Who is your favourite literary mother?

[MissHoneyPenny]

Your favourite mother/mother figure from literature.

I think my top choices would be Marmee from Little Women, Miss Honey from Matilda (hence username) and Ma Joad from The Grapes of Wrath.

Mrs Weasley is up there for me, and Mrs Brown from Paddington although influenced by the fantastic film versions of both!

I'm fond of another Mrs Brown, the one who's mother to Just William. Such faith in her youngest son, in the face of all evidence.

Pauline Mole, an absolute legend.

The Dowager Duchess of Denver
The mother in The Railway Children. It's only towards the end you realise what she has been dealing with, while keeping a brave face for her children.

(am sure I will think of others)

Will anyone put in a vote for Joey Maynard? 😁

Sadie Alconleigh in The Pursuit of Love. I loved that book and enjoyed reading about an interesting and unusual mother rather than a plaster saint or perfect woman.

For a dark, perhaps less obvious choice, Eva from We Need to Talk about Kevin. Compelling, fascinating..

Helen Graham from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Mrs Quimby in the Ramona stories.

As I’ve got older, my sympathy for Mrs Bennet has increased greatly. When I was in my twenties, I thought she was ridiculous; now I’m in my fifties, going through menopause; been through a divorce from a man who really didn’t give a damn about me and couldn’t be arsed to hide his contempt; 3 DCs late teens/early twenties and no chance any time soon of buying a house, paying off student loan or gaining any financial security for the foreseeable thanks to the economy, I can really sympathise with her poor nerves. Pretty sure I’d be in a similar state without the miracle of HRT!

Mrs Frisby - ok she’s a field mouse, but what a fine mother she is.

Oh, and Mrs Cratchit obviously, too! Brave in her ribbons and forthright in her scorn for Scrooge. Top mum stuff there!

Moominmamma ❤️

Beaten to it, but was also going to say Ma Joad and Helen Graham.

Martha’s mother in The Secret Garden

A million times this!

I am re-reading AM diary at the moment and it is fantastic and so funny.

Ma from Little House on the Prairie. So calm, wise and capable.

Molly Weasley for being the most accurate representation of my own mother I've ever seen.

Mrs. Bennet for pure comedic value.

Seconding the Dowager Duchess of Denver!

Really interesting pick - yes, compelling!

Mrs Walker from Swallows and Amazons.

Marilla Cuthbert from Anne of Green Gables.

And of course Mrs Bennet!

Mrs Walker and Mrs Blackett from the Swallows and Amazons stories. One whose husband is always away in the Navy and the other a widow, and both blithely waving off their children to sail in the dark, climb mountains, dig for and smelt 'gold', confront maniacal rare egg thieves, cross the north sea alone in a storm (although that was an accident) and foil pirates. Legends both of them

@AdaColeman great minds!

Surely Agnes Bain?

I love Mrs Weasley

From when the DCs were small, the Mum in Peepo. And Alfie’s Mum in the Shirley Hughes stories.

As an adult: the mother in Room and Elizabeth in Lessons in Chemistry are two who stand out for me.