I know this topic has been done before, but not for some time. So what literary character makes your heart go pitter-pat?
Mr. Darcy is a popular choice, but I reread Northanger Abbey last autumn and now Henry Tilney is my fictional Austen man of choice. I’m also fond of Crowley from Good Omens and Alexander the Great as portrayed by Mary Renault in Fire From Heaven and The Persian Boy. And I might as well throw Hephaistion in there while I’m at it.
I’m pretty sure I’ve posted about my not-so-secret crush on John Marshall Tanner, the tough-but-tender, proud-but-poor, lonely, Oreo-loving, occasional drinker and lover, ex-lawyer, and San Fransisco P.I.
I’m currently re-reading the entire series of novels by Stephen Greenleaf… again.
Speaking of Austen,
I do adore Darcy but how could he compare the constant (if sometimes weak and resentful) Captain Wentworth. Frederick waited YEARS for his true love… all Darcy had to do is wave some Pemberley around and get his girl :). Of course, Anne probably caught malaria and died at sea but that was probably tons more fun than romping around some stuffy fancy house. Plus, no horrible relatives to put up with (I imagine Anne avoided her family like the plague after her marriage while Lizzie would be stuck with Lady De Bourgh & Mr. Collins).
And there is Texan Stu Redman to consider as well …
Hmm… funny you should mention him. My usual answer to this question is that Menolly is the total package… talented, creative, with a good helping of down-to-Pern practicality and a bit of a shy streak.
[sub]Damn that Sebell!![/sub]
Lord Peter Whimsey
Simon Templar
Phryne Fisher (obscure… pulpy Australian flapper detective… she wing walks, she’s a whizz with a gun… she has lots of steamy sex with everyone.)
I guess my literary crushes are all of a certain type and period. Mmm. I could almost go for A.J. Raffles but he’s a bit early for me. Still, good cricketer which counts for something!
Oh, good, I’m first to claim Jamie Fraser of the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. Who can not love a tall, redheaded Scot with the reflex of a cat, the fighting skills of a Navy SEAL, and the soul of a poet?
Hyacinth Robinson in The Princess Casamassima. I was crushed the first time I read it and got to the ending, and I refuse to finish it whenever I re-read it.
Oh, there’s many. Trillian, of The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy and sequels.
Minerva, of Time Enough for Love.
Miranda, of The Tempest.
Hermione, of the Harry Potter books (shut up, she’s 26 years old by now).
But most of all, Dr. Susan Calvin, of I, Robot, and other stories by Asimov.
Priceguy and I will have to contrive to be arrested in Ankh-Morpork: you go for Angua, I’ll be cuffed by Vimes.
Zaphod Beeblebrox would be terrible for anything longer than two weeks, but he seems like a heck of a fun date.
Going classical, Berowne from “Love’s Labour’s Lost” is my oldest literary crush. “Have at you, then, affection’s men-at-arms!” Suffolk from the Henry VI trilogy is another good one.
Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, but it would be nigh-impossible to choose!