often finds himself disappointed by the conversations or feeling socially excluded due to his lack of funds.

Mr. Kechnie is the owner of the used bookstore where Gordon works as a clerk. He employs Gordon for low wages, providing the meager income that barely sustains the poet's austere lifestyle after Gordon abandons his advertising career.

Uncle Walter is Gordon's uncle, a man who dedicated his life to business at the behest of the family patriarch but ultimately failed. He now runs an unsuccessful office while living humbly in a boarding house.

Aunt Angela is Gordon's aunt, an elderly woman living on welfare. She represents the ongoing financial decline of the Comstock family and relies heavily on the food and support provided by her niece, Julia.

John Comstock is Gordon and Julia's father. Although he possessed a slight literary inclination and initially defied the family patriarch by marrying early, he eventually succumbed to pressure and took up an accounting career at which he failed.

Gran'pa Comstock is Gordon's grandfather, the patriarch who built the family fortune during the Victorian era by exploiting workers. He exerted strict control over his children, forcing them into respectable professions for which they were entirely unsuited.

Lorenheim is a lodger living under Mrs. Wisbeach's roof. He is a lonely but overly friendly man who shares the depressing, heavily monitored environment of the boarding house with Gordon and Flaxman.

Mr. Erskine is a manager at the New Albion advertising firm. He oversees the copywriting department where Gordon previously worked before resigning in protest against the money-driven world.

Mr. Cheeseman is a dealer of rare books who operates a business in London. He possesses a cynical view of the reading public and aims to establish a cheap, low-end lending library targeted at uneducated readers.

Mrs. Meakin is a landlady who operates a dingy tenant house in London. Her establishment functions with far fewer rules and less middle-class decency than Mrs. Wisbeach's boarding house, providing a different environment for her lodgers.