by Melissa Newnham

Created on: July 10, 2011   Last Updated: July 11, 2011

Let’s be honest. If you’ve stumbled upon this title, more than likely, you are someone who, like me, is almost incapable of narrowing down their choices when it comes to the greatest characters the realm of fiction has to offer. Of course, this isn’t a bad thing. Far from it. I believe that the harder you have to try to narrow it down, the more emotionally attached you are likely to become when reading. And this, dear reader, makes you a Kindred Spirit, of the Literary Kind.

I, admittedly, cannot narrow it down. I have far too many favourites, both in Literature and in Film. However, in the interests of succinctness, I will attempt to formulate some kind of list, in order that those who are looking to bury their heads once again in the wonderful, labyrinthine land of Literature, may do so, and find some friends.

This appears to be something of a confessional article. I must confess to one more thing. I am a huge ‘Lord of the Rings’ fan. Massive. I have an Elvish Dictionary. This is the level of Nerdery with which you must cope. Delight in it, it’s the only way to go. As such, some of my favourite characters ever sprung forth from the pen of the mighty Tolkien. One of these, is Bilbo Baggins, the diminutive and plucky Super Hero who is, in many ways, more likeable than most of the other characters, with the obvious exception of Aragorn. Because he’s Aragorn. Obviously. Bilbo is the very manifestation of eternal youth, holding within himself such simultaneous innocence and world-weariness, that he often strikes me as one of the best-written characters ever. It takes a special brand of character to be likeable and a bit psychotic. Bilbo is it.

Speaking of psychotic, Heathcliff Heathcliff is another. Despite the constraints of her time, Emily Bronte wrote in ‘Wuthering Heights’, a spectacularly haunting and quite horrifying character who has resonated, for some bizarre and perverse reason, through the ages, lauded as a great romantic hero. Romantic, I contest, he was not. But brilliant, he was. Because Heathcliff, with his ugliness of character and his sheer crassness and vulgarity, is as exact a depiction of true love as one is ever likely to achieve. Because true love is ugly, and it is vulgar and it is harsh and brutal and Bronte had such a clear grasp on this concept that Heathcliff has morphed into one of my favourite characters ever conceived. 

Recently, and quite inexplicably I must say, I have been

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