# Character from a book you just \*SWOON\* over **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 13, 2002, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-from-a-book-you-just-swoon-over/142413 "2002-12-13T03:15:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Daerlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Daerlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daerlyn)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-from-a-book-you-just-swoon-over/142413/41 "2002-12-14T21:17:17Z")
Well, I hated Sirius Snape when I started reading the books, but then I finished the fourth. That scene at the end (no spoilers if you haven’t read it) just made me do a complete 180 . . . I want Snape . . . ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-from-a-book-you-just-swoon-over/142413/42 "2002-12-14T22:37:28Z")
I am a guy. I have read Lucy Maude Montgomery’s _Anne…_ series that **carlotta** mentioned. I am _all about_ Megan Follows. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![FisherQueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@FisherQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FisherQueen)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-from-a-book-you-just-swoon-over/142413/43 "2002-12-14T22:46:37Z")
Well, obviously Darcy. I mean, really. And Aragorn, of course, who I thought was hotter in the book than the movie. And Percy Blakeney, the Scarlet Pimpernel. And Snape. Captain Carrot And I know he’s not really sexy in the strictest sense of the word, but I want to make everything all better for Arthur Dent. ---
**Author:** ![IThinkNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ce73a5/32.png) [@IThinkNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IThinkNot)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-from-a-book-you-just-swoon-over/142413/44 "2002-12-14T23:21:56Z")
Daerlyn: I know I’m being REALLY nitpicky, and for that I apologize, but Snape’s first name is Severus. Sirius is the first name of Sirius Black. See my post. I know it doesn’t matter but I’m a perfectionist. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-from-a-book-you-just-swoon-over/142413/45 "2002-12-15T01:03:36Z")
Vlad Taltos from _Taltos_, _Jhereg_, etc. I.M. Fletcher from _Fletch_, etc. And Val Con yos’Phelium from _Partners in Necessity_, _Plan B_, and _I Dare_, along with his cousins, Pat Rin yos’Phelium and Shan yos’Galan. ---
**Author:** ![McJohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@McJohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/McJohn)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-from-a-book-you-just-swoon-over/142413/46 "2002-12-15T01:40:39Z")
Hmm… let’s see… Jennet Jourdemayne of “The Lady’s Not for Burning” by Christopher Fry. By turns vulnerable and courageous, she travels with commendable grace and little hysteria through her last night on earth, reclaiming her life in a realistic and yet admirable manner. One for the “What a woman!” files. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, limned with such strength of character in Michael Shaara’s “The Killer Angels”. Chamberlain was a real person, the Union commander who held Little Round Top for the Feds at Gettysburg. He was severely wounded in the Civil War–something like five times–and went on to become the governor of Maine and president of Bowdoin College. In the book, he delivers a speech on the meaning of the Civil War that is so absolutely inspiring I’d stack it up against the Crispin’s Day exhortation as the best reason to lose your life horribly just 'cause somebody told you to. I’ve had fantasies of time travel concerning Chamberlain and wonder how he would have regarded the more recreational uses of cavalry boots. Marian Halcombe, from Wilkie Collins’s “The Woman in White”. Forthright, fearless, charming, witty, and, refreshingly, not conventionally beautiful. I was torqued that that idiot narrator Hartright threw her over for the relatively pallid Laura Fairlie, but then that just left more of her for me. My wife is very fond of both Nancy Drew and Philippa Talbot from “In This House of Brede” by Rumer Godden. I am also compelled to mention, since we’re on the subject, that she read a story of mine and spent two days in a funk because she’d never met anyone like the main character’s stepmother. Um… we’re kind of an interesting family, literary lust-wise. While we’re on the subject, and seeing that so many of you are Austen fans… how do, pleased to meet you… I felt it imperative to share the following. Many gazillions of years ago, New York Magazine had a competition run by an imaginative editor, Mary Ann Madden. She’d give everybody a literary assignment and ask for entries that could be confined to a postcard. In one of the contests, she asked for the first two sentences of a bad novel: the first flavorful, the second deflating. One of her frequent contributors, Mimi Cozzens, sent in this one: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a large fortune must be in want of a wife. Unless he’s gay.” ---
**Author:** ![Triss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Triss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triss)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-from-a-book-you-just-swoon-over/142413/47 "2002-12-15T06:46:25Z")
Jamie Fraser, mmm mmm good. And Fafhrd, the Grey Mouser’s sidekick from Fritz Leiber’s “Erewhon” fantasy series. Just something about those viking men I guess…yum. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Daerlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Daerlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daerlyn)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-from-a-book-you-just-swoon-over/142413/48 "2002-12-16T04:03:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by IThinkNot \* > \*\*Daerlyn: I know I’m being REALLY nitpicky, and for that I apologize, but Snape’s first name is Severus. Sirius is the first name of Sirius Black. See my post. > I know it doesn’t matter but I’m a perfectionist. 🙂 \*\* :smack: I knew that, I really did. My only excuse is that I posted that from work, where my brain generally runs at 1/4 capacity. ---
