Favourite Literary Character?

Lands Leaving

Few I like would be Clay from Less Than Zero, Rojack from An American Dream, Marlow from Heart of Darkness and Roland from Stephen Kings Dark Tower.

Who are yours?

Red Hand

Yossarian lives!!!!-Catch 22

Commander Vimes from Terry Pratchett's Discworld

Inspector Morse from Colin Dexter's books

Adrian Mole from Sue Townsand's books

I've just realised that many, in fact all I've posted, pop up in more than one book.:)

So as a character in one story, I will go with Harriet Dufresnes from Donna Tart's The Little Friend-a novel with no sequels nor is it part of a series.

humbert

The eponymous Vernon Little.

Valmont

good call on Clay from less than zero. I'd say Victor from Glamorama too. Pechorin from 'A Hero of our Time', Humbert from 'Lolita' and Pnin from 'Pnin' I really liked too.

Dades

Tyrion, from A Song of Ice and Fire.

Alsatian_Cousin

Adrian Mole, Keith Talent (from Amis' London Fields), Pinkie Brown (Brighton Rock), Stephen Dedalus

KIVES

Ignatius J. Reilly (A Confederacy of Dunces)
Vernon Little - bit of a cliche I know but the truth
Holden Caulfield - same as above but much closer to home
The Student (no name) - At Swim-Two-Birds

gillyfromlyre

sophie from sophies world

Zaph

Zaphod Beeblebrox from The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy
Death from the Discworld books
Jack Parlabane from several Christopher Brookmyre books
Nick Naylor from Thank You for Smoking

arctic_fox

Sam Spade - The Maltese Falcon

Mr.Fox - Fantastic Mr.Fox

Aragorn - LOTR ...be honest he was "the SH!T"

Karlusss

Leopold Bloom
Yossarian
Macbeth
Holden Caulfield
Dean Moriarty

Gillie

Gary Soneji - (Along came a spider and Cat & Mouse)
Micheal "the butcher of Sligo" Sullivan (Cross (i think!))

Mrs. MacGyver

Adrian Mole
Charlie Bucket - Charlie and the chocolate factory
Jo- Little Women

Ho-Hum

Randall Flagg - The Stand, The Dark Tower
McMurphy - One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest

_blank_

Eddie Dean - The Dark Tower.

Ford Prefect - HHGTTG.

Winston Smith - Nineteen Eighty Four.

Alex - A Clockwork Orange.

ashyle

Owen Meany- from a Prayer for..
Adrian Mole is a ledge.
Hermione Granger (cos she's me) and Dumbledore-HP
Mathilda
Dally from the Outsiders

Piste

Charlie from the Perks of Being a Wallflower.

The hero/protagonist from Fight Club.

Otis Driftwood

Top for me is definitly Roland of Gilead from the Dark Tower Cycle.

Honourable mentions to

Patrick Bateman-american psycho
Sean Bateman-the rules of attraction
Norman Daniels-rose madder
Annie Wilkes-misery

r3nu4l

Commander Vimes, (Pratchett)
Adrian Mole, (Townsend)
Arthur Dent, (Adams)
Jonathon Strange, (Clarke)
Samwise Gamgee, (Tolkien)
Sam Weller (Dickens)

froosh69

Raul Duke from "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"
and Francis Begbie from "Trainspotting".

buck65

IGNATIUS REILLY - A confederacy of dunces

HE THE MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anton17

Valmont wrote: »

good call on Clay from less than zero. I'd say Victor from Glamorama too. Pechorin from 'A Hero of our Time', Humbert from 'Lolita' and Pnin from 'Pnin' I really liked too.

Clay is almost completely devoid of character. He's so passive and detached - which of course is the point - but he's definitley not much in the way of a character. Are you just trying to sound cool and nihilistic?:)

Victor, on the other hand, is an excelent character who actually evolves throughout Glamorama and has a personality. Good call.

Intothesea

Jane Eyre, Konstantin Levin and Charlie Bucket

stovelid

Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, from the Rabbit series by Updike.

ZorbaTehZ

Anton17 wrote: »

:)Clay is almost completely devoid of character. He's so passive and detached - which of course is the point - but he's definitley not much in the way of a character. Are you just trying to sound cool and nihilistic?:)

I assume it's all the sex and drugs. Plus there's the fact that he's disgustingly rich. But his sense of meaningless is all consuming for him, as you touch on - personally I thinks it's a terrible choice.

Kold

Yossarian
Dr Gonzo
Kilgore Trout

humbert

I have to include Howard Roark and if I could be with any woman in the world it would be Dominique. Oh, from the Fountainhead.

Lands Leaving

ZorbaTehZ wrote: »

I assume it's all the sex and drugs. Plus there's the fact that he's disgustingly rich. But his sense of meaningless is all consuming for him, as you touch on - personally I thinks it's a terrible choice.

He's not all that likeable a character, but his narration passes that detachment on to the reader, so in the sense that you see the world through his eyes, and become somewhat desensitised to what goes on, as he does, when really it should be shocking, he's a good character. But I can completely see why you could think the opposite.

