[ul]Dr. Frankenstein
Frankenstein’s monster
Don Quixote
Sancho Panza
Huckleberry Finn
Oliver Twist
Ebenezer Scrooge
David Copperfield
Tom Sawyer
Dracula
Bruce Wayne/Batman
Atticus Finch
Sam Spade
Tarzan
Clark Kent/Superman
Captain Ahab
Hawkeye (not the comic book Hawkeye, ya geeks)
Ichabod Crane
Othello
Hamlet
King Lear
King Arthur
Lancelot
Tom Joad
George and Lenny (Of Mice and Men)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Cinderella
Hannibal Lecter
[/ul]
My list may not be as long as the rest of yours, but a lot of them are repeats anyway. More if I think of them later. The first three are new nominations I think.
Eva Luna
Piers Anthony’s Satan and Gaea
Fezzik, the Dread Pirate Roberts and Inigo Montoya
Plus some repeats:
Hamlet
Holden Caulfield (Catcher In The Rye)
Scout, Atticus Finch and Boo Radley
Harry Potter
Gandalf
Ramona
Marius
Don Quixote and Sancho
Oh yeah:
Uncle Tom
Simon LeGree (sp?)
Captain Nemo
Beowulf
Sam Spade
The Brothers Karamazov
Ignatius J. Reilly
Alf (Henry Miller’s alter ego, not the lovable sitcom alien)
Hank (Charles Bukowski’s alter ego)
Rebecca
Yossarian
Patrick Bateman
Norman Bates
Raoul Duke
Dr. Gonzo
Well, I submit that “important” is not the same as liked/respected/loved. Nobody loves Dracula, but he is an important, influential, nay archetypal, character. ditto with Captain Nemo or Gollum. Harlan Ellison wrote an essay on the seven literary characters recognized around the world, but I can’t find a link, so I’ll give my lists.
** Absolutely world famous/ automatic inclusion**
Tarzan
Sherlock Holmes
Superman
Dracula
Frankenstein’s monster (although the image everyone recognizes comes from the 1931 film, the monster is a literary creation)
Great Literary Characters Worthy of Inclusion
Elizabeth Bennet, Pride and Prejudice
Tess Durbeyfield, Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Miss Clack, The Moonstone
Molly Bloom, * Ulysses*
Leopold Bloom, Ulysses
Stephen Daedalus* Ulysses, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man*
Mrs. Proudie, Barchester Towers
Julien Sorel, The Red and the Black
Baron de Charlus*, In Search of Lost Time*
Odysseus, The Odyssey
Achilles*, The Iliad*
Satan, Paradise Lost
Harry Flashman, the Flashman books by George MacDonald Fraser
Becky Sharpe, Vanity Fair
Candide, Candide
Rabbit Angstrom, *Rabbit Run[i/] and its sequels
A few that may not have been named (sorry if any repeats)
Long John Silver
Jim Hawkins
Kilgore Trout
Oliver Twist
Fagin
David Copperfield
Emma Bovary
Anna Karenina
Alice
Ulysses
And I left out Joe Christmas, Light in August
Bigger Thomas, Native Son
Fiver, Watership Down
Rip van Winkle
Of course not! You mean the Hawkeye from MAS*H 
Zev Steinhardt
Oh, and Tevye, from the stories by Sholom Aleichem
Bertie Wooster and Jeeves
Peter Wimsey
Hercule Poirot
Miss Jane Marple
Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler
Gandalf, Frodo, Bilbo, et al
Harry Potter
Flagg (from various Stephen King books)
Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz
Book magazine recently put out their own list of 100 Greatest Fictional Characters and someone (can’t recall who) started a thread at that time for us to quibble with it or propose our own. I think that was back in April, possibly March, because I subsequently got subscriptions for that magazine for my mother and mother-in-law.
At any rate, another vote for Elizabeth Bennett in “Pride & Prejudice” here.
Valentine Michael Smith
Jubal Harshaw
Lazarus Long
Robin Hood
These need to be added to the list. I’ll enter a more inclusive list later to contain all the duplications that seem appropriate.
Tarzan
Elizabeth Bennet
Hamlet
Othello
King Lear
Macbeth
Robin Hood
Francis Crawford of Lymond (books by Dorothy Dunnett)
“Another nomination here for Atticus Finch. He gets on the list!”
He sure does. Him, and quite a few other people. Yes, I am keeping track and I hope I don’t make any booboos.
Couple of votes for Sam Spade but none for Phillip Marlowe?
The Cat in the Hat
Three from Shakespeare:
Sir John Falstaff
Henry “Hotspur” Percy
Iago
Also:
Dorothea Brooke (Middlemarch)
Mephistopheles (various versions of Faust)
Oh, I didn’t notice you beat me to Iago, glass onion .
Three from Shakespeare:
Sir John Falstaff
Henry “Hotspur” Percy
Iago
Also:
Dorothea Brooke (Middlemarch)
Mephistopheles (various versions of Faust)
I’ll put in a vote for Alex, of A Clockwork Orange. I’m not sure if that’s the same Alex that Genseric and glass onion listed or not (there being several books that are evidently well known by every Straight Doper except me).
I also like, love, admire, respect, and/or find influential:
Hansel
Gretel
Winston Smith*
Hannibal Lector*
Frankenstein’s Monster*
Paul Sheldon
Carrie
Sam (I am Sam, Sam I am . . .)
Holden Caulfield*
Bagoas (the “Persian Boy”)
Bilbo*
Frodo*
Gandalf*
Bond, James Bond*
Sheriff Pangborn*
Skeeve
Aahz
Louis the Vampire
Mephistopheles*
Robinson Crusoe*
Gollum*
Wolverine
C. Auguste Dupin
Ender Wiggins*
Mercutio
The kids from Stephen King’s It.
Peter Parker (in comics and novels)
Sam Gamgee
Leland Gaunt
Ian Malcolm
Alexander the Great (more than one fictional version; the real person is pretty interesting as well)
The Invisible Man
Jeckyll
Hyde
Ibn Fadlan (I only know Crichton’s version)
Christine
Richard Blade
Legolas
Strider
Treebeard
Ghost (of some of Poppy Z. Brite’s novels)
Jack Torrance (and the hotel if it can be said to be a character)
Also, many versions of the Devil Himself and His Various Evil Minions.
I like early versions of the Vampire Lestat, although he lost much of his appeal when he became invincible and even more of his appeal when he had his breakdown . . . so, I dunno.
- These people have already received votes.