# Sexiest Literary Character (Male/Female) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 10, 2001, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-literary-character-male-female/71910 "2001-07-10T03:41:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mauvaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mauvaise/32/11084_2.png) [@Mauvaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mauvaise)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-literary-character-male-female/71910/21 "2001-07-11T22:19:17Z")
Everyone’s so literary in this thread that I’m almost ashamed to post my pick. Almost. James Fraser from the series of books\* written by Diana Gabaldon. - Outlander [Cross Stitch in the UK], Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn & the soon to be released Fiery Cross ---
**Author:** ![eunoia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eunoia/32/97_2.png) [@eunoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eunoia)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-literary-character-male-female/71910/22 "2001-07-11T22:55:52Z")
Umberto Eco’s **Lorenza Pellegrini** in _Foucault’s Pendulum_. A babe that can play pinball(!): It’s obviously fustian, but it sure works as a sex fantasy. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-literary-character-male-female/71910/23 "2001-07-11T23:25:13Z")
Daphne Bedloe (Anne Tyler - _Saint Maybe_) a good-hearted person that we see grow up from a loving child to a sexy young adult. Of course Nora Charles (Dashiel Hammett - _The Thin Man_) - funny, brave, and likes to party. Marguerite de Navarre (Alexandre Dumas - _La Reine Margot_, _Les Quarante-Cinq_) - great lover and smart cookie. plus she’s a queen! Lily Bart (Edith Warton - _[The House of Mirth_) - though she has her shallow side (too interested in money and gambling), she has a strong character and won’t compromise her principles. Jo March (Louisa May Alcott - _Little Women_) early feminist, but why did she have to marry some boring old German professor and decide to open a house for lost boys?!? She should have travelled the world instead or became a writer like she wanted to originally. **eunoia** - to tell you the truth I thought Lorenza Pellegrini was annoying. Belbo should have dumped her the minute she started playing those annoying games with his head (and I don’t mean pinball). ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-literary-character-male-female/71910/24 "2001-07-11T23:28:35Z")
By the way, **ricepad** , Portia can’t hold a candle to Rosalind (_As You Like It_). ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2001, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-literary-character-male-female/71910/25 "2001-07-12T05:28:09Z")
Male-Archie Goodwin Female-another vote for Modesty Blaise ---
**Author:** ![Edwardina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Edwardina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edwardina)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2001, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-literary-character-male-female/71910/26 "2001-07-12T06:42:22Z")
Michael Curry from The Witching Hour by Anne Rice Augustine from Stormy Weather by Carl Hiaasen Plucky Purcell from Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins Joe Pike from the Elvis Cole novels by Robert Crais Julian Cash from Turtle Moon by Alice Hoffman or does this stuff not count as “literature”? ---
**Author:** ![Drastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Drastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drastic)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2001, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-literary-character-male-female/71910/27 "2001-07-12T06:54:51Z")
re: **Foucault’s Pendulum** , I thought Lorenza mostly needed to be slapped around, in a deciedly non-sexy manner. Vapid and headgame-playing. Lia, on the other hand, that’s another story. And she came this -\>\<- close to verbally smacking some sense into Casaubon. Far less literary, I recall thinking that the namesake character from Louise Cooper’s **Indigo** series was eminently cool. Intelligent, focused, butt-kicking, a core of hurt that she always rose beyond. It’s been ages since I read them, though, and I’d rather not reread lest reality get in the way of my own adolescent memories of the books. ---
**Author:** ![Mercutio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@Mercutio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mercutio)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2001, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-literary-character-male-female/71910/28 "2001-07-12T07:16:03Z")
Where are all the votes for **Mercutio**? ---
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2001, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-literary-character-male-female/71910/29 "2001-07-12T07:31:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zoggie \* > \*\*KK! I meant for my OWN nominations. > \*\* Oh, I know. 😉 And, btw, I throw in a vote for Juliet. ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2001, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-literary-character-male-female/71910/30 "2001-07-12T12:33:50Z")
Sir John Smythe from the Vicky Bliss mysteries by Elizabeth Peters Captain Wentworth from Persuasion Michael Shermer – okay, he isn’t _literary_ exactly. But I still have a little crush on him. ---
