Favorite Characters from Literature?

[Alice]

I like the name Shasta better. Even if it sounds like a soda.

[suribachi]

There's really way too many but here's a short list--

Reepicheep is very cool!
Tom Bombadil
Gimli
Gandalf
Hazel and Kehar from Watership Down
Traveller from Traveller
Jack Ryan
Clark/Kelly (Tom Clancy)

[Alice]

I completey forgot about Watership Down. My favorite character from that was definitely Fiver.

[mitsuki lover]

Gandalf was the name of an ancient Norse king.
Shasta is also a mountain in California,which is probably where Lewis got the name since the soda wasn't around when he wrote the Narnian books.
I think Corin was a more interesting character even though he only showed up toward the end of The Horse And His Boy,I mean it would have been interesting to see what would have happened if Cor HADN'T showed up what kind of king Corin would have made.
I bet he would have been like Richard The Lion Heart.

[Seppuku]

life long gandalf fan ^-^

[Sakura15]

Aragorn (I think we all know where he's from )

Shasta from the horse and his boy

[Kumagoro]

Holden Caufield from Catcher in the Rye. For me, he is the most relateble fictitous character I've ever come across. He's so much like myself in terms of personality, I feelt like this book was written just for me. It's a shame the emo kids stole it for use as their "Bible", since it's a wonderful book.

[yukinon]

They did? When did that happen? Anyway, I'm going to have to add Emmy/Dweia from The Redemption of Althalus.

[Aka-chan]

I forgot:
Pearl (The Scarlet Letter)
Alia (Dune series)

<3 for freaky pseudo-psychic little girls

[Icarus]

They did? When did that happen? Anyway, I'm going to have to add Emmy/Dweia from The Redemption of Althalus.

The trickster comment made me remember Althalus. He has to be the best character the Eddings have created.

And explaining my previous ones, Michael Carpenter is my favorite Christian in a secular series (and it's my favorite series too). He's a devout Catholic, father of seven (Hope, Alicia, Amanda, Molly, Matthew, Daniel, and Harry), and when not working as a carpenter, is a Knight of the Cross. As such, he wields the holy sword amoracchius, and his main goal is th fight the Knights of the Blackened Denarii. Kick butt guy.

Dresden... To quote The Green Man Review, quoted on the back of Proven Guilty: "Take Sam Spade and give him a deadly faerie gomother, then add Hary Potter and put him on the wrong side of town while you're at it. All you'll get is a pale shadow of Harry Dresden."

[HisaishiFan]

The Grandmother/Wise Woman from Princess and Curdie/Lost Princess
Sam Gangee
Inigo Montoya
Jane Eyre
Meg Murry
Emily Webb
Lucy Pevensie
Christopher Snow
Ricky Hawthorne (Ghost Story, book not movie)

My friend just named her baby Caspian.

[MorwenLaicoriel]

Ooooooh....*starts digging through her books XD*

Eugenides from the "Queens Thief" series (The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, the King of Attolia)--I just finished KOA so I'm in "Gen Fangirl" mode right now. Gen's just great--snarky, sarcastic, whiny, and at first glance more trouble than he's worth--but the more you learn about him, the more you realize what a formidable character he is. Turner put this guy through the wringer throughout her books, but he always manages to come out the better for it in the end.

Pippin from Lord of the Rings -- I love tons of characters from this book, but my favorite is definately Pippin. He's a goofball, but a lovable one, and like Gen he learns through his trials to become a powerful warrior in the end. Plus, he NEVER gives up hope. What a great guy. <3

Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice -- Liz is such an interesting character...XD She's smart, savy, and goes against her culture's sterotypes of women, but she does it respectfully. Jane Austen's wit just bubbles through her.

Jane Eyre -- Very down to earth, not particularly beautiful...and man, does she go through a lot! But she never really breaks. She's a great 'atypical' heroine.

Inigo Montoya from Princess Bride: "Hello! My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." Enough said.

General Thrawn from the Hand of Thrawn Trilogy (Star Wars) -- BEST. VILLIAN. EVER. Genteel. Manipulating. Intelligent. If he had been emperor, Luke might've DIED. XD Ooh, now I want to go read those books again...
(Talon Karrde and Mara Jade are great in this book, too. There's a lot of good characters in this book....)

