100 favourite fictional characters

The 100 favourite fictional characters...as chosen by 100 literary luminaries (via kottke)

This ended up being a really fun article for me to read. Thoughts below:

So many Jane Austen characters chosen. In fact, she is the most-represented author. She is surely one of our greatest characterizers. Elizabeth Bennett is wonderful. So is Emma Woodhouse. But I prefer Anne Elliot. She is truly wonderful: good without being moralistic and smart without being brash. Elinor Dashwood is too wooden for me. And I can't stand Mrs Norris.

Gandalf is great, but nearly infallible, so I wouldn't put him in this list, nor Aragorn.

I really liked Stephen Daedalus, Quentin (The Sound and the Fury), and Hamlet when I was in high school. You can see my depressive, tragical teenage years.

Someone I really like these days is Hazel from Watership Down. He needs his friends and warrenmates, but he's the one with leadership and decisiveness who holds them together. He's not the strongest and smartest and most vituous, like Aragorn. This is more like real leadership to me, and, indeed, everyone gets to participate. I see later in the articles that someone else chose Bigwig. A great book.

Ah yes, Anne Shirley of Green Gables. A good character and, indeed, very passionate.

These reviews make me want to check out Philip Marlowe, Macaulay's Horatius, Vanity Fair, and The Magic Mountain. Any seconds? How about you?