**Author:** ![Albert\_Rose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Albert\_Rose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Albert_Rose)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2001, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-literary-character-male-female/71910/31 "2001-07-12T12:41:12Z")
Mrs. Quilp, from Charles Dickens’s _The Old Curiosity Shoppe._ She’s a legal version of sexy little Nell, the wood-springer queen. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2001, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-literary-character-male-female/71910/32 "2001-07-12T12:57:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AlbertRose \* > **Mrs. Quilp, from Charles Dickens’s _The Old Curiosity Shoppe._** Oooooh! OOOOOOOOH! I just _knew_ I wasn’t the only person in the world who’s beguiled by those raven-haired vixens in the Phiz illustrations! Mrs. Quilp, definitely! Also Esther Summerson from _Bleak House,_ Mary Graham from _Martin Chuzzlewit,_ Little Em’ly (the GROWN-UP Little Em’ly, of course) from _David Copperfield_, the Young Lady with the Fur-Lined Boots from _Pickwick Papers_…yes, I could assemble quite a little Victorian harem from the amongst the ladies of Dickens. ---
**Author:** ![bobkitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c67d28/32.png) [@bobkitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobkitty)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2001, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-literary-character-male-female/71910/33 "2001-07-12T13:14:06Z")
Mmmmm… Saint-Germain, from the Chelsea Quinn Yarbro books. _DEFINITELY_ Even if he is… vertically challenged. Louis, from Interview with the Vampire. Lestat never did anything for me. Michael Valentine, Stranger in a Strange Land. I’ll toss into the Hannibal Lector pile as well, please. PLEASE?? 😉 I had a thing for the older Bobbsey twin boy when I was a young’un… Bert, was it? For the ladies… hmmm… War, from Good Omens. Eponene (sp., anyone?) from Les Miz. I’ll toss in for Jo from Little Women. Morgaine, from Mists of Avalon. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go… lay down or something. -BK ---
**Author:** ![BunnyGirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@BunnyGirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BunnyGirl)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2001, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-literary-character-male-female/71910/34 "2001-07-12T13:39:22Z")
**Rhett Butler** from _Gone With The Wind_. Ooof. A big strong guy taking control of me…d;avhwerfaei;ur0aeur. Oops! Sorry about that. My brain fritzed for a minute. ---
**Author:** ![eunoia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eunoia/32/97_2.png) [@eunoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eunoia)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2001, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-literary-character-male-female/71910/35 "2001-07-12T23:42:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Drastic \* > \*\*re: **Foucault’s Pendulum** , I thought Lorenza mostly needed to be slapped around, in a deciedly non-sexy manner. Vapid and headgame-playing. > \*\* I thought she just needed to be **loved** , maybe _that’s_ why I always end up with the basket cases! ---
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2001, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-literary-character-male-female/71910/36 "2001-07-13T00:41:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bobkitty \* > \*\*Eponene (sp., anyone?) from Les Miz. > \*\* Eponine, actually. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-literary-character-male-female/71910/37 "2001-07-17T03:20:40Z")
I decided to bump this baby up. 🙂 I think that Damien Karras (The Exorcist), was pretty sexy. And I’ve always had a thing for Perry from In Cold Blood though that wasn’t fictional. (I did say literary, not fictional, didn’t I?) ---
**Author:** ![h2oGO\_98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a87d85/32.png) [@h2oGO\_98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h2oGO_98)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-literary-character-male-female/71910/38 "2001-07-17T08:23:40Z")
Okay kids, here are mine, hang on to yer pants. \*Accolon from Mists of Avolon \*I have to second Jamie Fraser (from the Outlander series) \ \*Rodion Raskolnikov from Crime and Punishment (maybe that’s why I fall for the head cases eh?) \*Armand from Interview with the Vampire although I have no use for him in his own book. \*Laurie from Little Women, it always pissed me off that Jo rejected him and he ran off with that snotty Amy. bleh. (it was a schoolgirl thing) Oh, and many more but it’s late and I’m overwhelmed. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-literary-character-male-female/71910/39 "2001-07-17T14:24:07Z")
Percy Blakeney and Lady Blakeney (the Scarlet Pimpernel) ---
**Author:** ![Winnowill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/4491bb/32.png) [@Winnowill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winnowill)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-literary-character-male-female/71910/40 "2001-07-17T20:29:40Z")
I must second Rhett Butler and Sirius Black. Yummy. In addition: John Blackthorne from _Shogun_ Mr. Darcy from _Pride & Prejudice_ F’lar from Anne McCaffrey’s Pern series [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-literary-character-male-female/71910.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-literary-character-male-female/71910.md?page=3)