Eight Cousins

• Plenty Campbell: Maiden great-aunt of Rose and matriarch of the family. Aunt Plenty is chatelaine of the ancestral home in Boston, which is “a capital old mansion … full of all manner of odd nooks, charming rooms, and mysterious passages. Windows broke out in unexpected places, little balconies overhung the garden most romantically, and there was a long upper hall full of curiosities from all parts of the world … “
• Peace Campbell: Maiden sister of Plenty. An invalid, she has a tragic history. Her lover died hours before their wedding, and “gentle Peace” never recovered from the blow. Universally beloved by the family, she is the Mary to Aunt Plenty's Martha.
• Myra Campbell: The only sister of the original Campbell sisters. She is a widow and we never learn her husband's name. Myra is a gloomy, self-absorbed hypochondriac, obsessed with medicines and mortality. Her presence is tolerated rather than welcomed by the rest of the family. She is the mother of the only other female Campbell cousin, Caroline, who died young – possibly “dosed to death” – inadvertently poisoned with "quack medicines" by her mother.
• Jane Humphries Campbell: Wife of Uncle Mac and mother of Rose's cousins Mac and Steve. Aunt Jane is a stern disciplinarian, utterly lacking a sense of humor. But she is completely reliable. Her bark is worse than her bite, and Rose comes to like and trust her.
• Clara Campbell: Wife of Uncle Stephen, who is absent in India. Clara is a social butterfly, completely absorbed in Boston's high society. She looks forward to sponsoring Rose's debut in a few years’ time and secretly plans that Rose shall marry her son Charlie.
• Jessie Campbell: Wife of Uncle Jem, a sea captain. Jessie has raised four sons – Archie, Will, Geordie, Jamie – almost without the assistance of her husband, who is always away at sea. Steady, wise, and loving, Jessie is Rose's favorite aunt and the nearest substitute she has to a mother. Jessie is the aunt most trusted by Rose's guardian, Uncle Alec.

• Alec: The principal male character. A seafaring doctor, he became Rose's guardian when her father George died. He has never married; we are led to assume that the great love of his life was Rose's mother, who chose to marry George. Alec has “advanced” ideas about child-rearing, which he implements in so gentle and loving a fashion that Rose is restored to health and happiness in spite of her fears. The aunts are nervous about (or even opposed to) some of Alec's ideas, but they come to trust him implicitly.
• Mac: Married to Jane and father to Rose's cousins Mac and Steve. He is engaged in the China trade and has a warehouse on the Bay full of Asian treasures. A trifle henpecked by his masterful wife, he spends most of his time in his counting-house. He is very fond of Rose and secretly hopes that she will marry one of his sons.
• Jem (James): Married to Jessie and father to Rose's cousins Archie, Will, Geordie, and Jamie. Jem is a sea captain who makes a surprise appearance toward the end of the book.
• Stephen: Married to Clara and father to Rose's cousin Charlie. His profession is never specified. He lives in India, perhaps driven from home by his distaste for Clara's propensity for high society. Stephen never makes an appearance in Eight Cousins.
• George: Recently deceased father of Rose, for whom she grieves deeply. Uncle Alec and he "fell out" because they loved the same woman. Years later they met and made up, and George asked Alec to look after Rose if anything happened to him.

A sixth brother-in-law, Aunt Myra's deceased husband, is never named.

• Archibald (Archie): Eldest son of Jem and Jessie. Eldest of all the cousins at age 16, of steady and thoughtful character, he is the Chief, much respected by all the boys and an “older brother” figure to Rose.
• Charles C. (Charlie): Also known as Prince Charlie, the “flower of the family,” considered the most handsome, talented, and promising of the lot. Age 16. He is the spoiled only child of Stephen and Clara—spoiled by his too-indulgent mother, with no father present to give him guidance. Charlie and Archie are inseparable friends and lead the way in all exploits.
• Alexander Mackenzie (Mac): Elder son of Mac and Jane. Age 15. Known as the Bookworm, or simply “the Worm,” Mac always has his nose in a book and is regarded as the wisest and most learned of the cousins, although deficient in basic social skills through absent-mindedness and lack of interest.
• Stephen (Steve): Mac's younger brother. Age 14. A good-natured though rather conceited dandy, he idolizes Charlie and copies him in everything, not always to his own advantage.
• William (Will): Jem and Jessie's second son. Age 12.
• George (Geordie): Jem and Jessie's third son. Age 11.
• James (Jamie): Jem and Jessie's youngest. Age 6. Much-loved but unspoiled.

• Phebe Moore: Housemaid of Aunts Plenty and Peace, a girl from the poor house, who is employed on trial at the opening of the story. Lonely Rose befriends Phebe and then “adopts” her as a sister, teaches her improvements in reading and writing skills, admires Phebe's marked musical talent and upright character, and includes her in all aspects of her life as Phebe becomes her personal maid. (At a time in our social history when it was unusual for members of a wealthy household to develop close personal relationships with “the help,” this is a testament to the sweetness of Rose's unspoiled character.)
• Debby: Bad-tempered but good-hearted cook in Aunt Plenty's household.
• Annabelle Bliss: Friend of Rose. She is “the model child of the neighborhood,” daughter of a prominent Boston family whom the aunts consider suitable for Rose to know; however Rose can't bear her. Alcott frequently satirized fashionable, empty-headed girls in her novels.
• Mother Atkinson: Kindly doyenne of the wholesome mountain household (location unspecified, but probably in Maine or New Hampshire), known as Cosey Corner, where Rose and various family members spend several memorable summers.
• Fun See: A Chinese boy who has come to America to be educated in a western school.
• Whang Lo: An elderly Chinese merchant who does business with Uncle Mac Campbell; he wears Western dress and speaks good English.

The Alcotts themselves would summer in a location called "Happy Corner" in Walpole, New Hampshire, but the description of "Cosy Corner" places it within walking distance of Mount Washington, very likely in Intervale. In the 19th century, New Englanders who could afford it went to the mountains or the seashore for the fresher, cooler air considered sovereign for physical and mental complaints.