Melinda not only tracked down and obtained good photos of the 16 Ludovici Dickens coaching prints; she also tracked down and obtained pictures of 24 characters from Dickens novels displayed at the corners of the top layer of the puzzle between sections. This layout is displayed below and clicking on the individual corner characters will skip down to the close-up of the character and its identification and description. Descriptions are quoted from The Charles Dickens Encyclopedia compiled by Michael and Mollie Hardwick, Charles Scribners Sons, New York (1978).
Identification of characters is from left to right, top to bottom in puzzle.
Mr. Mick from Great Expectations. May be Mike, client of Jaggers, rebuked for producing an invented witness.
Montague Tigg from Martin Chuzzlewit. A confidence-trickster associated with Chevy Slyme. Later, as Tigg Montague, he promotes the fraudulent Anglo-Bengalee Disinterested Loan and Life Assurance Co. Murdered by Jonas Chuzzlewit for knowing too much about his past.
Mrs. Martha Bardell from Pickwick Papers. Pickwick's landlady on Goswell Street and his opponent in the celebrated lawsuit for breach of promise.
Dick Swiveller from Old Curiosity Shop. Friend of Fred Trent, who persuades him to give up Sophy Wackles and wait to marry Little Nel for her grandfather's money. Quilp manipulates him into becoming Brass' clerk, but he is repelled by what he discovers and helps to expose Brass and Quilp. He befriends, educates and marries The Marchioness.
Sam Weller from Pickwick Papers. Son of Tony senior, Boots at the White Hart Inn, Borough. He becomes Pickwick's valet and faithful aide and eventually marries Mary, Nupkins' housemaid.
Uriah Heep from David Copperfield. Wickfield's hypocritical clerk, later partner, who designs to marry Agnes Wickfield, is unmasked by Micawber and sentenced to transportation (to Australia) for life.
Mr. Seth Pecksniff from Martin Chuzzlewit. Architect and widower, of Salisbury, and hypocritical schemer after old Martin Chuzzlewit's money. Father of Charity and Mercy.
Betsy Trotwood from David Copperfield. David Copperfield's great aunt and later guardian, to whom he flies from Murdstone and Grinbys. She is actually married, but separated, and lives self-sufficiently, caring for Mr. Dick, David, and then David's successive wives, and combating such people as Jane Murdstone and Uriah Heep, as well as the donkeys which trample the grass in front of her house in Dover. Her husband appears at intervals to demand money, and eventually dies.
Sairy (Sarah) Gamp from Martin Chuzzlewit. Midwife and nurse who attends Anthony Chuzzlewit, Lewsome, and Chuffey, and is one of the causes of Jonas Chuzzlewit's exposure.
Tony Weller, sen. from Pickwick Papers. Sam's father, a stage-coachman.
Barnaby Rudge from Barnaby Rudge. A simple-minded youth who wanders the roads between Chigwell and London with his raven, Grip. He ingenuously joins the Gordon Rioters, is arrested and sentenced to death, but reprieved through Gabriel Varden's efforts.
Billy Sikes from Oliver Twist. Brutal thief associated with Fagin, lover and murderer of Nancy. He accidentally hangs himself trying to escape a mob hunting him down for the murder.
Mr. Wilkins Micawber, sen. From David Copperfield. Agent of Murdstone and Grinby, and David Copperfield's landlord while he is employed there. Moving optimistically from employment to employment--interrupted by a spell in the Marshalsea for debt--he remains David's staunch friend, unmasks Uriah Heep for a villain, and is rewarded by Betsy Trotwood and others who pay his debts and send him and his family to Australia, where he becomes a prominent resident of Middlebay.
Sampson Brass from Old Curiosity Shop. Quilp's legal advisor, who eventually turns evidence against him, but is jailed for his part in the plot against Kit Nubbles.
Joe, The Fat Boy from Pickwick Papers. Servant to Wardle.
The Marchioness from Old Curiosity Shop. The Brass family's ill-treated maidservant. Since she has no given name, Dick Swiveller calls her Sophronia Sphynx. He educates her, and eventually marries her.
Roger (Rougue) Riderhood from Our Mutual Friend. Former partner of Jessie Hexam, whom he implicates in the supposed murder of Harmon. He blackmails Headstone after his attack on Wrayburn, but dies with him, of drowning, in a fight.
Sargent Buzfuz from Pickwick Papers. Mrs. Bardell's counsel in the trial of Bardell and Pickwick.
Mr. Daniel Peggotty from David Copperfield. Yarmouth fisherman, bachelor brother to Clara. His household in a converted boat on Yarmouth beach includes his nephew Ham, niece Little Emly, and his partner's widow Mrs. Gummidge. He devotes months to searching for Little Emly after his elopement and then takes them all to Australia.
Daniel Quilp from Old Curiousity Shop. "The villain of the story: a money-lender who cheats and ruins people on every hand and ill-treats his wife. Eventually pursued by the police, he drowns in the Thames."
Mr. Alfred Mantalini from Nicholas Nickleby. An idler, philanderer and spendthrift, constantly sponging upon his wife, whom he bankrupts.
P. Toots from Dombey and Son. Dr. Blimber's senior pupil. A friend to everyone, he woos Florence Dombey ardently, but accepts her rejection of him philosophically and eventually marries Susan Nipper.
The Artful Dodger (John Dawkins) from Oliver Twist. Member of Fagins gang who enlists Oliver Twist. He is transported for life for picking pockets.
Mr. Alfred Jingle from Pickwick Papers. An irresponsible strolling actor who throws in his lot with the Pickwickians, succeeds in embarrassing them extremely by eloping with Rachael Wardle, masquerades as a Captain Fitz-Marshall, and becomes a prisoner in the Fleet, from where he is rescued by Pickwick, who sends him to Demerara to turn over a new leaf.