To ask which book characters irrationally annoy you?

[WaterBird]

I'm currently reading the play "The Rise and Fall of Arturo UI" by the German playwright Bertolt Brecht (though it takes place in Chicago). There is a fairly minor character (at least at the point in the play where I'm at) called Young Dogsborough, whose father is a major character in his 80's. Any time the son says anything, it is to unnecessarily agree with the father. For example if the father says, "They've gone", the son will then say "My father says they've gone."
Which book characters have you felt annoyed by?

Esther in Bleak House - GET A FUCKING GRIP, YOU INSUFFERABLE FAUX-HUMBLE DRIP.

Agree wholeheartedly with the PP who said Gala in Mount. Shudder. I also despise Daisy France-Lynch, stop being so wet and stand up to your rotten DD!

I read some awful Deirdre Purcell novels as a teen and I can say with complete certainty that I despised every single one of her characters.

Another one for Becky from Shopaholic! I loved the first couple of books and found her way of convincing herself she needed certain things and her way of burying her head in the sand to both be very relatable but after a while you’d just think ffs, how have you ended up in the exact same mess again? Haven’t read any for a while but think I’ve missed a few, no urge to catch up.
I do love Sophie Kinsella though, just her stand-alone books are better for me than continuing to follow Becky’s increasingly ridiculous exploits.

Angel Clare- sanctimonious arse. My sympathy for Tess is a bit limited too, I think she's a bit too willing to martyr herself and she must've had a vague notion of sex; she's the eldest child of a poor family and grew up in the country. She was a character designed to illustrate the abuse of innocence and would have been very effective on readers at the time though.

Jo March, in her teenage incarnation. She deserved to have Amy burn that novel, arrogant bitch. It takes karma a long time to catch up with Jo. She becomes much better after she doesn't go to Europe (which Amy totally deserved).

Rose Mortmain from I Capture The Castle- stupid, selfish, self involved, slappable. Admittedly she's been through a lot, and the family are fairly feckless but she's the worst.

Jilly Cooper: Taggie O'Hara- Big girl pants firmly round her ankles and there they'll stay; she's just too nice. Fenella Maxwell- whiny little brat, she's so obviously designed for you to find her adorably plucky, she's annoying. I like Abby and Maud though, they're strong characters at least!

Kate in "A Flower that's Free" by Sarah Harrison. I LOVE Flowers of the Field and I was so excited for the sequel. Hated this pompous smug bitch so much, I gave up after 6 chapters.

Darrell and Alicia from Malory Towers. Both smug bullies in their own ways, although Darrell has the redeeming feature of knowing when she may have gone too far, Alicia just charges on. The grown up version of this type is Joey Maynard.

Marianne Dashwood- see Rose Mortmain. I also actually quite like Wuthering Heights, but I've always viewed it as a tale of how badly people treat each other, not a grand romance.

oh, and Aline in Cadfael. So perfect and so boring.

I don't get the Cousin Helen hate in WKD. I find her quite positive . I always found Rose too OTT and contrived. Also, as much as I love reading Harry Potter, I can imagine Hermione could be hard to take if you were in the same class or dorm and not her close friend. She had no friends until the troll episode, remember. Presumably because for once, Snape got it right on behalf of everyone by calling her "an insufferable know it all". You can see his point!

Bertie Wooster. So damn thick! I don't care if he's all affable and generous - which he is - but he's so DIM. And I know he's meant to be, as a foil to Jeeves' intelligence and also to get him into all sorts of scrapes that he can't think how to get out of, but, but...

And Charles Pooter. In fact all the Pooters

And Joanna Eberhart in The Stepford Wives. WHY did you recite that list of words, with the suspicions you had?

Excellent posts, people. If we're looking at characters that "irrationally" annoy you, I'd exclude characters that are meant to be awful - the author has done a good job if you loathe them. It's when the author clearly adores/identifies with a character and can't see how unbearable they are, that's when proper hatred sets in.

I agree that Mad about the Boy-era Bridget Jones has become awful. It's weird that the books became so much worse while the latest film was (imo) the funniest.

I don't know how many on here have read it, but the characters in Gill Hornby's The Hive are awful, and not in a good way, like the Mapp and Lucia books she is ripping off. Georgie in particular is utterly vacuous. I've never encountered a real-life woman who has given up every last brain cell in order to divert all her energy to her uterus.

If we're looking at characters that "irrationally" annoy you, I'd exclude characters that are meant to be awful - the author has done a good job if you loathe them

You exclude them then. Leave the rest of us to make our own minds up

Pretty much every character in Conversations with Friends. Horrible people, great writing

The main character in Brooklyn. She just floated round having things arranged for her.

yearofchange you've just reminded me. I found Beth from little women insufferable. I actually really liked Amy but you're right, that was quite uncalled for.

Every Dickens character apart from Fagin and the Artful Dodger is a complete f**king idiot.

I mean, I can understand why, as being complete morons drags the plot out for multiple pennies-per-word, but I will never get back the time I wasted watching those dull, insipid, rigid, naive, blind, vain collection of nincompoops wander through their ball-achingly obvious plotlines.

I've read at least three of his books, but I can't remember their names because they were all functionally identical.

@caringiscreepy oh god yes! That book is full of horrible people, though I wasnt sure if I disliked them partly cos I knew they wouldn't give me a second glance as I'd be way too uncool for them. Have you read Normal People? The cast of that aren't much better, especially the (metaphorically) ball-less Conan.

@bibliomania- I quite liked The Hive. I read Georgie as someone who chose to step away from the rat race because she wanted to, and as someone who had no time for the school mums because she saw through them and the stupidity of the clique. 7 kids was a bit much though!

@SquiddyMcSquidford no I haven't. I keep meaning to buy it because I really do love her writing style but not sure if I can face more awful characters . In CWF I just wanted to scream at the MC 'you're like 20, you know nothing!!'

Jo March. MARRY LAURIE.

Definitely Cathy and Heathcliffe, such unlikable characters. I did that book for GCSE and hated it.

I dislike Heathcliffe and Cathy. I WANT to like them. I want to love that book like everyone else does but I just can't. They are awful.

They’re supposed to be awful though. You’re not supposed to like them! Especially Heathcliffe! I’ve never understood why he’s lauded as a great romantic hero!

Anyway:

Fanny Fucking Price

Everyone from Jane Eyre including Jane

Bella Swan

Holden Caulfield though I end up just feeling sad for him.

Daisy Buchanan

Angel Fucking Clare too.

And Sir Walter from Persuasion. I’m sure we’re supposed to laugh at his conceit and delusions of grandeur but he’s just a plank.

Also, I love Cpt Wentworth but he really is quite the dick. He’s lucky he wrote that letter.

Leesha paper in the painted man series. So dry always the same, needs the loo, thinking of burna, has a headache, speaks well unless the rest of the hollow. None of this will make sense unless you've read the books.

I think Austen is pretty clear that Sir Walter is not only silly and vain but that he's unkind to Anne and a colossal snob.

Captain Wentworth a dick?! What am I reading?

But oh yeah, that letter gives me knicker quivers just thinking about it. 'You have pierced my soul. I am half agony, half hope...'

The wife in the time travellers wife

Just shut up already!

I always just got the impression that we’re supposed to find him silly instead of cruel. But I hate him. Viscerally hate him.

Now, don’t get me wrong! IMO Wentworth is superior to all of Jane’s heroes combined but he’s just so mean to poor Anne when he comes back

Louisa Musgrove irritated me doing all that jumping about on a wet pier trying to flirt with Wentworth.