Favorite characters?

[mmmmmm]

They don't have to be well developed or have high moral standards or anything, you just have to like them. Who are your favorite literary characters? For me it's

Gabriel Oak, Holly Golightly, Elinor Dashwood, Mr. Bingley, and Athos.

As much as I love Wuthering Heights, I can't say there's anyone I love in that novel very much. They're all generally negative.

[Manchegan]

I don't know any of yours...

For me though, the best are Don Quixote and his ever faithful squire, Sancho Panza.

I also really like the apathy of Mersault in the Stranger and sympathized best with Jude the Obscure.

[Pryderi Agni]

Possibly Childe Roland of the poem, and King Arthur, my childhood heroes. Also, Lord Krishna of the Indian epic Mahabharata.

[mal4mac]

When I'm feeling old:

Prospero, Don Quixote, Hadji Murad, Pickwick

When I'm feeling young:

Nicholas Nickleby, Hamlet, Achilles

[Tukkanen]

Bulgakov's cat Behemoth and Poligraf Sharikoff are the funniest ones for me.

[promtbr]

I don't know any of yours...

For me though, the best are Don Quixote and his ever faithful squire, Sancho Panza.



They must be my favorites too, since if I reflect back specific to characters in the last 100 or so works of literature I have read since a re-reading of Don Quixote, NONE stand out in memory like those two...its not even close.



---

[Nimor]

Don Quixote, Sancho Panza, Hamlet, Mercutio, Nick Bottom. Then Iago, Shylock, Caliban...

[WICKES]

I thought Evelyn Waugh invented some great comic characters: Grimes, Mr Prendergast, Apthorpe, Richie Hook, Charles Ryder's father...

[Mr Endon]

I guess I must read Don Quixote ASAP.

I usually love stingy old characters. The 'bah! humbug!' mother of Gerald Crinch (Women in Love), Mrs. Crinch, only appears for two pages or something like that, but is by far my favourite character in the book.

[mal4mac]

I guess I must read Don Quixote ASAP.

I usually love stingy old characters. The 'bah! humbug!' mother of Gerald Crinch (Women in Love), Mrs. Crinch, only appears for two pages or something like that, but is by far my favourite character in the book.

Yup, you must :-) Though, given your taste in characters, you might prefer the Don's housekeeper and niece! Or that priest who burned all his books! Or... well read it and find out. All the minor characters are great. By the way, read the Grossman translation, others may cause more suffering than "Sancho tossed in a blanket".

[joebob]

The "underground man" from Dostoevsky's Notes from the underground has got to be my favorite. Or maybe the narrator from his short story Dream of a ridiculous man. They're pretty similar.

Also, the mouse from Flower's for Algernon.

[Veho]

How do you pronounce 'Quixote'?

[bluosean]

I believe it is Key-oh-tee. key to open a door. oh from "oh my". and tee from golf.

[Veho]

Ahh okay, thank you.

[Manchegan]

Or maybe the narrator from his short story Dream of a ridiculous man. I]

I really liked that story! It was so serene for a moment and unlike anything else i've read by dostoyevsky. The jesus bit was jaw dropping.

[chrismythoi]

i really liked Titus Groan in the third of the Gormenghast books. Don Quixote is a fine gent too, but for my likings he 'messes' himself too often; i would not like a roadtrip with him. i also found Winston's plight in 1984 good and therefore also Ivan Denisovich.

[mal4mac]

I believe it is Key-oh-tee. key to open a door. oh from "oh my". and tee from golf.

That's the "most acceptable" pronunciation, but is it English? Shouldn't English speakers pronounce the X as in Mexico and Quixotic? They used to "when I were a lad". I think the "oh-tee" pronunciation crept in because it showed how clever and proficient in langauge one had become, without paying any price for being such! I still hear people pronouncing Quixote by pronouncing the X and see nothing wrong with it, in fact I'm tempted to revert to pronouncing it that way. English isn't French, there are no rules :-)

[Mr Endon]

I believe it's pronounced 'key-HO-tee' in English. This is because of the English speakers' chronic inability to pronounce the Spanish 'x', a guttural sound which exists, for example, in the spanish word 'jamon', the German word 'Achtung' and the Scottish word 'Lochness'.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Some of my favourite characters from the top of my head (one from each author):