...I think that's enough for now. Novel length posts tend to get skipped over.

[Kokhiri Sojourn]

John Ames, from Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson. It's a recent novel, and a meditative read (not for those adventure/fast-paced type), but his depth and sincerity, as well as his thought process is a thing to behold. I will be reading this book for years.

J. Alfred Prufrock, from the poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Profrock, by T. S. Eliot. Now if you want another interior character, I think that Prufrock displays the most characteristic problem in our culture - isolation. It pervades our music, literature, history, and his is pristine in its' poetry.

Sam Gamgee, who needs no introduction. In the beauty of his commitment, the selflessness of his character, the perseverance through struggle, I find Sam to be a sort of summation of what I would aspire to be in life. Not the most attractive, not the most flashy, but the one who is always there when you need him, ready and willing to give everything he's got.

[yukinon]

I've been reading the Iliad for class, and I'm going to have to add Akhilleus. Not because I actually like him, per se, but simply because he fascinates me. I want to figure him out.

[JasonPratt]

Yep, Thrawn ranks as BVE in books I've got, too. (Though if I was allowed to include animation, Luthor from the Justice League/Superman series would be giving him a serious run for his money.) Do I have to stick to written works? {sigh} Very well. For a very different but equally impressive 'villain' to compete with Thrawn for BVE, Gerrald Terrant from _The Coldfire Triology_ comes in a somewhat distant 2nd place. {preparing to ward off hordes of livid fangirls with a stick!!}{g}

Most villains, though, don't rank high on my favorite character short-list, though. So, onward to protagonists...

Mat Cauthon from Jordan's _Wheel of Time_ series is so good he almost makes up for the annoying plot plodding RJ has descended into. (To be ended next book, thank God, before he dies I hope. RJ I mean; he has a rare bone disease. Bless his heart, he really may be writing up until they nail his coffin shut...)

Numerous protagonists, both primary and secondary, from Marie Brennan's books (most of them yet-to-be-published {g}) would be among my top favorites in literature, especially the heroines. (Her sequel to _Doppelganger_, _Warrior and Witch_, is already available for order from amazon--technically streets next week. Plug! Plug! {beam!})

Allen Quartermain and Umslopogaas from H. Rider Haggard's Zulu novels. (The "Woodpecker"'s sacrificial final fight on the bridge of the gates to Zu Vendis is so _unbearably_ cool. But both of them are such great characters and heroes worth admiring, even with their failings and weaknesses.)

Jack Ryan and John Clark from Tom Clancy's main series of books.

erm... yep, the 'fairy' Grandmother/Wise Woman from MacDonald's novels (and one novella) would rank.

For some reason, I can't really put any of Tolkien's (or Lewis') characters as being among my favorites, though. (I _like_ a lot of them, but parsing through them just now they don't rank that high among the short list at the top. Odd. {shrug})

Hey, manga is literature, right? {g} Much of the cast of Rurouni Kenshin would fall into my top-rank short-list, then! {beam!} (If it comes to that, I can reference American comics, right? Deadpool was an amazing character for the first 40 issues or so of his own series...)

I haven't read much of the Dresden files (thumbed through them a bit when I received a total collection, at that time, for Christmas a few years ago), but I can already tell Dresden will rank high.

Fizban and Tas from the Dragonlance stories pretty much have to rank. (Though my favorite _book_ of that series wasn't written by Weis and Hickman: _The Legend of Huma_)


Hmm... the short list is coming up a bit shorter than I was expecting. I think I must like characterizations in film more than in literature. (What? No Drizzt or Entreri from Salvatore's work? Well, I _like_ them, but again for some reason they don't rank in the top list for me. Dunno. {shrug?!})

[mitsuki lover]

For LOTR I would have to say the more human characters like Boromir,Faramir and
Eowyn.

[MorwenLaicoriel]

oooh, Eowyn's a great character. It's really too bad she was the only main female character of the books (although at least Tolkien wrote HER in..)

