Describe a favorite literary character.

I wonder the worth of adding to a thread almost 7yrs old, but who knows...

unfortunately I cant describe her since its been so many years since ive read the book, but I remember being very attracted to agnes, david Copperfield's second wife.

and I loved hazel from watership down and his wise and brave leadership throughout all the rabbits trials and tribulations.

and maybe jack reacher from all the lee child stories. apart from being a physical beast of a fellow, and despite his desires to live a quiet solitary life after leaving the military, he never fails to do "right" when he finds himself in the midst of some grievous "wrong."

Yes, I'd say it is still a good topic, so it is worth it.

I agree with your choices of Agnes and Hazel. They were both great characters. I did not read Lee Child so I cannot comment on Jack Reacher.

Having grown up in Brooklyn, NY I have always been fascinated by the way New Yorkers are portrayed on cinema, TV, and on literature. Perhaps the greatest NY character ever portrayed in literature was the Mose who was based on a real life character.


https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...gVxP2hh_NS8w&s



https://www.google.com/search?q=the+...hrome&ie=UTF-8



He might be said to be a trickster --- one moment he is a heel, another moment later he is a hero. He was featured in Ned Buntline's stories of NYC. While Buntline's many books are not readily available in libraries or bookstores, his influence on literature and cinema remain after all these years.


One character that emerged from Buntline's writings was a Chuck Connors (no, not the rifleman):


https://mcnyblog.files.wordpress.com...-276.jpg?w=210



https://blog.mcny.org/2016/05/24/you...-of-chinatown/



Years later there were the Bowery Boys/East Side Kids which featured Muggs McGinnis/Slip Mahoney:



https://wearysloth.com/Gallery/2017/G/6750.jpg





I have watched so many movies which featured this great trickster who often misquoted Shakespeare, caused trouble, got into innumerable fights, rarely worked and almost never earned an honest buck, but who had a heart of gold and would give the shirt off his back to help a friend in need. Very contradictory character. But that's the way New Yorkers often were.



By the way, similar characters can be found in Stephen Crane's Bowery Tales.

See?*





*New Yorkers often ended their sentences with the word see? when they spoke what was called "flash" way back in the 1840s until about WW I and just up to WW II.






One last thing:


NYC real life Bowery Boys from the 1840s and thereafter:



https://res.cloudinary.com/bloomsbur...0275985387.jpg



They were heavily involved in the infamous Astor Place Riots (1849) ~ a fascinating episode in NYC and American history.

quoting bounty: "I wonder the worth of adding to a thread almost 7yrs old, but who knows..."


quoting DATo: "Yes, I'd say it is still a good topic, so it is worth it."




Literature is a living thing and, more significantly, it is timeless. Thus, it is never too late to add to the exchange when it comes to literature.

More than once I've been described as being exceedingly eccentric. That's OK since, after all, I'm originally from Brooklyn. So naturally, I'm attracted to characters who, like myself, are just a bit out of the ordinary. One who fits this bill and is of my absolute favorites is Col Sellers:



https://live.staticflickr.com/4028/4...5c72ec1be7.jpg


https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.w3Q9BW...61&c=7&dpr=1.6



He appears in several different evolutions in a couple of Mark Twain's writings. Here he is portrayed by legendary actor John T Raymond who did an extensive tour as this character back in the 1870s. This as Sellers in the book The Gilded age (1873). Raymond died in 1887. Then, the character reappeared in Twain's American Claimant (1892). So sad that people were not able to watch Raymond portray him as he evolved and became even more eccentric.



The good Colonel and Mark Twain:

https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.qE4y2S...pr=1.3&pid=1.7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs8K3P-DpDs


https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3179...79-h.htm#chap2


Colonel Mulberry Sellers—this was some days before he wrote his letter to Lord Rossmore—was seated in his “library,” which was also his “drawing-room” and was also his “picture gallery” and likewise his “work-shop.” Sometimes he called it by one of these names, sometimes by another, according to occasion and circumstance. He was constructing what seemed to be some kind of a frail mechanical toy; and was apparently very much interested in his work. He was a white-headed man, now, but otherwise he was as young, alert, buoyant, visionary and enterprising as ever. His loving old wife sat near by, contentedly knitting and thinking, with a cat asleep in her lap. The room was large, light, and had a comfortable look, in fact a home-like look, though the furniture was of a humble sort and not over abundant, and the knickknacks and things that go to adorn a living-room not plenty and not costly. But there were natural flowers, and there was an abstract and unclassifiable something about the place which betrayed the presence in the house of somebody with a happy taste and an effective touch ...

He’s a bit of a lug nut, but he’s our lug nut. Sergeant George Washington Hayduke, former Green Beret, has recently returned for Vietnam and is looking for his purpose in life when he falls in with a rag-tag group of folks on rafting trip in the Grand Canyon. They become The Monkey Wrench Gang, environmental activists, eco warriors, monkey wrenchers, that sort of thing:

Hayduke:

Quote:

---

My job is to save the f*cking wilderness. I don't know anything else worth saving. That's simple, right?

