Best Literary Characters

[DotCommunist]

Satan, from pretty much everything he's starred in

 

[the button]

Anna Karenina
Unnamed protagonist in The Unconsoled
Kim (Rudyard Kipling)
Cal/Calliope in Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides

 

[Orang Utan]

The three main characters in A Fine Balance

 

[Dillinger4]

Andrew Bolkonski in War & Peace

He is another character like Pechorin. Not an anti-hero, but cynical all the same. They seem to appear a lot in Russian Literature.

 

[QueenOfGoths]

The three main characters in A Fine Balance

Oh yes -especially Ishvar and Omprakash and their relationship

 

[Dillinger4]

I think many of those characters stem from Eugene Onegin by Pushkin

 

[the button]

The three main characters in A Fine Balance

I love that book.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Raskalnikov - Crime & Punishment
Little Miss Chatterbox - Little Miss Chatterbox

 

[Strumpet]

Takeshi Kovacs - from Richard Morgan's "Altered Carbon", "Woken Furies" and "Broken Angels" - great anti-hero

LOVE this character.

Lyra - His Dark Materials


Lol@Barking_Mad

 

[Barking_Mad]

LOVE this character.

Lyra - His Dark Materials


Lol@Barking_Mad

She's like my fiance. Sniff of barmaids apron and she won't shut up!

due to a typo i just noticed fiance is one 'n' away from finance.

 

[Buddy Bradley]

The main guy from Love in the Time of Cholera, whose name escapes me at the moment.

 

[Dirty Martini]

Jimmy Blevins in All The Pretty Horses

Jeeves!

 

[Orang Utan]

Jimmy Blevins in All The Pretty Horses

Jeeves!

Surely you mean John Grady Cole?

 

[Dirty Martini]

Surely you mean John Grady Cole?

Ah, shit, I do Blevins is the kid they meet, isn't he. Still a good character, but much too minor to be called great.

 

[susie12]

Sherlock Holmes
Winston Smith
Lyra Silvertongue
Uriah Heep
Mr Micawber

 

[chooch]

Kilgore Trout (various Kurt Vonnegut)
The Minotaur (The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break)

 

[Dillinger4]

Kilgore Trout ^^

 

[the button]

Jesus.

 

[Spandex]

Sherlock Holmes

Yep

It's kind of an obvious one, but when we're discussing 'the best' it's not likely to be some obscure character that no-one's heard of. He's well known for a reason. And that's becasue he's a fantastic character.

The Complete Sherlock Holmes is the book I go back to for a bit when I need a 'break' inbetween two long and heavy going books. There's so many stories in there that by the time I've got to the end, I'm ready to start again.

But it's not particularly the stories that I read it for - they can be pretty formulaic; it's to spend some more time with Holmes and his world of Victorian ne'r-do-wells.

Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the corner of the mantelpiece, and his hypodermic syringe from its neat morocco case. With his long, white, nervous fingers he adjusted the delicate needle and rolled back his left shirtcuff. For some little time his eyes rested thoughtfully upon the sinewy forearm and wrist, all dotted and scarred with innumerable puncture-marks. Finally, he thrust the sharp point home, pressed down the tiny piston, and sank back into the velvet-lined armchair with a long sigh of satisfaction.

 

[Reno]

Gregor Samsa - The Metamorphosis
Marquise de Merteuil - Les Liaisons dangereuses
Roberta Muldoon - The World According to Garp
Isserly - Under the Skin
The Groke - the Moomintroll books

 

[Roadkill]

Horatio Hornblower.

 

[QueenOfGoths]

Gregor Samsa - The Metamorphosis
Marquise de Merteuil - Les Liaisons dangereuses
Roberta Muldoon - The World According to Garp
Isserly - Under the Skin
The Groke - the Moomintroll books

I played that part once - fantastic! Would like to perform it again sometime

 

[babycheeses]

Becky Sharp - Vanity Fair ( Thackeray)
Gwendolyn Harleth: Daniel Deronda ( Eliot)
Harry Angstrom: Rabbit Trilogy (Updike)

oh and a second vote for the Minotaur in Minotaur takes a cig break

 

[Maurice Picarda]

The Minotaur (The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break)

Wonderful book. Someone stole my copy. I think I'll get another one.

 

[DotCommunist]

Yep

It's kind of an obvious one, but when we're discussing 'the best' it's not likely to be some obscure character that no-one's heard of. He's well known for a reason. And that's becasue he's a fantastic character.

The Complete Sherlock Holmes is the book I go back to for a bit when I need a 'break' inbetween two long and heavy going books. There's so many stories in there that by the time I've got to the end, I'm ready to start again.

But it's not particularly the stories that I read it for - they can be pretty formulaic; it's to spend some more time with Holmes and his world of Victorian ne'r-do-wells.

lol, sherlock


'this is a cane known as the Penang Lawyer!'

 

[N_igma]

Vladimir and Estragon.

 

[Squatticus]

Not to mention Watson - a man who always had his revolver to hand.

Agree about Jim Dixon, Lord Jim, and Marlowe.

I think my favourite, though, is Corporal Major Ludovic from Officers and Gentlemen and Unconditional Surrender (Crouchback and the irrepressible Trimmer are pretty good too).

Dr Thorne (and the squire's hideously self-centred wife, I forget her name) from Trollope's Dr Thorne are great too.

 

[goldenecitrone]

Hank Chinaski, Bukowski's alter ego.

 

[goldenecitrone]

Heinrich Faust and Mephistopheles.

 

[JerryLundegaard]

Dickens has created the odd memorable character here and there, a bit surprising that nobody has mentioned any of them.