Outer Bongolia

Sherlock Holmes
Michael Henchard (The Mayor of Casterbridge)

Tar.Aldarion

So man from teh Malazan series. Brilliantly written. Especially Kruppe, Karsa, Pust, Grey Frog etc.
Kellhus from the prince of nothing series, along with achamian and their barbarian friend.
Tyrion, song of ice and fire Series.
Roland Deshain, the Dark Tower Series.

ZiMZuM

Druss the Legend
Waylander
Aragorn
Prof Snape
Pug/Milamber

The Doktor

Henry Chinaski

roxychix

Marlow from heart of darkness
Gar from philadelphia here i come. did i stay or go to america that question has haunted me since my LC
Gertrude from Sons & Lovers
Eve from pardise lost not just a character weaker than men but milton is trying to say that if it were not for her adam would have done even more stupider things. not that she was clever either. if she did something stupid Adam would correct her and vica versa
The wife of Bath from chaucer very independent for her time/ you could even say before her time. always get what she wants
Portia from the mercahnt of venice because she gets one over on shylock.
Ron from harry potter always makes me laugh
Should not have found this thread would be here all night if i listed all my favs so ill leave it at that.

Talon1977

Prince Myshkin from The Idiot by Dostoevsky

Robinson Crusoe from the book of the same title.

Pip from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

The Druid, Allanon, from the Shannara series by Terry Brooks.

Corran Horn from I, Jedi by Michael Stackpole (it's a Star Wars Novel) :rolleyes:

fillefatale

Jane Eyre
Catherine Earnshaw - Wuthering Heights
Holden Caulfield - The Catcher in the Rye
Anne Blythe - Anne of Green Gables
Humbert Humbert - Lolita
Lestat de Lioncourt - The Vampire Chronicles

ehhowaya

Oh yeah didnt even think of Lestat de Lioncourt!

Cal - Middlesex
Hatsumomo - Memoirs of a Geisha
Holden Caulfield
Miranda Priestly - the Devil wears Prada
Elizabeth Bennett
Hazel - Watership Down

Valmont

Anton17 wrote: »

He's so passive and detached - which of course is the point - but he's definitley not much in the way of a character. Are you just trying to sound cool and nihilistic?:)

If I wanted to sound cool, I'd go to the personal issues forum and fabricate a story about how I'm tired of screwing a different girl every night.

When I think of a character that I really like, he springs to mind along with most of Bret Easton Ellis' characters (except himself after page 50 of Lunar Park), but of course what better way to sound cool than say I liked Clay from Lunar Park.

I don't see how this would in any way make me seem nihilistic, as far I understand the definition anyway. I think you mean apathy and if I was wanted to be seen as apathetic, I wouldn't be discussing my favourite characters on boards.

Did you even read Less than Zero

for example, when clay is reluctant to partake in the 'rape' of the young girl - incidents such as this subtly reveal aspects of his character

take your inane preconceptions somewhere else please. I like the literature forum because this crap is usually absent

Talon1977

.... there's really no need for all the angst.

RonMexico

Raoul Duke & Dr. Gonzo aka Hunter S. Thompson & Oscar Zeta Acosta.

Killme00

KIVES wrote: »

Ignatius J. Reilly (A Confederacy of Dunces)

Dot fecking dot..Fat pig was brilliant

Also

Robert Neville - I am Legend
Napoleon - Animal Farm
Charlie Parker - John Connolly Novels

Branoic

Muad'dib

Skellington

Alex - A Clockwork Orange
Luke - The Dice Man
McMurphy - One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest
Rob - High Fidelity

is_that_so

Paddington Bear
Mack - Cannery Row
Uriah Heep -David Copperfield(most unctuous character in any book)
Gabriel Oak - Far from the Madding Crowd
Yossarian
Don Quixote

ronano

Prof. Timofey Pnin from the nove Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov. I've never come across a more endearing,humorous character but above all truly human character.

starn

Dean Moriarty, Self explanatory
Tigger.The proper way to spell it of course, being T-I-double-guh-err
Satan - Paradice Lost, He gets all the best lines

longshanks

hank chinaski, or maybe jesus. fuuck it, i'll go for allah. salam aleykum biitches

Valmont

starn wrote: »

Dean Moriarty, Self explanatory

most definitely self explanatory, what a guy:D

Valmont

ronano wrote: »

Prof. Timofey Pnin from the nove Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov. I've never come across a more endearing,humorous character but above all truly human character.

brilliant, I mentioned him earlier on in the thread. He was charming and dithering and above all really funny. The last description of him in the book really stuck with me since I read it.

trellheim

Jack Aubrey from the Aubrey/Maturin novels

longshanks

badger from yesterdays blaas

Mrs. MacGyver

Mrs. MacGyver wrote: »

Adrian Mole
Charlie Bucket - Charlie and the chocolate factory
Jo- Little Women

Oh and Heathcliff from wuthering heights!