The 100 favourite fictional characters... as chosen by 100 literary luminaries - Features - Books

elect by Alexandra Pringle, (editor-in-chief of Bloomsbury). Elaine Dundys The bomb Avocado and Truman Capotes breakfast at Tiff alls were both(prenominal) published in 1958, and perhaps in that location was something about post-war, pre-Sixties bohemia that produced two of the closely benevolent chockines ever. For me, Sally Jay is precisely that bit tougher, funnier and much mordant than Holly Golightly. Madame Bovary. elect by Francine monetary fund (the presenter of calculate Row). I jump read Madame Bovary at 18 and loathed her. I have since devolve to value Flauberts masterwork of romanticist delusion - and to hump her faults as mine. legerdemain Self. chosen by Rachel Cugnoni, (publishing director of Vintage). I remember class period Martin Amiss Money when I was about 18 and loving the thrillingly raving mad suit of deception Self. He was the even uptual(prenominal) bad son when my real disembodied spirit was filled with honourable boys. \nMike. chos en by Richard Beswick, (publishing director of Little, cook/Abacus). The Day we Got rumard on cake is a beautiful, affecting story by William Trevor. It follows the course of a rackety afternoon in Soho in which a immature man, Mike, goes on a pub truckle with a wordy lush, gets increasingly drunk and makes nuisance calls to a girl hes in love with. each time I read it I ache with nostalgia. Horatius. Chosen by Jilly make (Riders). Macaulays Horatius, the saviour of Rome, fought bump off a big invading Tus contribute army, until his companions behind him had hacked brush up the bridge to the city. His fall back cut off, heplunged into the River Tiber. As he swam to safety, even the Tuscans cheered. Leopold Bloom. Chosen by David Lodge (Nice Work). Leopold Bloom, the hero of Joyces Ulysses . is a character in whom most of us can recognise public human traits, follies, desires and fears. by his creators stream-of-consciousness we get to populate him more nigh than p erhaps any other fancied character in the lead or since. Louisa Pollit. Chosen by Amanda Craig (Love in Idleness). Louisa Pollit in Christina Steads The bit Who Loved Children is plain, passionate, pictorial and doomed, and a lofty self-portrait of an artist as a juvenile woman. You hate, pity and admire her all at once. \n