---

To “Monkey Wrench” something is to render an implement of progress useless by direct action, like dumping 5 pounds of sugar into the gas tank of a bulldozer.

From The Monkey Wrench Gang, by Ed Abbey:

Quote:

---

If God meant this here bulldozer to live He wouldn't of filled its tank with diesel fuel.

---

More about Hayduke:

Quote:

---

Like so many American men, Hayduke loved guns, the touch of oil, the acrid smell of burnt powder, the taste of brass, bright copper alloys, good cutlery, all things well made and deadly.

---

Hayduke’s inner struggle:

Quote:

---

Hayduke smelled something foul in all this. A smoldering bitterness warmed his heart and nerves; the slow fires of anger kept his cockles warm, his hackles rising. Hayduke burned. And he was not a patient man.

---

Hayduke speaks:

Quote:

---

I piss on you from a considerable height

---

HAYDUKE LIVES!

Movie and book The Third Man by Graham Greene:


https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/vi...20241202062641



The ####### was as evil as they come. But he was a charmer, dressed well, had class, was articulate, enterprising, resourceful, funny as f**k, and memorable. He was killed by his childhood friend Holly Martins and he deserved to die for his evils.

But wait - did he really die as both the book and the movie showed?

Consider all this:

•We are told from the beginning of the movie that "this is Vienna, anything can happen".
•Baron Kurtz tells Holly, "I enjoy your books as anything can happen [in them]."
•The first one to greet Harry is the cat (9 lives?).
•Harry's shoes are wing tipped (meaning the Phoenix or multiple lives).
•Holly & Harry meet at the Ferris Wheel representing the endless circle of life.
•In the Ferris Wheel Harry tells Holly 'we can never hurt each other'.
•Holly is asked at the end, 'did you kill him?' and he says 'yes' but the body is not shown.
•At the second funeral for Harry, again, his body is not shown.
•3 or 4 years after the movie The Third Man reappears as a radio series with Harry narrative his own "death" and subsequent adventures.
•4 years after that Harry appears on European TV in modern day Europe having more adventures.


Thus, the anti hero Harry Lime was NOT killed in the end of the movie. He was wickedly evil. But he was so resourceful that he managed to escape and thrive for decades to come.

Definitely one of literature's most fascinating characters.

Have Gun Will Travel was one of television's greatest shows. This because of its fascinating leading character Clay Alexander better known as Paladin. Book by Frank G Robertson.


Paladin:

◆Graduate of West Point Academy
◆Civil War hero
◆Marksman
◆Professional boxer
◆High class detective & bounty hunter with strong, principled moral code
◆Wine and food connoisseur
◆Reads/write Chinese with much proficiency
◆Award winning hunter who captured and killed man eating tiger in Asia
◆World traveler
◆Bon vivant who dresses superbly well
◆Lady's man whom women find irresistible




Have gun will travel, reads the card of a man
A knight without armor in a savage land
His fast gun hire, heeds the calling wind
A soldier of fortune, is a man called --- Pal-a- din
Paladin, Paladin, where do you roam
Paladin, Paladin, far, far from home
He travels on to where ever he must
A chess knight of silver is his badge of trust
There are campfire legends that the plainsmen men sing
Of the man with the gun, of the man called --- Pal-a- din

Paladin, Paladin
Where do you roam?
Far from home
Far from home ...



Definitely one of American literature's greatest characters.




I recall now that I did discuss this book earlier however, I went more in depth this time to discuss the character of Paladin.

Happy May Day - Beltane to all.


I am reminded of Hawthorne's story The May Pole of Merry Mount:

https://www.google.com/search?q=The+...t=gws-wiz-serp


The story features my LEAST favorite character of all time: the bigoted and intolerant Governor Endicott. He is one guy I'd like to briefly put a choke hold on him and hopefully teach him to be more tolerant.


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...erry_Mount.jpg

For you too, Poppins and thanks for the story and link, I'm going to read it later.

a perfect literary pull for Beltane! The May-Pole of Merry Mount is such a fascinating clash of joy and repression, light and shadow. Endicott really is the embodiment of cold, puritanical severity — the killjoy of killjoys. I can understand the chokehold impulse! Hawthorne’s brilliance is how he captures that moment in history when merriment itself was seen as a threat to order. It's a reminder that even joy can be revolutionary.

Thanks for sharing — now I want to reread it by the fire with a bit of mischief in mind.

quote,


Danik 2016
For you too, Poppins and thanks for the story and link, I'm going to read it later.

tonywalt
a perfect literary pull for Beltane! The May-Pole of Merry Mount is such a fascinating clash of joy and repression, light and shadow. Endicott really is the embodiment of cold, puritanical severity — the killjoy of killjoys. I can understand the chokehold impulse! Hawthorne’s brilliance is how he captures that moment in history when merriment itself was seen as a threat to order. It's a reminder that even joy can be revolutionary.

Thanks for sharing — now I want to reread it by the fire with a bit of mischief in mind.




💯 for both!