# Top Ten List: Most fascinating Literary Characters **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 21, 2002, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-list-most-fascinating-literary-characters/104877 "2002-04-21T23:20:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2002, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-list-most-fascinating-literary-characters/104877/41 "2002-04-24T06:52:31Z")
**Yossarian** – _Catch-22_ – The only sane person in a sea of insanity, so of course everyone else thinks that he’s crazy. \*\* Milo Minderbinder\*\* – _Catch-22_ – An abusrd character. Shows what might happens to one who puts the profit motive above all else. **Major Major** – _Catch-22_ – Another absurd character. He gets cut off from society completely because of bad luck and just muddles through life without anybody noticing. **Hamlet** – _Hamlet_ – Fascinating because he’s unable to act, a problem that plagues many people these days (including myself, to some extent.) **Lady Macbth** – _Macbeth_ - The best manipulator in literary history. **Henry V** – _Henry IV & Henry V_ – The ultimate rebellious teenager. **Pangloss** – _Candide_ – A perfect explanation of what’s wrong with incurable optimism. Everybody knows somebody who’s exactly like him. **Uncle Doc Hines** – _A Light in August_ – Dear God, please save me from your followers. **Moses** – _The Bible_ – Humanity at its best, or not? **The Shrike** – _Hyperion_ – Simply the coolest character ever. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2002, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-list-most-fascinating-literary-characters/104877/42 "2002-04-24T13:50:34Z")
[nitpick] **Estraven** was in Left Hand of Darkness, not The Dispossessed. [/nitpick] I also found him/her interesting. But I list The Dispossessed as one of the finest novels of the twentieth century. All the rest of my fascinating characters are already on somebody else’s list. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2002, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-list-most-fascinating-literary-characters/104877/43 "2002-04-24T15:14:44Z")
Thus spake **Eutychus** : > [@](#): > > Someone mentioned Spenser, but he seems to be more of a one dimensional character. There’s no real background to him; nothing to be curious about or wonder where he came from. You may be interested in Parker’s 1991 novel, _Pastime_, where some intriguing details about Spenser’s origins are revealed. If you just want me to spill, I’ll do so as best I can recall. ---
**Author:** ![smilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/48db29/32.png) [@smilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smilla)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2002, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-list-most-fascinating-literary-characters/104877/44 "2002-04-24T16:36:23Z")
> [@](#): > > [nitpick] Estraven was in Left Hand of Darkness, not The Dispossessed. [/nitpick] Oops, my bad. one more to add: **Venus** in _Nappily Ever After_. I’m kinda hoping this book gets some fame and attention, although I doubt it. Most people think women are either being their silly, shallow selves or feminazis whenever they talk about the weight image is given in society. Whatever. It’s still a great book, and Venus is a great character. ---
**Author:** ![Jurhael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cab0a1/32.png) [@Jurhael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurhael)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2002, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-list-most-fascinating-literary-characters/104877/45 "2002-04-24T16:43:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Speaker for the Dead \* > \*\* > > I heartedly agree, this man is an incredible character, and his fall from grace (so to speak) is well done. I feel very sorry for him… even now, despite his lecherousness. \*\* WHEEEEE!!! I’m not alone! AYAYAYAY!!! I can go on about him AND NDDP for a loooong loooong time. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2002, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-list-most-fascinating-literary-characters/104877/46 "2002-04-24T21:49:14Z")
The Librarian in the Discworld books. Also the Luggage. (Funny how characters that don’t speak can be so well written.) Boo Radley Delirium from Sandman. Falstaff Merry and Pippin Merlin That’s all I can come up with right now. ---
**Author:** ![RaCha\_ar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@RaCha\_ar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaCha_ar)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2002, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-list-most-fascinating-literary-characters/104877/47 "2002-04-24T22:21:33Z")
Yeah, definitely **Delirium** , **photopat**. I’m dying to know how she came to change away from being Delight. ---
**Author:** ![smilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/48db29/32.png) [@smilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smilla)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-list-most-fascinating-literary-characters/104877/48 "2002-04-25T06:15:11Z")
One more character… **Albert Knag** - in Jostein Gardner’s _Sophie’s World_. You gotta love a man who plays god. ---
**Author:** ![woolly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ebca7d/32.png) [@woolly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woolly)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-list-most-fascinating-literary-characters/104877/49 "2002-04-25T13:42:38Z")
John Le Care’s George Smiley Emily Bronte’s Heathcliff John Mortimer’s Horace Rumpole Michael Dobb’s Francis Urquhart Murray Ball’s Cooch Windgrass ---
**Author:** ![tourbot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@tourbot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tourbot)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-list-most-fascinating-literary-characters/104877/50 "2002-04-25T16:46:04Z")
1- **Peer Gynt** from Peer Gynt, Ibsen 2- \*\*Hamlet \*\* from Hamlet, Shakespeare 3- **Don Quixote** from Adventures of Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra 4- **Walt Whitman** from Song of Myself, Walt Whitman 5- **Sancho Panza** from Adventures of Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra 6- **Satan** from Paradise Lost, Milton 7- **Roger Mexico** from Gravity’s Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon 8- **Dream** from Sandman, Neil Gaiman 9- **Wife of Bath** from The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer 10 **Hamm** from Endgame, Samuel Beckett ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-list-most-fascinating-literary-characters/104877/51 "2002-04-25T20:08:33Z")
Oh, Willie Loman too. ---
**Author:** ![Amok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f17d59/32.png) [@Amok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amok)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-list-most-fascinating-literary-characters/104877/52 "2002-04-25T20:33:55Z")
There’s been some characters named already that I find quite fascinating (e.g. **Woland** and **MacBeth** ), but three that immediately came to mind that I haven’t seen mentioned are: [ul] [li] **Kurtz** (Joseph Conrad’s _Heart of Darkness_): Sort of a picture of 19th century Europe, complete with vast education, learning, and a desire to do good, but also with a deep core of violence and savagery[/li] [li] **James Gatsby** (F. Scott Fiztgeralds’ _The Great Gatsby_): A man who so wants to remake his past that he ruins his future. A tragic and mysterious modern figure.[/li] [li] **Molly Bloom** (James Joyce’s _Ulysses_): The modern Penelope.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-list-most-fascinating-literary-characters/104877/53 "2002-04-26T15:32:29Z")
Yeah, what you lot said. Plus **Homer Simpson**. Is he lucky, or not as stupid as he makes out, or what? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-list-most-fascinating-literary-characters/104877.md?page=2)