# Your Favorite Literary Character?



## Lenfer (Aug 15, 2011)

Title says it all who is your favorite literary character? :tiphat:


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## Kevin Pearson (Aug 14, 2009)

I guess nobody likes to read here but I'll contribute mine. I suppose my very favorite is Sherlock Holmes. I like mysteries a whole lot and next to him would be P.D. James' character Inspector Adam Dalgliesh. She has written 14 novels based on this character to date. He's a complex and interesting character and her novels are so well written that I can't usually figure out who did it until the reveal. Most other authors I can figure out about half-way through but P.D. James' novels. If you like mysteries and you like stories that are well crafted and beautiful prose then try her Dalgliesh series. Read them in chronological order if you can because there is character development over the fourteen novels that is important to the stories. Here is a list:

Cover Her Face (1962)
A Mind to Murder (1963)
Unnatural Causes (1967)
Shroud for a Nightingale (1971)
The Black Tower (1975)
Death of an Expert Witness (1977)
A Taste for Death (1986)
Devices and Desires (1989)
Original Sin (1994)
A Certain Justice (1997)
Death in Holy Orders (2001)
The Murder Room (2003)
The Lighthouse (2005)
The Private Patient (2008)

Kevin


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Hmmm. How about Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek?


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## Kopachris (May 31, 2010)

Hamlet.

(Why couldn't I pick someone whose name was more than 10 chars?)


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

Oblomov, whose goodhearted, dreamy and earthly life-loving character is so often misjudged & depreciated by activists, longing for drama & terror. Shame on them!


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## MaestroViolinist (May 22, 2012)

Veralidaine Sasri (I don't think I spelt the last name right) out of "The Immortals" series by Tamora Pierce. One of my favourite series. I also like Artemis Fowl...


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

MaestroViolinist said:


> Veralidaine Sasri (I don't think I spelt the last name right) out of "The Immortals" series by Tamora Pierce. One of my favourite series. I also like Artemis Fowl...


Artemis Fowl was terrific ONCE. Too easy to read now. And he's arrogant and very unlikeable anyway.


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

Gloire Thurston. Ann Bridge's women leads were marvelous characters, especially in her early novels. Gloire Thurston (Singing Waters) was her best. I like characters who grow and change in the course of a novel, and no character ever did that more than this one. She starts out a bored and selfish young widow traveling across Europe by train and on a whim accepts a challenge by a male co-passenger to get off in Albania (in the 1940s). How she finds herself there is a wonderful story, and what's better - there's no romance in it.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Lord Emsworth's ageing but still rakish brother, Galahad Threepwood. Effortlessly patrician but, unlike the majority of Waugh's other 'idle rich' characters, does not have a narrow class-obsessed view of the world and possesses a naturally open and warm-hearted nature which makes him popular with people from all walks of life. He is also unflappable and sensible in a crisis and usually able to live off his wits.


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## Il_Penseroso (Nov 20, 2010)

Jean-Christophe


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Hawk. ~~~~


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

I really liked Levin from Anna Karenina, and Pierre Bezukhov from War and Peace. Their character transformation, which is quite similar in both of them though through entirely different circumstances, is what I liked the most.

Of the short stories I've written, I tend to focus on female subjects, but I did write a few stories focusing on a man. My favorite one that I wrote was a historical fiction about the young Shostakovich. I just liked him, and I hope I was authentic in characterizing him, at least I put in a few quotes of things he said in real life. The ending of the story also was good for him. At least, for that part of his life. It was probably my best story.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Sydney Carton in Charles Dickens' _A Tale of Two Cities _-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Carton

Not in terms of everything re this character, but yes in terms of self-sacrifice without any results and loyalty when often it goes nowhere. A kind of idealist with no ideals, throwing caution to the wind, maybe risking too much. Also his gentle humour, often self deprecating.


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## Meaghan (Jul 31, 2010)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Hmmm. How about Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek?


TWELFTH NIGHT FTW.

