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Best literary character

96 replies

cupcaske123 · 13/08/2024 19:06

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?

OP posts:
TheGodOfSmallPotatoes · 13/08/2024 19:15

I am quite the fan of Francie Nolan, someone who can see the beauty in mostly anything

Tygertiger · 13/08/2024 19:17

One is hard. Here’s five.

Sherlock Holmes - he’s the ultimate, so if I had to pick just one, it’s him.
Jo March and Lydia Gwilt. Both strong women, but total opposites.
Atticus Finch. You’d want him to be your Dad, wouldn’t you?
Joe Gargery. Or you’d want lovely Joe.

cupcaske123 · 13/08/2024 19:19

TheGodOfSmallPotatoes · 13/08/2024 19:15

I am quite the fan of Francie Nolan, someone who can see the beauty in mostly anything

I've never heard of her so I looked it up. She's from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.

OP posts:
HarpQuartet · 13/08/2024 19:37

I've never rooted for a character as hard as I rooted for Demon Copperhead.

howlsmovingbouncycastle · 13/08/2024 19:40

Betsey Trotwood. Eccentric, strong and compassionate - I’ve always love her character.

TheGodOfSmallPotatoes · 13/08/2024 20:08

cupcaske123 · 13/08/2024 19:19

I've never heard of her so I looked it up. She's from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.

Oh yes sorry I should have said! It’s a wonderful book.

AdaColeman · 13/08/2024 20:09

Hilary Mantel's Thomas Cromwell, clever and courageous.

Also

C J Sansom's Matthew Shardlake, clever and compassionate.

Ironfloor269 · 13/08/2024 20:11

Maggie Tulliver from The Mill on the Floss
Jo March

Pennyandolive · 13/08/2024 20:23

Tygertiger · 13/08/2024 19:17

One is hard. Here’s five.

Sherlock Holmes - he’s the ultimate, so if I had to pick just one, it’s him.
Jo March and Lydia Gwilt. Both strong women, but total opposites.
Atticus Finch. You’d want him to be your Dad, wouldn’t you?
Joe Gargery. Or you’d want lovely Joe.

I love Atticus Finch… or I did until I read Go Set a Watchman and it ruined him (and Scout) for me. I wish I hadn’t read it or he would have been one of my all time favourites.

cupcaske123 · 13/08/2024 20:27

Pennyandolive · 13/08/2024 20:23

I love Atticus Finch… or I did until I read Go Set a Watchman and it ruined him (and Scout) for me. I wish I hadn’t read it or he would have been one of my all time favourites.

I love Atticus Finch too and am so glad I haven't read Watchman.

OP posts:
MsNeis · 13/08/2024 20:55

Jane Eyre!

Kipperthedawg · 13/08/2024 20:56

'best' at what?

I'd say Mr Collins for being the most ridiculous.

Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies · 13/08/2024 21:00

Miss Trunchbull. My teaching hero.

I once had a child write in a card.

To Mrs X

Thank you for teaching me this year. You are just like Miss Trunchbill.

Nicest card ever Grin

StoatofDisarray · 13/08/2024 21:17

Stephen Maturin and Jack Aubrey!

cupcaske123 · 13/08/2024 21:25

Kipperthedawg · 13/08/2024 20:56

'best' at what?

I'd say Mr Collins for being the most ridiculous.

Best written character in a piece of literature.

No ones picked me up on Mrs Haversham. :)

OP posts:
timoteigirl · 13/08/2024 21:31

Howl by Diana Wynne-Jones
Lata by Vikram Seth
Raskolnikov by Dostoyevski
Anna Karenina

Sausagenbacon · 14/08/2024 07:08

Becky Sharp and Scarlet O'Hara

HarpQuartet · 14/08/2024 07:21

@cupcaske123 we're all at Pendants' Corner muttering about Miss Havisham

Happyinarcon · 14/08/2024 07:26

timoteigirl · 13/08/2024 21:31

Howl by Diana Wynne-Jones
Lata by Vikram Seth
Raskolnikov by Dostoyevski
Anna Karenina

Dostoyevsky writes brilliant characters. Even his minor characters are unique

MsNeis · 14/08/2024 13:47

Happyinarcon · 14/08/2024 07:26

Dostoyevsky writes brilliant characters. Even his minor characters are unique

I think this applies to Chekhov and Austen too: personally, I find they are brilliant creating even minor characters' psyches!

Impasse · 14/08/2024 14:07

HarpQuartet · 14/08/2024 07:21

@cupcaske123 we're all at Pendants' Corner muttering about Miss Havisham

Well, even leaving aside the spelling of her surname (which I get is pronounced similarly if you have a non-rhotic accent), pretty much the whole point of Miss Havisham's character is that she's a 'Miss'!

My choice is Charlotte Mullen from Somerville and Ross's The Real Charlotte (late-Victorian masterpiece which should be better known outside of Ireland than it is) -- a brilliantly, comically awful, yet relatable, villain.

She is a clever, plain middle-aged spinster in late 19thc smalltown Ireland, who can't train for the profession her brains, guile and quickness would make her endlessly suited to because of her sex, while her repellent plainness, 'masculine' cleverness and lack of 'feminine charms' mean she has never had a chance on the marriage market. Well aware of her lack, she constructs herself as a sort of honorary man, and is very good at inserting herself in socially everywhere from the local Big House to the houses of the local poor. She dials her accent and manner up and down.

It all gets terribly interesting, and ugly, when a pretty young cousin who comes to stay with her attracts the attention of the man she has loved helplessly since her teens (even though he married someone else for money)...

She cheats, lies, spies, manipulates, and does absolutely appalling things, amounting to murder in one case, and almost in another, when her young cousin is in danger from some stampeding horses, and she contemplates 'accidentally' falling and failing to shut the gate that would save her from being trampled, and free up the (weak) man she loves to be manipulated into marrying her...

But everyone who has ever looked in the mirror and hated what they saw will 'get' the way she dresses with 'eccentric' simplicity because she knows it would make her laughed at if other women saw her dressing in a 'feminine' way, as if to try to attract men, and the pain of a man simply not ever seeing you as a woman.

I strongly recommend it!

highlandcoo · 14/08/2024 19:15

I know it's not an original choice, but it's hard to see past Elizabeth Bennett; she's so sharp and witty. I agree that Mr Collins is a brilliant character too.

Bessy in The Observations by Jane Harris is very amusing and a great narrative voice.

Mr Pooter and Lupin in Diary of a Nobody are just classic. So funny.

I cared about all four main characters in A Fine Balance but Ishwar is so thoroughly decent he would have to be my favourite. Same goes for Quayle in The Shipping News

Chris Guthrie in Sunset Song is also a beautifully realised character. The whole book is poetic really.

I seem to go for either funny or decent .. no nasty characters there!

VaddaABeetch · 14/08/2024 19:30

Beckie Sharpe Vanity FaiR
Lady Bracknell the importance of being Earnest

ilovepixie · 14/08/2024 23:08

Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies · 13/08/2024 21:00

Miss Trunchbull. My teaching hero.

I once had a child write in a card.

To Mrs X

Thank you for teaching me this year. You are just like Miss Trunchbill.

Nicest card ever Grin

Wasn't miss trunchball evil?

Appledoughnut · 15/08/2024 01:51

Sam Vimes.