Professor Bramley Dapple

Professor Bramley Dapple — Character

Defining Description[]

Bramley Dapple is a resident of Newford and Professor who taught art history at Butler University. Dapple still taught a few classes at Butler U, but he wasn’t nearly as involved with thecurriculum as he had been when Jilly Coppercorn attended the university.

Books / Stories Appears In[]

Dreams Underfoot
- "Uncle Dobbin's Parrot Fair" (1987) (in character's memories)
- "Stone Drum" (brief appearance)
- Mentioned only: "Timeskip", "Winter Was Hard", "Tallulah"
Promises to Keep
In Which We Meet Jilly Coppercorn
The Very Best of Charles de Lint

About[]

He is full of knowledge about the supernatural. Jilly believes that Prof Dapple is really a wizard ("Timeskip").

Personality and Character[]

Full of curiosity
Has a close connection to Faerie and very interesting theories on how the world works.
“Remember your Shakespeare, ‘This fellow’s wise enough to play the fool.’ Did youever think that perhaps their studied eccentricity protects them from sharper ridicule?” ~ Meran about Christy and Bramley

Appearance (physical description)[]

"A small wizened old man, spry as a kitten, thin as a reed, with features lined and brown as a dried fig. He wore a pair of wire-rimmed spectacles without prescription lenses that he polished incessantly." ~ "Uncle Dobbin's Parrot Fair"

Professor's Theory[]

Theory of Consensual Reality — the idea that things exist because we agree that they exist. ~ "Timeskip"

Residence[]

rambling Tudor-styled house in the old quarter of Lower Crowsea.

Other Details[]

Loves writing about Newford and his girlfriend Saskia, knows that neither will ever be anything other than magic;
Bramley owns a large house, and employees a Skookin (goblin/troll) named Goon as a servant.
Bramley was the "wizard" in Christy Riddell's third story “A Week of Saturdays” from "How to Make the Wind Blow" from his collection of short stories of the same name. ~ "Uncle Dobbin’s Parrot Fair"
He had a habit of starting conversations in the middle. ~ "Stone Drum"
Jilly believes that Bramley is a real wizard. ~ "Timeskip"
Says a geas is something you just have to do—are compelled to do. ~ "Winter Was Hard"

History / Background[]

He teaches art at Butler University, though not as much after a scandal involving something about a bishop, some old coins and the daughter of a Tarot reader. ~ "Stone Drum", Dreams Underfoot

Connections (characters, places)[]

Name	What	Connection	Story	About
Jilly Coppercorn	human	good friend; he mentored her		got her life together with his help
Goon	Skookin (goblin/troll)	Manservant	any Prof is in	generally grumpy
Izzy; Isabelle Copely	human, artist, painter	former student;	MaD	lets Izzy work in a studio in his house
Christy Riddell	writer	good friend	any Prof is in	collects stories of strange things, rewrites them
Ellen Brady	Human; see Baloon Men	wizard in her book by C. Riddell	"Uncle Dobbin’s ...", DU	know Cristy

Events in the Series (spoilery area)[]

Quotes[]

“It’s not imagining. It’s knowing that it exists—without one smidgen of doubt.”

“Yes, but someone had to think him up for him to ...” She hesitated as Goon’s scowl deepened. “That is …”

Bramley continued to shake his head. “There is some semblance of order to things,” he admitted, “for if the world was simply everyone’s different conceptual universe mixed up together, we’d have nothing but chaos. It all relies on will, you see—to observe the changes, at any rate. Or the differences. The anomalies. Like Goon—oh, do stop scowling,” he added to the goblin.“The world as we have it,” he went on to Jilly, “is here mostly because of habit. We’ve all agreed that certain things exist—we’re taught as impressionable infants that this is a table and this is what it looks like, that’s a tree out the window there, a dog looks and sounds just so. At the same time we’re informed that Goon and his like don’t exist, so we don’t—or can’t—see them." ~ "Uncle Dobbin's Parrot Fair"

Notes / Comments[]

He is written into one of Christy Riddell's stories as the wizard in "A Week of Saturdays," the third story in How to Make the Wind Blow.