Edward Howe

Character Profile

Name:	Sir Edward Howe
Date of Birth:
Service:	None
Rank:	Knight
Nationality:	British
Billets:

Biography

Edward Howe happens to be vacationing in Funchal when HMS Reliant comes to port with Temeraire. A bookseller mentions to William Laurence that he is staying there and could probably identify the young dragon's breed, which was at that point unknown. Sir Edward mistakenly pegs him as an Imperial, believing China would never let a Celestial out of its sight. He makes this deduction, never having seen a Celestial or Imperial, based on the writings of la Comte de la Perouse who once spoke to an Imperial in Korea.

Sir Edward gives Temeraire and Laurence several books to study at their first meeting, and then he again sends more through the mail, including a book of dragon stories from the Orient that was translated by Sir Edward and contains many scholarly annotations.

Howe appears again at the end of His Majesty's Dragon and confirms that Temeraire is indeed a Celestial since he can produce the Divine Wind. He apologizes for his earlier mistake and first puts forth the theory that that Chinese will not like the British having put Temeraire in harness, which is the main plot of Throne of Jade.

Sir Edward is a member of the Royal Society and has been knighted for his scholarship. He has written several books and papers on dragons including the Asian Myth book, Observations on the Order Draconia in Europe, with Notes on the Oriental Breeds (excerpt in His Majesty's Dragon), and A Brief Discourse upon the Oriental Breeds, with Reflections upon the Art of Draconic Husbandry (excerpt in Throne of Jade).

As a boy, Edward Howe grew up in London and would often go to the London covert "dreaming of dragons."