Just to lower the tone - which literary hero/ine would you most like to cop off with?

[artifarti]

I developed a huge crush on Tom Jones (eponymous hero of Henry Fielding novel) whilst at university. I thought he was a bit racy and go-getting, whilst at heart a thoroughly decent chap (ah, my Professor would be proud of that literary summary...)

Shortly after, I heard they were to make a film of it and, Reader, my heart raced.

After months of fevered speculation I found out that the lead role had gone to Max Beesly . Nooooo, wrong, wrong, wrong!

So, which literary figure has most set your heart/loins a-flutter?

Oooh Steve Carella, had forgotten all about him. Yum.

When I was young I think I had a teeny crush on Hercule Poirot.

thinkI was about 10 with lawrence durrell too

Saltire - that picture is delicious. I loved John Thornton BEFORE the BBC adaptation, Mr Armitage only fanned the flames.

And I am a Heathcliffe girl, I am afraid. It started in my early teens, but I have re-read many times and I can't get past it. Yes, he comes across as something of a bully sometimes, and admittedly is a little unstable (), but he really, really does it for me. All that passion, the dark brooding...I would love someone to adore me enough to bang his head against a tree and dig me up. (Ok, maybe that is a step too far...) Plus, there is vulnerability there. It is heartbreaking the way he calls out to Catherine when Lockwood says he has heard something at the window. Give the man his dues, his love is, um, enduring. (And I bet he'd be brutal in bed. None of that namby pamby romance nonsense!)

Also, I know he was real and not really a literary character, but I have a huge thing for Robert Dudley in Philippa Gregory's novels. If he was good enough for Elizabeth I, then he's good enough for me.

There must be more, I'll probably be back.

Can't stop thinking about this now

Diggory Venn
Gabriel Oak
Squire Boldwood

Hugh Berringer (Cadfael)

Silk (from the David Eddings Belgariad books)

wastingmyeducation, Lestat?! Really? What's attractive about him?

Laundryfairy, I share my men with no-one.

Ooh, Gabriel Oake, had forgotten him.

Carlo from Captain Corelli.

Colonel Brandon from S&S.(And also Willoughby. I loves a cad, I do.)

Yes, to Bill Barrie from Sue Barton, but I had forgotten until I read it here ...

Rebus? Really? Why?

Why Atticus Finch? I can't see that at all.

Hmm - very embarrassingly after all these literary giants I have to lower the tone and say the only man ever to make my reading hand quiver is Luke Costello from Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes. A real man who fills a pair of leather trousers very well and is amazing in bed. I wish he were mine

Also agree with Jackson Brodie - would be slightly rumpled and dirty but very good fun

Mr Darcy, Colonel Brandon, Captain Wentworth
John Thornton
John Proctor

I'm a bit predictable?

Sirius from HP

... and Sharpe

Ginnifer, I love Sirius so much I named Boydog after him. I didn't reveal this earlier because I wasn't sure how acceptable it was to have crushes on characters from children's books. Thought it was a bit like fancying people from Cbeebies (but that's a whole other thread...)

I second Atticus Finch - perfect father, man of principle, and a great shot too. Also Fabrice from The Pursuit of Love and Laurie from Little Women (why did she marry that damn professor? Why? Why?)

Janeite I agree, Strider yes up against a tree yes yes yes!

Gabriel Oak for me too.

Captain Corelli appealed to me too but I've only read that one once. (And I agree, not Nicholas Cage!)

As a child, Spiller from the Borrowers and Aramis (the Muskehound version!)

Any Jane Austen hero really, but probably Captain Wentworth does it most for me.

Sometimes I think I am "growing out" of the cad/bounder thing, but then when one comes along !

I clearly need to broaden my reading as there seem to be plenty of hot characters out there that I haven't met yet!

Holden Caulfield

Achilles

Ranger

ooooooooooooh Sirius! Yes me too! He was very sexy

I agree with Atticus Finch - something v. sexy about a man who is principled.

Otherwise it would probably be Mr Darcy but only if he looks like Colin Firth.

oh god. i have a huge list...

Mr Rochester

Mr Darcy

Rupert Campbell-Black

Jean-Benoit Aubery

Sirius Black

Hercule Poirot

Mellors

Aramis

Lyra, I was 16 at the time, and Lestat is so confident and rebellious, plus a little repressed homoeroticism often appeals.

Wasting - me too, TBH Lestat or Marius or Armand - not fussed which

Hmmm, well based on my nickname it has to be Rourke from the JD Robb 'in death' series. Irish, brooding, long hair, sexy, good dresser, simmering violence, (only to criminals) multi-millionaire (whats not to like)

Procrastinatingparent - love the way you listed them under genre.

For me, it would be Mr Rochester but I've always been a bit annoyed that Jane can resist him when it matters and yet I don't think I'd be able to. Obviously she's a woman of principle and I'm a tart.

Probably wouldn't say no to Mr D'Arcy, so long as he looked like Colin Firth.

Would consider Aragorn, but have to confess that this one is entirely film-based. I also have a soft spot for Severus Snape, but that is Alan Rickman's fault. I don't normally go for Death Eaters!

Jack Parlablane and Jackson Brodie so apparently only slighty scruffy scottish detectives for me

Probably wouldn't throw Colin Firth or Matthew MacFaddyn out of bed but Mr Darcy wayyy to far up his own bottom

I had forgotten about Gilbert Blythe!
Stephen in The Mill on the Floss.

But can I start on historical figures? I would so, SO go for Henry VIII in his younger days. And Harold Godwinson! MmmmmMMMMMMmmmm!
(I'm a medieval historian by trade...)

Mr Rochester