100 Best Characters in Fiction Since 1900

NPR ^ | 2002 | Book Magazine

[ihatemyalarmclock]

Given that the late Robert Heinlein is one of my favorite authors, any number of characters he created could make my personal list.

If I had to choose a single one, it would be Lazarus Long (aka Woodrow Wilson Smith) from Methusela's Children and Time Enough For Love.

Of course, he had pro-libertarian, anti-government leanings that are sure not to impress the literary elite.

[Sawdring]

Is that a list off the top of your head?

[Mr Rogers]

What a pee-poor list! Characters from Lolita - one of the worst written books ever to get a reputation - and two in the top twenty? Holly Golightly in the top 20? And Jay Gatsby as #1? Has anyone actually read The Great Gatsby out of their own free will?

Definitely an NPR list!

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Winston Smith anyone? John Gault? Dagney Taggart?

[raybbr]

Is that a list off the top of your head?

LOL No, it's the NPR list. I posted it so people could see it without having to go to NPR.

[grey_whiskers]

6 - Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1902
18 - George Smiley, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, John LeCarre, 1974
23 - Scarlett O'Hara Rhett Butler, Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell, 1936
29 -Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh, A.A. Milne, 1926
34 - Sebastian Flyte, Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh, 1945
35 - Jeeves, My Man Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse, 1919
38 - Toad, The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame, 1908
39 - The Cat in the Hat, Dr. Seuss, 1955
46 - The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, 1943
49 - The Whiskey Priest, The Power and the Glory, Graham Greene, 1940
63 - Charlotte, Charlotte's Web, E.B. White, 1952
66 - James Bond, Casino Royale, Ian Fleming, 1953
79 - Tarzan, Tarzan of the Apes, Edgar Rice Burroughs, 1914
84 - Yuri Zhivago, Dr. Zhivago, Boris Pasternak, 1957
85 - Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J.K. Rowling, 1998
96 - Eeyore, Winnie the Pooh, A.A. Milne, 1926
I condensed the list to the only ones worth keeping. And I'm glad the snake bit the little prince.

How could they have forgotten--

Jack Ryan (all of the Tom Clancy novels, seemingly)

Lord Peter Wimsey (Dorothy L. Sayers, Gaudy Night)

Harriet Vane (Dorothy L. Sayers, Strong Poison)

Gandalf (The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings trilogy) Katherine Vigneras (The Small Rain, A Severed Wasp , Madeleine L'Engle)

Hercule Poirot (Agatha Christie)

Artemis Fowl and Bunter(Eoin Colfer)

Aslan (The Chroncicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis)

Father Brown (The Innnocence of Father Brown, G.K. Chesterton)

...and since they included The Cat in The Hat and Winnie The Pooh

The boy in Where the Wild Things Are -- Maurice Sendak

Tigger -- Winne the Pooh

Calvin and Hobbes -- Bill Watterson

Dilbert (and the Pointy Haired Boss)-- Scott Adams

Cheers!

[raybbr]

As a fan of Spade and Marlowe I’m not sure I could say much about how they differ. Given a college essay question “Spade and Marlowe: Compare and Contrast” - I think I’d have to leave the page blank LOL.

Indeed. I was surprised that Marlowe beat Spade. Must be because of the number of books with Marlowe as opposed to Spade.

[donaldo]

Samuel Dodsworth
Martin Arrowsmith

[GonzoGOP]

Lolita put 2 names in the top 20 and James T. Kirk and Darth Vader don’t make the list. I don’t think I’d fit in too well with the people who put this list together. Heck Sherlock Holmes was the only one in the top 10 i found memorable.

[blackbart.223]

"Has anyone actually read The Great Gatsby out of their own free will?"

I would rather be shot at sunrise.

[catfish1957]

My interest was lost once I read “NPR”. The state socialist network slants everything left.

[catfish1957]

Where’s John Galt?.....Oh I forgot Atlas Shrugged is no longer fiction

[TheWasteLand]

What about Chewbacca? I hear he’s big with the literati.

[mad_as_he$$]

I was always fond of MacLean’s heroes. Ulysses is a great book. Travis McGee is a great character and Jake Grafton of Flight of the Intruder.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

I guess in The Big Sleep, Marlowe is really the ultimate anti-hero. He really is doing his partner’s wife, which by any set of standards, is not cool. Perhaps you could make the argument that Sam Spade wouldn’t have done that - so maybe there is a difference there. In the Maltese falcon he double crosses Miss Wonderly, Gutman and Cairo but they all had it coming, so that is cool.

[mad_as_he$$]

lol.

[Revolting cat!]

I'd have to agree with Homer Simpson: "Booooooooring! Sherlock Holmes, for sure. Other than characters like him, too much contemporary mainstream from the likes of Tom Wolfe's "Three Stooges", i.e. modern neurotic standups for the Jewish authors themselves. Who cares? New York critics do, that's who!

[jla]

Doyle appropriated the character of Sherlock Holmes from Dickens' novel Bleak House and its Inspector Bucket.

Kudos to The Blooms for garnering 4th and 8th place!

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Another one for consideration might be Michael Corleone - if the movies had never been made he couldn’t possibly make the list - but given the fact that we’ve all seen the movies - isn’t he worthy of our consideration?

[GonzoGOP]

What about Chewbacca? I hear he’s big with the literati.

I'm thinking they are more the C-3P0. Fluent in over six million forms of communication, talk constantly, and never say anything remotely useful.