Question of the Day

(Q)...Who is your favorite character in a novel ? Please elaborate. My favorite character is Jake Barnes who is in Ernest Hemingway's great novel The Sun Also Rises. He is , to me, a tragic figure in some ways as he is caught up in love and desire that cannot ever be consumated. This novel remains my favorite novel of all time.

Comments

[maggie]

Oh, Paul! You must read Love in the Time of Cholera!

Mine would be Mattie Ross in Charles Portis' True Grit. My dad recognized the stubburn independent as me long before I read the book which I totally agree.

[Rain]

Una in 'Ahab's Wife' by Sena Jeter Naslund. She is strong, experiences life by going after it, and makes the best of her situation-- whatever it is. I especially like two quotes from the book (it's told in Una's voice). "I do not unmarry Ahab. But I marry myself. I take my fate as within." and the other is "Where we choose to be- we have that power to determine our lives. We cannot reel time backward or forward, but we can take ourselves to the place that defines our being."

[bourbonandbranch]

Wow - Jake is a tough one to top since The Sun is also my favorite novel.

I would also have to nominate Stingo - from Styron's Sophie's Choice.

[jj]

Gully Foyle, from Alfred Bester's "The Stars My Destination." Foyle represents all of man's potential - for good or ill. He is a monster, a sociopath, a showman - and the hero that gives humankind back its destiny. Not a likeable character, but certainly an admirable one in the end.

[RT]

I'm torn. I love Jay Gatsby of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. I also love Jane Eyre in the novel of the same name by Charlotte Bronte.

I love Gatsby because he is willing to give up everything and create anything to have one person's love. I want to shake him as much as Nick does to show him he can't do it and that he can't repeat the past--even though we all know we try to do the same. I love him for his odd sort of innocence and want to smack him upside the head for his inability to see reality.

I love Jane Eyre's perseverance and determination. I love her interesting form of independence, too.

Ahhhh....books. I wish I had more time and mental energy to read them.

[Rosemary Paul]

I know you guys are going to laugh, but I love Hercule Poirot. He is so arrogant, never admits to mistakes and yet has a childlike quality about somethings. He professes to be man of the world, or perhaps he is an epicure of the world and yet Hastings has to explain so many things to him.
Dame Christie did a great job with her Belgian detective.

[RT]

I've never read Poirot, but I love the television series. A good dose of mystery mixed with camp and humor.