De Pelouse, Monique

Drawn by Silvana Bevilacqua

Monique de Pelouse is a character in the Finishing School Series. She attended Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality alongside Sophronia and company, and roomed with Preshea Buss.

She is an 18 year old girl who is forced to attend classes with 1st year students, due to her mistakes at the school.

Appearance

Monique is an 18-year-old Caucasian woman. She is blonde, has a tiny waist, and takes great care to always be dressed in the height of fashion and properly made up.

Personality

Monique makes a very bad whist partner. She is very self-absorbed and is the ultimate debutante.

History

Monique's finishing assignment was to recruit Sophronia and Dimity under the guise of Mademoiselle Geraldine, and retrieve the prototype of a communication device. She decides to hide the prototype instead of bringing it back to Mademoiselle Geraldine's, earning her a forced demotion back to first year status.

Sophronia first sees Monique and thinks "she looks like a perfect drone." And that is what she is. She starts as a drone for Professor Braithwope, and later ends up a drone to Westminster Hive.

In the Books

Etiquette & Espionage

At the first ball Monique attends at Sophronia's home Monique ends up mostly naked, with her dress destroyed and singed. She throws a cheese pie at Sophronia.

Curtsies & Conspiracies

Monique has a very lovely come out ball with a gold and white tea theme. When Professor Braithwope's tether snaps, she is forced to be public about her connection to him. She then interrupts her coming out ball to go to Westminster Hive. After the ball, she never returns to Mademoiselle Geraldine's.

Waistcoats & Weaponry

She is a fully active drone for the Westminster Hive, and we find out that Sophronia has had the wrong end of the stick—that it's not the vampires who are trying to do anything horrible—it's the Picklemen. Looking back over the series, besides being extremely rude and vicious to Sophronia and Agatha, Monique did no more than steal the prototype.

Manners & Mutiny

On behalf of the Westminster Hive, Monique helps Agatha and Dimity rescue Sophronia from Mademoiselle Geraldine's. She pilots a dirigible to meet up with the school. In the end, Sophronia discovers that she and Monique have more in common than she thought, and they work together.

Trivia

• Among Monique's many skills is the ability to pilot a dirigible.
• Monique is based on someone or multiple someones Gail Carriger knew in high school.

Links

• Pinterest Character Board for Monique de Pelouse.

Quotes

• "'But we were talking about me and my problems.' Sophronia looked Monique up and down gravely. 'I don't think we're going to solve those in the space of one carriage ride.'" (Etiquette & Espionage, Lesson Three)
• "Her hair was wild, her eyes were flashing, and her tattered underskirts floated around her. She looked like a glorious avenging goddess from some ancient erotic myth." (Etiquette & Espionage, Lesson Seventeen)
• “Monique stood, arms akimbo, some six or seven paces away from Sophronia, and letting forth a scream of unadulterated anger, she hurled a cheese pie at Sophronia's head.” (Etiquette & Espionage, Lesson Seventeen)
• "If anyone saw Monique, a well-dressed woman of quality, dangling from the doorway, they apparently assumed everyone had difficulties in life and moved on." (Waistcoats & Weaponry, Session Ten)
• [Dimity referring to Monique] "'Saw your nicely strung-up slab of bacon.' 'Don't insult bacon,' said Sidheag." (Waistcoats & Weaponry, Session Eleven)