Faramir's great, too...well...book Faramir. I didn't like him in the movie as much, I felt like they changed his character a little *too* much. I can understand why they made most of the changes, he just didn't feel like he was the same character.

And Boromir's almost the opposite...I didn't like him at all when I first read through the books, but seeing the movies helped me appreciate him better.

(Sorry, I'm going off on a tangent. XD)

[Hinata]

Farid, from Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. Why? He is realy sweet and... Uh just cool lol.
Dustfinger, from the same book. Why? He plays with fire and longs to go home. He also has a pet marten with horns.
Brightheart, from the Warriors sieries by Erin Hunter. Why? She is a brave cat and has suffered a great injury that has mangled her face. But she is still loved by her clan. I also like her becasue I have a cat that went through the same problem sorta. She was hit by a car so now she isnt the best looking cat. But she is still sweet.
Mr and Mrs Beaver, from the Chronicals of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. Why? Haha cause they rock!
Uh, there is more but I just went braindead. Will add on later. I need a break from the computer HAHA!

[HisaishiFan]

For LOTR I would have to say the more human characters like Boromir,Faramir and
Eowyn.

I'd forgotten about Eowyn. I'd definitely add her to my list.

[Kaori]

I tend to be fascinated by characters who are passionately devoted to one thing, like Enjolras in Les Miserables and Galahad from Arthurian legend.

Cyrano from Edmund Rostand's play Cyrano de Bergerac is another favorite; he is a man of great honor, but also eloquent and sensitive.

And finally, I love Ged, but mostly as he is portrayed in the first and second books of the Earthsea cycle. My fondness for him as a character is probably due to the fact that I identify with him strongly in A Wizard of Earthsea.

John Ames, from Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson. It's a recent novel, and a meditative read (not for those adventure/fast-paced type), but his depth and sincerity, as well as his thought process is a thing to behold. I will be reading this book for years.

I read this book for class not long ago, and I was also impressed by it. It's good to see that I'm not the only one.

[Kokhiri Sojourn]

I read this book for class not long ago, and I was also impressed by it. It's good to see that I'm not the only one.

Yeah. I'm finding it's audience to be sparse, due to the pacing of the novel. But that's half the beauty of it.

[USSRGirl]

I have lots. But one of my top favs is Fairy Hardcastle from That Hideous Strength. Lord Feverstone too.

[Hinata]

Some other charactars:
Ron, The Twins and Harry potter from well . . . Harry Potter ^^
I also like Feathertail from Warriors: The New Prophecy

[yukinon]

I'm not a huge Harry Potter fan, but the twins are definitely the most enjoyable part, in my opinion.

[Animus Seed]

Chronologically:

Diomedes, Homer's Iliad

Cassandra, Aeschylus' Orestia

The Monster, Mary Shelly's Frankenstein

The Tin Woodsman, Baum's Oz series

Eomer, Lord of the Rings by Tolkien

Reepicheep, Narnia by Lewis

The "patient" from Screwtape Letters, also by Lewis

Death, from Neil Gaiman's Sandman

Fat Charlie Nancy from Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

[Kokhiri Sojourn]

Reepicheep, Narnia by Lewis

Good call on Reepicheep.

I think I should throw in Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie's brainchild, just for fun.

[JasonPratt]

Oh, yeah, Reep! (Okay, one Lewis/Tolkien character made it onto my top character list after all!)

I would have added Cyrano, but I think of him more from one of the film/TV adaptations than from the written play.

(So then--which Cyrano is tops? Jose Ferrer? Steve Martin? That guy from _The Green Card_? Someone else?)

"I have been robbed--there are no hundred here!" (from the film adaptation by Ferrer and Kramer; the subsequent shot of the assailant's faces is probably supposed to show them being desperately fierce, but I always imagine it's supposed to mean they're thinking... "-- -- what the heck did he just say!?!? This means were doomed, right??!" )

[USSRGirl]

I nominate Kaa as favorite stereotyped old book animal thing um yeah.

[yukinon]

favorite stereotyped old book animal thing

What now?

[mitsuki lover]

The greatest character ever created in any American novel was Huck Finn which is why The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the Great American Novel.