Strange topic but humour me

[African_Love]

Name some novels that have very compassionate characters or compassionate themes. One of the things that makes me love a story (novel, tv show, movie,) is when it has likeable, warm-hearted characters.

[Pecksie]

Well, a character who can tell us a fair lot about compassion is the bishop in 'Les Misérables' who forgives Jean Valjean after he steals his silver, thus teaching him a lesson in humanity the latter never forgets.

[Dinkleberry2010]

Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Portrait of Jennie by Robert Nathan
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne

[dfloyd]

How about Count Dracula by Bram Stoker.

[Indian Boy]

How about The Man and The boy from Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"?

[Fen]

Practically any Dickens could answer the bill.

Steinbeck novels have a lot of compassion for humanity in them but that might not be quite what you mean.

[Whifflingpin]

Pickwick Papers
Cider with Rosie
Le Grand Meaulnes
The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

[toni]

For likeable, warm-hearted characters, check out Little Women or any work by Louisa May Alcott.

[DanielBenoit]

Prince Myshkin from The Idiot. Literature has had no better Christ-like figure. I'm suprised even after seven posts that no one has mentioned him.

Though I must warn you, not everyone else is that likable, and if what you're looking for is a kind warm-hearted read, you won't find it here.

[PeterL]

The top of the list would be filled with the Flashman series by George McDonald Fraser.

[mal4mac]

Tom Jones
Moll Flanders

[Modest Proposal]

Practically any Dickens could answer the bill.

Steinbeck novels have a lot of compassion for humanity in them but that might not be quite what you mean.

Yes, I was thinking particularly East of Eden.

[baudolino]

Prince Myshkin from The Idiot. Literature has had no better Christ-like figure

Actually, during the writing process of "The Idiot", Dostoevsky himself pointed that "of all the beautiful individuals in Christian literature, one stands out as the most perfect, Don Quixote". But I agree with you :)

[Fen]

Yes, I was thinking particularly East of Eden.

I haven't read that one unfortunately. At the moment I'm in the middle of Sweet Thursday, which is why I thought of him.

[myrna22]

Yes, I was thinking particularly East of Eden.

No, not East of Eden, of course. :redface: But Cannery Row has warm hearted characters.

[Razzleg]

I don't know whether you would consider all of his characters sympathetic or not, but I think that just about all of Kurt Vonnegut's novels have a strong human element. I also highly recommend Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, an excellent example of the qualities you are looking for.

[Fen]

No, not East of Eden, of course. :redface: But Cannery Row has warm hearted characters.

God Bless the people of Monterey!

[ForKnowledge]

can't really remember but the dog in the Talisman by Stephen King

[WICKES]

Anything by Hermann Hesse. He is the most tender hearted, humane writer I know of.

Bertrand Russell was extraordinarily compassionate as well.

[Katy North]

Try diving into childrens literature for a while: Wizard of Oz, Chronicles of Narnia, Dr. Doolittle.

Otherwise, some good ones are:

Pygmalion
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
Anything Dickens, especially Pickwick Papers and the Curiosity Shop
Johnathon Livingstone Seagull
The Jungle Book