Page 2 | Best literary character

cupcaske123 · 2024-08-13T18:06:18+00:00

I was having this debate with someone the other day, who is the best literary character? Dracula, Mrs Haversham, Elizabeth Bennett, Frankenstein's monster... Who do you think?

Aria999 · 20/08/2024 02:09

Best is very hard but I do like lord Peter wimsey

KnickerlessParsons · 20/08/2024 01:57

I fell in love with Ross Poldark. The one in the books, not the tv series.

Bbq1 · 20/08/2024 00:35

ihaveanaughtydog · 15/08/2024 02:31

Marion Halcombe in A Woman in White.

I like Marion too, really ahead of her time and quite feminist really.

Bbq1 · 20/08/2024 00:34

Heathcliff

WithIcePlease · 19/08/2024 23:31

DeanElderberry · 19/08/2024 09:12

Dr John Watson

Reginald Jeeves

Miss Maud Silver

Bouncer (from The Reluctant Widow)

Lord Ivan Xav Vorpatril

though in all fairness, Ivan's mother, Lady Alys, should really be on the list too

When listening to Sherlock Holmes stories, I often think that Dr Watson would be really nice to be married to.

SerafinasGoose · 19/08/2024 23:00

Jean Padgett
Kezia Burnell
Rosamund Redding, AKA Rose Red
Merricat Blackwood
Lucy Snowe
Hannibal Lecter
Cordelia Gray
Lauren Olamina
Leopold Bloom
The Man (Cormac McCarthy)
Rose the Hat
Mr Toad
Bill Smugs

FuzzyCaoraDhubh · 19/08/2024 23:00

Another vote for Marian Halcombe from 'The Woman in White' and Count Fosco from the same book.

HoppingPavlova · 19/08/2024 22:55

Sherlock

Welshwabbit · 19/08/2024 22:54

Jean Brodie (from The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie). The archetypal anti-hero. You know she's wrong, but you see exactly how she got there and how she roots herself in her girls forever.

spaceshooter · 19/08/2024 22:40

Place marking.

Original poster

cupcaske123 · 19/08/2024 22:32

Debrathom · 19/08/2024 21:52

Oh yes, Olive Kitteridge is a brilliant character- so spiky and unlikeable and yet I loved her and always rooted for her.
My favourite male character is probably George Smiley from the John Le Carre series. Intelligent, cultured, mostly ethical in an unethical world a desperately in love with his faithless wife...

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My favourite male character is probably George Smiley from the John Le Carre series. Intelligent, cultured, mostly ethical in an unethical world a desperately in love with his faithless wife...

I haven't read the book, but that's one of my favourite BBC series. He's a great character.

OP posts:

Debrathom · 19/08/2024 21:52

cromwell44 · 18/08/2024 20:06

First choice, Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell. I was a bit in love with him, whilst still aware he ahem, had his flaws.
Second, Olive Kitteridge, complex, flawed and yet sympathetically drawn.

Oh yes, Olive Kitteridge is a brilliant character- so spiky and unlikeable and yet I loved her and always rooted for her.
My favourite male character is probably George Smiley from the John Le Carre series. Intelligent, cultured, mostly ethical in an unethical world a desperately in love with his faithless wife...

pigalow27 · 19/08/2024 16:28

Fanciable detectives - Jackson Brodie and Comoran Strike

Romantic heroes- Mr Darcy, Sydney Carton

Women to admire - Scarlett O'Hara, the narrator of How to Kill Your Family and Lady Bertram first lying on a sofa all day with pug.

FuckThePoPo · 19/08/2024 16:20

Adrian Mole!

Rose of Sharon (grapes of wrath)

Mrs Weasley (not my daughter you bitch)

eli (let the right one in)

Jack Torrance (shining)

maybe not quite all 'literary' but it's all
subjective right?

MrsCobbit · 19/08/2024 09:43

Another for Dorothea and Maggie

everywhichway · 19/08/2024 09:25

Winnie the Pooh

MabelMaybe · 19/08/2024 09:23

Miss Read, the narrator in the Fairacre novels. I love the ascerbic humour and warm descriptions of the villagers around her.

DeanElderberry · 19/08/2024 09:12

Dr John Watson

Reginald Jeeves

Miss Maud Silver

Bouncer (from The Reluctant Widow)

Lord Ivan Xav Vorpatril

though in all fairness, Ivan's mother, Lady Alys, should really be on the list too

Overthebay · 18/08/2024 22:04

StoatofDisarray · 13/08/2024 21:17

Stephen Maturin and Jack Aubrey!

Yes!

AdaColeman · 18/08/2024 21:45

A couple not yet mentioned....

James Marwood from Andrew Taylor's Ashes of London series

Bernard Cornwell's Uhtred from The Last Kingdom

Cicero from the Robert Harris trilogy.

bellocchild · 18/08/2024 21:09

Ilikegreenshoes · 15/08/2024 11:24

So many absolutely brilliant characters already mentioned, but none from Georgette Heyer yet. She has some of my all time favourites. Sophy from The Grand Sophy is my top pick, though I know some people really don't like her. Gil, Ferdy and George from Friday's Child, Freddy from Cotillion, Neville Fletcher from A Blunt Instrument, Randall from Behold, Here's Poison, Abby and Miles from Black Sheep... I could go on and on.

Don't forget Justin Avon.

cromwell44 · 18/08/2024 20:06

First choice, Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell. I was a bit in love with him, whilst still aware he ahem, had his flaws.
Second, Olive Kitteridge, complex, flawed and yet sympathetically drawn.

oddgirl · 18/08/2024 19:49

Bathsheba Everdene from Far From The Madding Crowd. Flawed but wonderful.

Sausagenbacon · 18/08/2024 08:51

Bessy in The Observations by Jane Harris is very amusing and a great narrative voice.
yes! one of the scandalously overlooked books I know

Abouttimeforanamechange · 15/08/2024 14:19

So many absolutely brilliant characters already mentioned, but none from Georgette Heyer yet.

She wrote terrific secondary characters. Felix from Frederica or Edmund from Sylvester. In fact she wrote a whole range of small and adolescent boys.

Jerry Chirk from The Toll Gate

But especially Jonathan Chawleigh from A Civil Contract, a magnificent larger than life creation, worthy of Dickens.