From the same play - Viola (/Cesario). She's not my all-time favorite literary character (I don't think I could pick one), but I've got a lot of affection for her. In the simplest interpretation, she's selfless (for wooing Olivia on Orsino's behalf when she herself is in love with Orsino), brave (for picking up and carrying on after shipwreck and the supposed loss of her brother, and adapting without hesitation to a strange new world), and very witty. But on closer inspection, you can read her so many ways, which makes her fascinating. Especially as regards her proxy courtship of Olivia, which, while masterful, doesn't always seem particularly well-designed to turn Olivia's affections toward _Orsino._ Then you start getting into all sorts of speculation about Shakespeare's literary intentions that can never really be settled, but that's kind of fun sometimes. And it's interesting how other characters sort of project their own desires onto Viola/Cesario, seeing her as whatever they happen to want. It's hilarious how many (sometimes rather obvious) hints she drops about her true identity that people never pick up on because they _want_ her to be Cesario - "I am not that I play," "I am almost sick for [a beard], but I would not have it grow on my chin," "I am all the daughters of my father's house, and all the brothers too," and, of course, "My father had a daughter loved a man, as it might be, perhaps, were I a woman, I should your lordship."


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

Sid James said:


> Sydney Carton in Charles Dickens' _A Tale of Two Cities _-
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Carton
> 
> Not in terms of everything re this character, but yes in terms of self-sacrifice without any results and loyalty when often it goes nowhere. A kind of idealist with no ideals, throwing caution to the wind, maybe risking too much. Also his gentle humour, often self deprecating.


I agree with the above. ^^^

It's also interesting how Dickens has Darnay so completely boring and Carton being so interesting a character.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Hmmm... characters that have absolutely stuck with me... vividly... would surely include:

The narrator, Tristram Shandy, his father, Walter Shandy, Uncle Toby and the manservant, Obadiah from Lawrence Sterne's _*The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman*_

Don Quixote and Sanch Panza from Cervantes' _*Don Quixote*_

Dante from Dante's _*Divine Comedy*_ (The character of Dante as painted in the _Comedia_ is so complex and marvelous that many completely miss the fact that he is as much a literary invention by the poet as any clearly fictional character.

The narrator (Byron himself?) of Byron's _*Don Juan*_, whose great digressions are often far more interesting than the central narrative.

Goethe's Werther, from _*The Sorrows of Young Werther*_

*Shakespeare?* Where do you start? MacBeth and Lady Macbeth, Iago, Falstaff, Edmund, Hamlet, Puck.....

Captain Ahab from Melville's _*Moby Dick*_

Humbert Humbert from Nabokov's _*Lolita*_

Old Qfwfq from Italo Calvino's _*Cosmicomics*_. Absolutely one of the greatest narrators in literature.

Judge Holden from Cormac McCarthy's _*Blood Meridian*_: A villain worthy of Shakespeare's Edmund, Iago, and Lady MacBeth and the Biblical Satan (as well as Milton's Satan)

Jesus, Moses, Abraham, Job, etc... from the _*Bible*_

Satan from Milton's _*Paradise Lost*_

Jean Valjean from Victor Hugo's _*Les Misérables*_

Milady de Winter, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis as well as D'Artagnan from Dumas' _*Three Musketeers*_

Huckleberry Finn and Jim from Mark Twain's _*Huckleberry Finn*_

Myra (Myron) Breckenridge from Gore Vidal's _*Myra Breckenridge*_

These are among the characters who have truly stuck with me from my reading... sometimes for years.


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## MaestroViolinist (May 22, 2012)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Artemis Fowl was terrific ONCE. Too easy to read now. And he's arrogant and very unlikeable anyway.


 ****** ****** white


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

MaestroViolinist said:


> ****** ****** white


Go read some Shakespeare.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Meaghan said:


> TWELFTH NIGHT FTW.
> 
> From the same play - Viola (/Cesario). She's not my all-time favorite literary character (I don't think I could pick one), but I've got a lot of affection for her. In the simplest interpretation, she's selfless (for wooing Olivia on Orsino's behalf when she herself is in love with Orsino), brave (for picking up and carrying on after shipwreck and the supposed loss of her brother, and adapting without hesitation to a strange new world), and very witty. But on closer inspection, you can read her so many ways, which makes her fascinating. Especially as regards her proxy courtship of Olivia, which, while masterful, doesn't always seem particularly well-designed to turn Olivia's affections toward _Orsino._ Then you start getting into all sorts of speculation about Shakespeare's literary intentions that can never really be settled, but that's kind of fun sometimes. And it's interesting how other characters sort of project their own desires onto Viola/Cesario, seeing her as whatever they happen to want. It's hilarious how many (sometimes rather obvious) hints she drops about her true identity that people never pick up on because they _want_ her to be Cesario - "I am not that I play," "I am almost sick for [a beard], but I would not have it grow on my chin," "I am all the daughters of my father's house, and all the brothers too," and, of course, "My father had a daughter loved a man, as it might be, perhaps, were I a woman, I should your lordship."


