Don Vito Corleone and his German-Irish Consigliere Tom Hagen
**Elizabeth Bennet ** from Pride and Prejudice
**Laura Ingalls Wilder ** Little House on the Prairie
**Michael Corleone ** Godfather
Jamie Fraser from Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series. An all-around great guy with a Scottish accent. ::drools::
Also, Hannibal Lecter, Edgler Foreman Vess from Dean Koontz’s Intensity, Ramona Quimby from Beverly Cleary’s Ramona books, and Mariel of Redwall from Brian Jacques’ book of the same name.
Dr. Larch from The Cider House Rules. What a classy, supreme man he was. He stood by his beliefs, he made mistakes and suffered for them, and he loved Homer Wells as best he could.
Sabina from The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Of all the characters, I think she’s the most realistic character, and the one I relate most to. She spends her whole life struggling for freedom of expression, but every men she loves in some way represses her further. And yet when she finally finds complete freedom and light, the absense of burden is unbearable. A very complicated woman.
Francie from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Her struggles were my struggles; her dreams were my dreams. I think she’s the most genuine and true of all the characters I’ve ever known.
Margarita from The Master and Margarita. I love that she is willing to sacrifice everything, go to hell, sell her soul, whatever it takes to be with her love. I really like Woland too - Satan’s not such a bad guy after all.
Miss Havisham from Great Expectations. Such a crazy lady. I don’t know why like her so much, but I think Dickens created her so that you empathize with her and understand why she is, uh, slightly unbalanced.
I pretty much agree, although Marius always struck me as a bit of a wuss.
Probably my favourite book of all time, ** The Caine Mutiny ** gave us Captain Queeg - the cowardly fool, and the real villian of the book, ** Tom Keefer **.
Also, who could forget OWEN MEANY ?
JB
Nevyn, from Katharine Kerr’s Deverry books.
Vlad Taltos, from Steven Brust’s Jhereg books.
Daneel Olivaw, from the Robot Series by Isaac Asimov (my favorite author). He seems almost human at the end of the series, especially in Robots and Empire, but in the best sense, because of the Three Laws.
Sun Wu-Kong, the prankster monkey in “Journey to the West”. You can’t help but love that sharp wit, mischievousness, and insolence (and you just gotta admire a guy who peed on Buddha’s fingers).
Another vote to Valjean. He went to jail for 19 years just for helping his niece, he rescued Cosette from the Thenardiers, he saved Marius from practically certain death, and countless other compassionate, admirable things.
Doghouse Reilly, I’m another big Granny Weatherwax fan. I have to say, though, that I like Nanny Ogg a bit better. She’s exactly the kind of boozy old lady I hope to be someday. 
And on top of that… that man could sing!!! Bring Him Home sends chills down my spine. Oh wait… the musical doesn’t count?
Then the obvious answer is Algernon, from Flowers For Algernon, with my buddy Charly a close second.
Seriously though, my absolute favorite character is Grandma Mazur from the hilarious Janet Evanovich series (One For The Money, etc.). There is a whole cornucopia of wonderful characters, but Grandma is the one that makes me laugh out loud the most.
I know, I know… it’s not highbrow literature, but Holy Moses these are brilliantly funny books.
My favorite character is Jane Eyre. Life has not been kind to her but she hangs on to hope and virtue; she is alone, and lonely, but she “can live alone if self-respect requires it.” She refuses to lower her standards even for her own happiness. I could be friends with her in a minute.
Elizabeth Bennet, on the other hand, seems fairly cold and snobbish somehow, and I think she and I would have nothing to say to each other (not that I could keep up with her long, formal sentences).
I’ll second Elizabeth Bennet and raise you a ** Mr. Darcy**.
I’ll also nominate Gus MacRae from Lonesome Dove. I wish he’d mosey on by so I could palaver with him.
Atticus and Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird deserve a vote, as do Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler from Gone With the Wind.
I love Lord Peter Wimsey, Dorothy L. Sayers truely elegant sluth!
Adah and Leah the twins from Kingslover’s “The Poisonwood Bible” If I were an English teacher, I’d teach this book.
And I’d like to second Charles Wallace and Schmendrick.
Um, hi. I’m a longtime lurker and (I think) a first time poster. I don’t know why I’m posting now, except that I couldn’t let a thread with this subject go by without someone mentioning Quentin Compson from Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury. He’s just so beautifully tormented…
Oh, yeah, and since someone else mentioned Granny Weatherwax, I have to put in a vote for Sam Vimes.
Herbie Bookbinder, Herman Wouk’s adolescent City Boy. I smiled so much reading that book that my face hurt. Every character had a counterpart in my own youth, and I was Herbie. I’ve never even been to the Bronx…and I’m not even Jewish. Go figure!
“Hello, I must be going.” --Groucho Marx
Hello Wizard, welcome to the board!
How did I miss this board???
The Pitts – Anne Perry
Elizabeth Bennett – Jane Austen
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
Meg Wallace – Madeleine L’Engle
Amelia Peabody – Elizabeth Peters
Ramses & Nefret Emerson – Elizabeth Peters
Scout & Atticus – Harper Lee
Candy Love & Sammy Pope – !me! of course they’re not published so you can’t like them yet, but you will!
Lord Peter Wimsey & Harriet Vane – Dorothy L. Sayers – why oh why didn’t she write more about this inimitable pair!
Anne Shirley Blythe & Rilla Blythe – L.M. Montgomery
Rebecca – Kate Douglas Wiggin
The Wife of Bath – Chaucer
Oops, almost forgot:
Beatrice – Much Ado About Nothing
Helena – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Prospero & Ariel – The Tempest
Welcome to the Boards crazy4chaucer.
Your suggestions prompt me to add…
Katharina and Petruchio from Taming of the Shrew.
Fletch, Flynn and Skyler from George McDonald’s books, they’re so wise-cracking and cool…
Lummox, from Star Beast–I’ve always wanted to raise John Thomases too, heh…
Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg are neck and neck in my book, with Greebo right up there…
Kenneth “Sparky” Valentine from John Varley’s Golden Globe such an excellent book and an amazingly engaging character.
Tons of others but my brain is in neutral at the moment… must be 'cuz I’m at work… :rolleyes:
Minor nitpick: Their last name is Murray. “Wallace” is Charles’ middle name, or a double first name.