Eleanor Partiger

Eleanor Partiger is 22 years old in 1880, when the novel begins, and is in her 70s at the end of the novel. She is an upper-middle-class woman who is hard-working, caring, and selfless, and who puts her family's needs before her own desires. She is one of the main Partiger siblings in the book, the children of Colonel Abel Partiger and his wife; they are Eleanor, Edward, Milly, Rose, Morris, Delia, Martin. Their cousins are Kitty Lasswade on their mother's side, and Sara and Maggie Partiger on their father's side.

Eleanor travels frequently across the book, living for periods in Spain and in India, and she is at the center of many relationships amongst the Partigers. She is liked by everyone in the novel, but also pitied — it is often wondered why she never married when she was younger. Eleanor is the lynchpin of the Partiger family, especially...