I love Eustacia in Hardy's Return of the Native. She is just so sexy and cool. I think it's her detached aloofness that appeals. And also her pride. She never really loses her head over the men who pursue her, and no one manages to beat her down. Above all, I love the way she speaks – that fierce eloquence.
Lizzie Bennett in Pride and Prejudice. So gutsy and funny and full of life.
David's aunt in David Copperfield. People often accuse Dickens of creating nauseating, sexless female characters. Well, maybe some of them are like that, but David's aunt certainly isn't. She's magnificent. The scene in which she kicks Murdstone out of her house is one of the greatest in literature.