**Author:** ![FallenAngel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@FallenAngel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FallenAngel)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-from-a-book-you-just-swoon-over/142413/49 "2002-12-16T06:52:34Z")
Oh my gods, I don’t know how I could have overlooked her. She doesn’t make me “swoon”, technically, but she does fill me with mind-numbing lust: Molly from William Gibson’s Cyberpunk trilogy. Now **there** is a woman. ---
**Author:** ![grendel72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/91b2a8/32.png) [@grendel72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grendel72)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-from-a-book-you-just-swoon-over/142413/50 "2002-12-16T06:58:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ellen Cherry \* > \*\*Then there’s T.S. Garp, “a muscular prick who can cook.” Mmmm. \*\* Definitely Garp, but also Roberta Muldoon from the same novel. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-from-a-book-you-just-swoon-over/142413/51 "2002-12-16T09:19:41Z")
Without hesitation, Conor Larkin in **Trinity**. He made me forget that I am old. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-from-a-book-you-just-swoon-over/142413/52 "2002-12-16T16:05:23Z")
Wow, five votes for Jamie Fraser (including me!) Shall we start an _Outlander_ appreciation thread? ---
**Author:** ![andygirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@andygirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andygirl)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-from-a-book-you-just-swoon-over/142413/53 "2002-12-16T16:21:52Z")
Ruth from _Fried Green Tomatoes_ is an utter babe. And Angua from the _Discworld_ series… I swoon. I’m not a swooning type, but she makes me swoon. \ ---
**Author:** ![McJohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@McJohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/McJohn)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-from-a-book-you-just-swoon-over/142413/54 "2002-12-18T15:52:23Z")
Ooh! Ooh! Rena Titanon, the wrestler from “Love and Rockets”. She was a superhero and she used to run around in this lovely black leather suit and tie with a really short skirt and these thigh-high boots and these skin-tight gloves… grrrff… I never wanted to be a cartoon character so much in all my bornden days. I’d have been a bad guy, even, and extra bad so she’d have more of an excuse to beat the living tar out of me with them boots. I am not normally a person excited by the prospect of violence, but there are exceptions to every principled stand… grrff… ---
**Author:** ![Chicken\_Scratch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce7236/32.png) [@Chicken\_Scratch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicken_Scratch)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-from-a-book-you-just-swoon-over/142413/55 "2002-12-18T17:00:25Z")
**Bernard** in Tom Robbins’ Still Life with Woodpecker . I wanna do him. ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-from-a-book-you-just-swoon-over/142413/56 "2002-12-18T17:05:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by FallenAngel \* > \*\*That is quite possibly the most beautifully twisted literary character tribute I have ever read. No wonder I adore your posts. \*\* HAHA 😃 Thanks! it’s hard to really find stuff for me to swoon over. Heathcliff is too sappy and weepy for me, Charles Darnay is too good and pure for me…I swoon over flawed, broody, dangerous guys. I prefer Sydney Carton in Tale of Two Cities to Charles any day. ---
**Author:** ![curly\_chick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ba0ec/32.png) [@curly\_chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curly_chick)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-from-a-book-you-just-swoon-over/142413/57 "2002-12-18T17:12:47Z")
Professor Severus Snape. Definitely numero uno (Whatever rank of policemna he is depends on the book) Alex Cross in any of the James Patterson books Dr Tony Hill in any of the Val McDermid books However, when these were adapted into telly or film, I fancied Snape ever more, because of Alan Rickman, but Alex Cross less, becasue I thought Morgan Freeman was too old for the part. And as for Robson Green as Tony Hill! What? Had the casting people not read the bookks? ---
**Author:** ![Michele\_in\_SoCal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Michele\_in\_SoCal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michele_in_SoCal)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-from-a-book-you-just-swoon-over/142413/58 "2003-01-03T03:19:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ivylass \* > \*\*Wow, five votes for Jamie Fraser (including me!) > > Shall we start an _Outlander_ appreciation thread? \*\* Now that I have read _Outlander_ please add me to the Jamie Fraser appreciation list. This is the most intensive SWOON over a literary character I have ever experienced! ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-from-a-book-you-just-swoon-over/142413/59 "2003-01-03T03:57:52Z")
Oh, please! **Vanyel Ashkevron** from Misty Lackey’s _Last Herald-Mage_ series, hands down. Dark, broody, musical, magical, intensely romantic and loving, dedicated, dutiful, beautiful… Second place goes to **Collan Rosvenir** from Melanie Rawn’s _Exiles_ series. Charming, musical, rebellious, romantic but cynical, loving, beautiful, and a REDHEAD! Somebody catch me… ---
**Author:** ![scablet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@scablet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scablet)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-from-a-book-you-just-swoon-over/142413/60 "2003-01-03T04:10:44Z")
I’ve always had something of a crush on Candide, poor thing. And I would **love** to fuck some sense into Ford Prefect. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-from-a-book-you-just-swoon-over/142413.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-from-a-book-you-just-swoon-over/142413.md?page=4)