Literary Crushes

Oh, come on. You've had them too. A huge crush on a fictional character, whether he (or she) be in a book or a movie.

Mine tend to be literary in nature. So here are my top 5:

#5: Colonel Brandon from Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. I know Mr D'Arcy always seems to get top billing, but I always kind of liked Brandon better. He's a bit more subtle than D'Arcy, the silent but decisive hero who worships from afar and always comes through in a crunch. The kind of guy you can count on, and who has a depth of personality only hinted at on the surface.

(Photo from movie Sense & Sensibility starring Alan Rickman)

#4: Lancelot. Arthur's favourite Knight and mine too. I've had crush on Lancelot longer than anyone, longer even than I have known what a crush was! His bravery, chivalry, heroism, and splendour all fuse together, and really, who can resist the knight in shining armour on his valiant steed?

#3: Siegfried Farnon in All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot. Siegfried is generous, witty, amusing, unpredictable, charming (oh so charming) and strings together words effortlessly (ie: "We're up against boneheaded bureaucracy. Complete ossification").  A literate literary character.

(Photo from TV Drama of All Creatures starring Robert Hardy)

#2: King Richard III. Yes technically he is historic, not a literary character, but it is only through literature that I fell for him. First in Josephine Tey's The Daughter of TIme which I read when I was about 13, and then later in Sharon Kaye Penmen's fabulous The Sunne In Splendour. And yes, I think he probably killed his nephews,but I like him anyway. They were complicated times for this last English monarch to die in battle.

(Statue of King Richard III)

#1: Jamie. Or more properly James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser. Yeah, I know, me and every other hot-blooded woman on the planet. If you like stubborn, heroic, fierce, passionate, intelligent, posessive, manly warrior-poets, get thee to Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. I've written about Jamie before here and here.

(Sketch one of the many many sketches,composites, computer generated pictures of Jamie made and disseminated by countless adoring fans)

So who are YOUR literary crushes?