A literary crush

    This is my 'literary crush' (and he has a lot to answer for, as you may have seen here, here and here - and the post on the relatively recent re-read).

    Do you have one, or have you ever had one? Has it been a lasting relationship or did you fall out of love with your hero or heroine over time? Will you tell us their identity?

Comments

[Desperate Reader]

The Scarlett Pimpernel - first and true love!

[Cornflower]

I haven't read it but I did see the Richard E. Grant in the television version - very dashing!

[LauraC]

And I had a great crush on Anthony Andrews in the 1982 version! Wow! I need to watch that again. (And, I suppose, read the book.)

[Cornflower]

I haven't seen that one, but Anthony Andrews would be very suave, I'm sure.

[Claire (The Captive Reader)]

I've had too many to count over the years but my first love was Gilbert Blythe. I fell for him when I was eight years old and read Anne of Green Gables for the first time. Other literary crushes come and go but I will always be true to Gilbert!

[B R Wombat]

Not strictly on the subject, but did you hear one of the teams on University Challenge mistaking the character played by Orson Welles, Timothy Dalton etc. as Inspector Clouseau when it was, of course, Mr Rochester? (A possible literary crush) It's not often that UC makes one laugh out loud . . .

[AllisMcD]

Mm, Atticus is lovely (and a contender for Best Name too).

I have always loved the swagger of Alan Breck in Kidnapped; more recently, I fell for Rob Ryan (In the Woods, Tana French) and a little bit for Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie too.

Not quite a crush, but I feel sad that Agatha Christie created Poirot but grew to dislike him: poor Poirot!

[Audrey]

At the moment, Chief Inspector Gamache, in Louise Penny's mysteries.

[Victoria Corby]

I have a crush on Gregory Peck. Nothing exalted or literary about it! I fell madly in love with the Marquis of Montrose in Margaret Irwin's The Proud Servant when I was 14,followed by Prince Rupert of the Rhine in Irwin's The Stranger Prince and The Scarlet Pimpernel. I went off Prince Rupert a bit when I found out what he was really like but I still have huge soft spots for Montrose and the Scarlet Pimpernel.

[Belle]

What a great question. Of course I adore Atticus Finch (and Gregory Peck), but would also be happy to hold hands with Detective Maigret, Lord Peter Whimsey, D'Artagnan, Jeeves AND Bertie Wooster.

[Belle]

Uh, oh. I am off to a bad beginning with Lord Peter...I misspelled his name. It should be Wimsey. I hope he can forgive me.

[Cornflower]

Eight years old!

[Cornflower]

I did hear that, and yes, Mr. Rochester is certainly a crush.

[Cornflower]

What an interesting point about Agatha Christie and Poirot - an author growing to dislike her own creation.

[Cornflower]

I must read those books!

[Cornflower]

Ah, the power of books ...

[Cornflower]

That's a handsome selection you have there, Belle.

[Linda Gillard]

Yes, the Pimpernel, Lord Peter, Rochester & D'Artagnan would be near the top of my list of crushes, but the Real Thing was/is Dorothy Dunnett's Francis Crawford from the 6 vol. series known as The Lymond Chronicles. I fell in love when I was pregnant with my son and in desperate need of something to distract me from morning sickness. Francis did the trick and we're still going strong. (My son is now 27.)

[Cornflower]

That's wonderful, Linda - literary passions are lasting ones, it seems.

[David Nolan (dsc73277)]

Are grown men allowed to have crushes on characters in books, as I suggested when referencing this blog post over on Jo's blog? (http://josbookjourney.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/jottings-11-prescription-reading/#comment-3170).

[Cornflower]

I'd say you are allowed, David!

[Wendy Winkler]

Roderick Alleyn

[Cornflower]

Another one from my "I've never read ..." list, I'm afraid.

[Lala]

Lord Peter, of course

[Cornflower]

Lord Peter has quite a following, has he not?

[Rebecca]

Loyd Peregrina, from Barbara Kingsolver's Animal Dreams. It's a lovely book, but/and if read too young, Loyd sets a very high bar for future suitors!

On one of my many rereads of Hamlet (literature teacher's duty), I developed a brief but vivid crush on Hamlet. Very odd.

[cindy]

At the moment I'm listening to 'Of Mice and Men', which my daughter is studying for GCSE English. I'm developing a crush on Slim. The tall, strong, cowboy type is, I'm realising, my type. Not too many of those in Finchley!

[Cornflower]

I'm all for the bar being high!
I don't think I've heard of anyone having a Shakespearian crush before, but why not?

[Cornflower]

It's been many years since I read that book and I don't remember Slim, but you could do worse than a tall, strong cowboy!

[Mr Cornflower]

This is stretching the rules a bit, but many years ago I saw Zoe Wanamaker as Viola in Twelfth Night and was quite captivated. On safer territory there's a lot to be said for the fizzy heroines of PG Wodehouse: Bobbie Wickham, Stiffy Byng et al, though I suspect they'd be pretty high maintenance...

[Cornflower]

Were you captivated by Viola, or by Miss W.?

[Sarie]

Rhet Butler for me!

[Sarie]

I mean Rhett!

[Cornflower]

Rogue, cad ...!

[Danielle]

Horatio Hornblower! You have to love a man who decides to become a sailor who suffers from seasickness! And it doesn't hurt that the divine Ioan Gruffudd plays him in the miniseries. And Nicholas Brisbane from Deanna Raybourn's Lady Julia Gray mystery series, which has not been adapted to film or TV but I imagine the very, very divine Richard Armitage playing if it ever were... Sigh. Just in time for Valentine's Day you have me thinking of them. :)

[Mr Cornflower]

She played the part so well that it's impossible to make the distinction.

[Cornflower]

I have a vague memory of seeing Gregory Peck in that role!

[Jade]

Rhett Butler

[Cornflower]

I hadn't expected him to turn up here at all, but it seems he has a following.