About Pippa
Warning: Spoilers for the books further down!
Pippa "Pip" Cross (c. 1878- September 1895) is one of the main characters in A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, and The Sweet Far Thing, all by Libba Bray. Pippa is the most beautiful woman in Libba Bray's alternate world. She has violet eyes, perfectly curled dark hair (sometimes said to be brown; sometimes, black), and "an ivory face that could be from a cameo pin". She is also described as dainty and is said to have a 16.5 inch waist (when corseted). In Pippa's own words, "Being beautiful creates problems. It's misery."
Pippa, like Felicity and Ann, did not have a happy childhood. Because of her good looks, "everyone wanted to own" her, "constantly fussing over [her] so there was no room to breathe." Pippa suffered from epilepsy, a fact that her mother insisted she hide. If anyone knew that Pippa was not perfectly healthy, she would be unlikely to marry well. Pippa's mother told her that if she felt a fit "coming on", she was to say that she had "a headache and excuse herself"-- something that, of course, would not be possible.
From a young age, probably about age seven, Pippa attended Spence Academy. Though she was easily the most beautiful-looking girl at the school, and one of the most popular, she did not stand-out for her wit. "I'm not clever like you are", Pippa once tells Ann. "I don't mean half of what I say."
On the September Assembly Day of 1895, Pippa became engaged to Mr Bartleby Bumble, Esquire. It was not a happy occasion for Pippa, but Pippa's family informs her that she must marry to save the family from ruin. Despite her daughter's longing for true love, Mrs. Cross insists that love, desire, and marriage are not at all related; she assures Pippa that, one day, she will thank her for insisting on the marriage to Mr Bumble.
A desperate Pippa is able to break off her engagement by telling Bumble of her illness. Bumble is described to see Pippa as a "fine piece of china" that he has purchased which has a very bad crack. He is relieved to know of this before the wedding and plans to forget about the wedding. However, when he informs Mr. and Mrs. Cross of his plans, they tell Mr. Bumble that Pippa got cold feet and lied about her condition. Mr. Bumble agrees again to marry her.
While the girls are in the realms, they are attacked by the creature that killed Gemma's mother. Pippa runs off and Gemma can only take Ann and Felicity back; Pippa remains trapped in the realms. In the real world, Pippa has had an epileptic fit and Gemma goes back to the realms to try and save her friend. She finds Pippa, but Pippa refuses to return to the real world where she is seen as no more than a pretty face to be sold to the highest bidder for a loveless marriage. Despite Gemma's insistence that the realms were "not a place to stay", being only a "place of dreams", Pip merely asks what would happen if she "chose the dream instead?" In an attempt to save herself from her horrible fate in the real world, Pippa eats berries from the realm, causing her real body, back at Spence, to die. Pippa then leaves Gemma, heading off with a knight in shining armor, a romantic fantasy she conjured up in an earlier trip to the realms. Pippa is buried wearing her engagement ring, to the displeasure of Mr. Bumble.
In Rebel Angels, Pippa, who wants to stay in the beautiful realms forever, is being slowly corrupted, as do all spirits who decide to stay within the realms instead of crossing over. She learns she must either decide to cross over or join the other corrupted spirits in the Winterlands. Pippa, however is determined to stay in the realms and runs off to the Winterlands when she learns that Gemma will not help her with her magic.
When Gemma, Felicity, and Ann are visiting the realms in The Sweet Far Thing, they find Pippa with a group of girls she claims to have been saved from entering the Winterlands. Pippa leads the group of girls and attempts to teach them manners in a similar fashion that she was taught at Spence. Pippa asks Gemma to help her cross over from the realms into a 'heaven' like area but finds that she cannot because she has been in the realms too long. This causes her a great deal of distress and a guilt-ridden Gemma begins giving her an allowance of magic to help her get through the sadness. Pippa then grows more powerful after she gives sacrifices to the Tree of All Souls in the Winterlands. She decides that the realms have chosen her, and fights to keep Felicity with her forever and to have the girls follow her. She is destroyed when the ruined castle she and the other spirits live in crumbles, entombing her with it.
In The Sweet Far Thing, it is officially revealed that Pippa and Felicity are in love when the two share a passionate kiss. In the same novel, it is stated by Gemma that Pippa was able to stay uncorrupted for so long because of the love that Pippa and Felicity shared.
Thanks to Wikipedia