Best literary character

[cupcaske123]

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?

Heathcliffe, Wilkins Micawber and Scrooge.

Pauline Mole

Skim reading responses and all seems a bit high brow reading for me and also - obviously it's Bridget Jones 😂

I still remember 16yr old me - laughing and laughing some more reading it. My Mum walking in to ask what on earth was going on at 2am.

Anyway, just thought I'd stop by to lower the tone 😅

Low tone is it we're wanting now?

Stephanie Plum (and Lula, and Grandma Mazur)

Mrs Ariadne Oliver

I think Bridget Jones is a great character.

Miss Marple. Love most Agatha Christie, but Poirot is just a little too smug for me.

I love Miss Marple, but I'm especially fond of Mrs Oliver because Agatha obviously had so much fun writing her, and sending herself up.

Father Francis Chisholm, A.J.Cronin, read this book decades ago and still like this character
Jean Paget

Jo March and Samuel Vimes spring to mind.

Demon Copperhead is a character I really, really wanted to thrive.

And lowering the literary tone, Lamb from Slow Horses. I read the books first, the watched the TV series. I am normally disappointed by the casting of strong characters when they get made into a film/series but it is just perfect.

And to keep the tone low, Rupert Campbell-Black is another man I love to hate and love.

For me, a character is perfect if they stay with you long after reading the book. The book is just a setting for the character, and it's easy to imagine the character outside of the book. They become real and tangible and they don't need the confines of the pages to exist. You can have an amazing plot, but not care because you don't have feelings about the characters. An amazing character doesn't need a plot to survive.

Ah - I was coming here to mention Heyer! I LOVE Sophy.

Also a huge fan of Hugo Darracott from The Unknown Ajax.

Peter Rabbit- risk taker, living life to the full. Always swimming against the grain.

I think he's inspirational, even though he was created as a cautionary character.

Stephen Maturin and Jack Aubrey!
dp and dd can talk for hours (and hours and hours) about the Aubreyade. Having been out on research ships quite a bit Stephen feels like a kindred spirit.
My favourite ever literary (albeit very minor) character is John Childermass from Susannah Clark's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.

Prrambulate
I came on just to say Sand dan Glokta! Old Sticks is just the most unlikely hero ever but I think about him so often. Glokta is truly a magnificent creation. He is my absolute hero.

otoh, a good friend of mine who took to vegetable gardening with enthusiasm after his retirement, once said rather gloomily after describing his disappearing produce, that he had come to believe that Mr McGregor was the greatest hero in literature.

I loved Maggie Tulliver. I read it for A Level English, many, many moons ago.

They're all great, but it's still Bouncer for me.

She had a great line in annoying adolescents - Amanda and Belinda and Eugenie - all quite distinct from each other, entirely believable and quite lovable in their own maddening way.

And among the more responsible - Sarah Thane and Gillie and Drusilla and Miss Beccles and so many more.

William from the Just William books.

Fabulous imagination, incomparable loyalty, bravery, doesn’t differ fools gladly.

I love Clarissa Dalloway as a character. I felt a connection to her somehow.

Great thread.

Diana Bishop. Witch, time walker and married to Matthew.

Jo March

I always wanted to be either Sara Crewe or Laura Ingalls as a child.