I LOVE TWELFTH NIGHT!!! It is a great play indeed! Favourite part: Malvolio reading the letter from "Olivia" :lol: I fell in love with that play when I was ten...


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## MaestroViolinist (May 22, 2012)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Go read some Shakespeare.


I HAVE!!! A Midsummer Night's Dream. ut:


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

MaestroViolinist said:


> I HAVE!!! A Midsummer Night's Dream. ut:


Okay, who am I:

Full of vexation come I with complaint
Against my child, my daughter Hermia

(they were the second and third lines I had to say when I played the character in question)


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Goes on,

Stand forth Demetrius, my noble lord
This man hath my consent to marry her


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Wow it's been a long time. I've forgotten most of my words!


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## MaestroViolinist (May 22, 2012)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Wow it's been a long time. I've forgotten most of my words!


You expect me to remember that? It was like 6 months ago, and Shakespeare is hard to read.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

MaestroViolinist said:


> You expect me to remember that? It was like 6 months ago, and Shakespeare is hard to read.


Oh come on. I had to memorise a monologue among other things when I was 12. It's not _that hard to read_ once you get the hang of it. Start on Shakespeare when you're young so when you have to study it in after years you be an expert at evaluating his poetic language.


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## MaestroViolinist (May 22, 2012)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Oh come on. I had to memorise a monologue among other things when I was 12. It's not _that hard to read_ once you get the hang of it. Start on Shakespeare when you're young so when you have to study it in after years you be an expert at evaluating his poetic language.


Smarty pants.


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## TheBamf (Apr 21, 2012)

Anselmo from For Whom the Bell Tolls


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

MaestroViolinist said:


> Smarty pants.


You call me smarty pants?

i like you


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## MaestroViolinist (May 22, 2012)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> You call me smarty pants?
> 
> i like you


That wasn't supposed to be a compliment, (the smarty pants bit).


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

MaestroViolinist said:


> That wasn't supposed to be a compliment, (the smarty pants bit).


I took it as an insult.


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## MaestroViolinist (May 22, 2012)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> I took it as an insult.


That doesn't make sense then... What with the first thing you said and then the second. But anyways.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

MaestroViolinist said:


> That doesn't make sense then... What with the first thing you said and then the second. But anyways.


I'm a nonsesical person.


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## MaestroViolinist (May 22, 2012)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> I'm a nonsesical person.


So I see.  Are these your two favourite smilies for the night?


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

MaestroViolinist said:


> So I see.  Are these your two favourite smilies for the night?


Yep. Sure thing!


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

My second favorite character is *Antigone*.


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

How is it that you two can move any serious discussion completely off-topic and fill up half the pages with nonsensical posts?


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## Chris (Jun 1, 2010)

TheBamf said:


> Anselmo from For Whom the Bell Tolls


Good one. Also the deeply unsettling *Pablo*.

My choice is *Puddleglum* the marsh-wiggle in C.S. Lewis' *The Silver Chair*. Puddleglum is a brilliant exponent of pessimism. All through the children's trials he depresses everyone's spirits with grim forebodings and gloomy prognostications. And at the end, when evil is defeated and the sun emerges from black clouds to bath the land in warmth, Puddleglum observes that he's never seen a day like this that didn't end in torrential rain.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Klavierspieler said:


> How is it that you two can move any serious discussion completely off-topic and fill up half the pages with nonsensical posts?


Sorry, which two idiots are you referring to?


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## waldvogel (Jul 10, 2011)

Trying to intervene without getting splattered with mud, and to stay on topic...

*Hans Castorp* from The Magic Mountain


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

waldvogel said:


> Trying to intervene without getting splattered with mud, and to stay on topic...
> 
> *Hans Castorp* from The Magic Mountain


*SPLATTERING YOU WITH MUD* text


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I absent-mindedly made a stupid gaffe in my post - said Waugh instead of Wodehouse.


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## MaestroViolinist (May 22, 2012)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Sorry, which two idiots are you referring to?


Yes, I haven't noticed two idiots around lately either...?

Ok, another character I like is Kim from A Matter of Magic.


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## Guest (Jun 26, 2012)

Just one? That's tough. I guess Raskolnikov from _Crime and Punishment_.


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

Howard Roark


...and Shylock, of course.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

I also like Serge, of Serge and Coleman.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Itsa tie 'tween Pig Bodine and Bond James Bond.


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## waldvogel (Jul 10, 2011)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Sorry, which two idiots are you referring to?


Prince Myshkin and Ignatius J. Reilly.


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