Lord Henry Wotton for wit
Jude Fawley in sympathy
Hercule Poirot for fun!
Hemingway's persona's like Jake in Fiesta for lifestyle
The Fool in King Lear for tragic wit and vision
Tom Ripley in understanding
Sherlock Holmes for seeing and smoking pipes
Samson in Milton for vengeance
Georges Duroy in Bel-Ami for the sheer nerve of the man!
Mrs Danvers in Rebecca for being so scary
Penelope for being so patient
Astrophil (Philip Sidney) for trying so much
Mr Collins for being so annoying and smug
The Idiot Boy from Wordsworth for making me smile

[Mockingbird_z]

well that's an interesting question =)
my favourite ones for now - are Dmitry and Alexey Karamazovs, Shatov - from The Devils,
Hamlet!
Elizabeth Bennet =) and Mr. Darcy

[David R]

The wiley and resourceful Odysseus. And the wrathful Achilles. Two great, heroic but very different characters from the works of Homer.

[WICKES]

Mr Scogan in Aldous Huxley's Chrome Yellow

Apthorpe in Evelyn Waugh's Sword Of Honour novels

Charles Ryder's father in Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited

Jeeves from any of P G Wodehouse' masterpieces

Jim from Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim

[mpeachhead]

I can't believe no one's said Fallstaff from Henry IV I and II.
I like John Grady Cole and Billy Parham from The Border Trilogy by McCarthy
Anse Bundren from As I Lay Dying
Robert Jordan from For Whom the Bell Tolls
Timothy Turlock from Chesapeake by James Michener
Hunter Thompson as himself in any of his works

I'll think of some more later.

[Three Sparrows]

Hamlet, Prince Hal, Isabella, Jacques and Lady Anne, from Shakespeare;
Alyosha, Kolya, and the narrator in The House of the Dead, from Dostoevsky; "the old lady who could be Hamlet's aunt," from Dickens, and tons more, I cannot name them all.

[Griffith]

Ebenezer Scrooge from a Christmas Carol. He is so selfish that gets to be charismatic.

[amalia1985]

Heathcliff, Hamlet, Macbeth, Alyosha, Raskolnikov

[prendrelemick]

One of my favourites is Nestor from the Illiad.

He reminds me of Corporal Jones of Dad's Army fame, when he starts going on about the "old days".

[My name is red]

Ignatius really and his mother + oblomov

[Delarge]

Alexander Delarge from "A Clockwork Orange"
Rogosjin from "The Idiot"
Sonja from "Crime and Punishment"
Hektor from "The Illiad"

[Desolation]

From recent books that I read, I really connected with Ivan Karamazov and Martin from Voltaire's Candide.

[Mannoual]

I would have to say Hazel from watership down even though he is a rabbit.

I also love, Brod from everything is illuminated. I love how she's a captive of her own brilliance.

And definitely Alyosha from the brothers Karamazov. His goodness is impossible to resist.

Alexander from a clockwork orange was simply fascinating.

[kelby_lake]

Becky Sharp

[Scheherazade]

Atticus Finch

[The Comedian]

Edward Abbey (of his non-fiction)

[alicepalace]

Peter Pan, because he never grows old. Which I find rather beautiful, to stay forever at your most happiest, and also very sad, to never experience anything more.

I also love the character of Lestat, as is evident from my avatar, as he is such a deep character. Within the first book (Interview With A Vampire) he appears a self centered Jack the lad with a dark and powerful gift, I found this character intriguing enough but after continuing the serious (Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles) I have found his true depth and sadness.

[My name is red]

Boo Radley from To kill a mockingbird?

[Snowqueen]

Boo Radley from To kill a mockingbird

Dorian Gray from The Picture of Dorian Gray
Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights
Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre

[bluosean]

Would have to be David Copperfield.

[Veho]

Dorian Gray from The Picture of Dorian Gray
Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights
Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre

Dorian Gray and Mr. Rochester are two of my favourites as well.

[Lokasenna]

Two of my favourite characters in literature are called Guðrún. Firstly, there's Guðrún Ósvífursdóttir from Laxdœla saga, whose force of character and sheer fierceness have made her iconic. Then there is the much abused Guðrún Gjúkadottir in Völsunga saga, who eventually takes the most magnificent revenge I've ever encountered.

