Quote:
Originally Posted by Bookpossum
Nicoll (my go-to man) suggests that in his other books, all the main characters have appeared by the halfway point, so we have the cast there, with maybe only a minor character or two walking on later on. [...]
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Hmm... that seems almost - but not quite - a tautology; in most fiction it is usual for all the main characters to have appeared by the halfway point. I suppose he may be alluding to the fact that a character's significance may be revealed late, as with
Great Expectations where we only understand the part of Magwitch at around the halfway mark.
This great expectation (sorry for the poor pun) is one of the reasons why Datchery stood out from the moment he was mentioned. Coming so late into the story, and seeming to be a significant character, the reader is naturally inclined to think it is an already known character in disguise. And along the same lines, we are already seeing an increasing significance to The Princess Puffer, even if we don't yet have any idea where that will lead us.