[mal4mac]

Would have to be David Copperfield.

Another vote for Dickens :) So which author is the most heroic? Dickens' rise form the blacking factory is rather impressive.

[Lulim]

Port Moresby from "The Sheltering Sky", Eliza Sommers from "Daughter of Fortune", Kit Traverse from "Against the Day" and Molina from "Kiss of the Spider Woman".

[onioneater]

David Copperfield! Great literary character.

Natty Bumpo (The Leatherstocking Tales). He's a stud.

[Tyrionforprez]

Jubal Harshaw. the man is a genius

[sadparadise]

Titus Andronicus, is my vote. Dean Moriarty was fun when I was a younger gent.

[jcondylis]

Not sure of his name, but the madman from Gogol's ' Diary of a Madman', just for his delusional comic value. Another character I like is from Camus' 'The Plague', Dr Rieux. And also Gregor from Kafka's 'Metamorphosis'.

[Inka]

I bet nobody knows this character: he is french, he has moustache, a faithful dog and a and a more faithful sword. Ladies and gentlemen - Jean de Pardaiyan is at your service!)))

[slipperyyoke]

-Don Quixote and Sancho Panza from Don Quixote
-Ishmael and Queequeg from Moby Dick
-Michael Campbell, Bill Gorton, and Pedro Romero from The Sun Also Rises
-Hans Castorp, Joachim Ziemssen, and Lodovico Settembrini from The Magic Mountain
-Hungry Joe from Catch-22

[blazeofglory]

My major character now is Ivan by Dostoevsky and I never got tired of reading about this character and his ideas in the book.

[Inka]

My major character now is Ivan by Dostoevsky and I never got tired of reading about this character and his ideas in the book.

Ivan from what novel?

[OrphanPip]

Ivan from what novel?

From The Brothers Karamazov, he's a bit of a jerk though. To me, Alyosha has always been the more appealing of the characters in that novel, though he is not as clever and thought provoking as Ivan

[Inka]

OrphanPip
though I never read this novel, I heard some about Alyosha, that he is a good character. Well, anyway I'll find out it myself in winter, when I read it. Thanks)

[blazeofglory]

Ivan from what novel?

From the Brothers Karamazov

The Grand Inquisitor in the novel in which we read something from Ivan and this is what I like most

[LAUREN8585]

my favorite character is Iago from othello

[Modest Proposal]

There are so many but Cyrano De Bergerac is certainly the one that comes easiest to mind.

[blazeofglory]

like a very complex character like Hamlet in Shakespeare; in fact all of us have a bit of him, a little indecision, a little procrastination, a little confusion and a little uncertainty in point of fact. We all are kind of mystified and unsure about what is going on around us and what goes with the rest of our kin and Shakespeare was a realistic playwright

[Tarvaa]

A few that spring to mind:-

Dmitry Karamazov
The narrator from Soseki's "The Miner"
Yevgeny Vasil'evich Bazarov, from Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons"
Raskalnikov
Kiyoaki Matsugae, from Yukio Mishima's "Spring Snow"

[Patrick_Bateman]

Lord Henry Wootten
Patrick Bateman
Guy Montag

[Three Sparrows]

my favorite character is Iago from othello

What? Iago? But he is evil and ruins everyone's lives! I usually don't mind villains, and like some, but to me Iago seemed above and beyond evil. I was so relieved in the end when he was found out, but tastes differ, I suppose.:cool:

[Inka]

Patrick_Bateman
don't know why I didn't like Montag (if you're talking about 451 Farenheit). Farber appealed more to me, though while reading the novel I felt compassion to Guy, too.

blazeofglory
I'm ashamed - I've read that dialogue but forgot it since I didn't need it for my literature class any more.
But that dialogue showed not only Ivan's character, but smth more, the vision of the author of the Jesus, or smth else. Anyway, I must reread it. Thanx for another book that I added to my list... =)

[Night_Lamp]

Good:

Cordelia Flyte, Pip, and Mary Datchet.

Bad:

Joe Christmas, Long John Silver, and Heathcliff.

[keilj]

Tom Joad - the Grapes of Wrath

Prince Myshkin - The Idiot