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100 Best Characters in Fiction Since 1900 is a list which was published in the
March /
April 2002 issue of
Book , a U.S. magazine which discontinued publication at the end of
2003 .
A
panel consisting of 55 people—authors, literary agents, editors, and actors—was assigned to "rank the top one hundred characters in literature since 1900".
The magazine may have been a U.S. publication, and most of the panelists U.S. citizens, though their task was to rank characters "in literature" rather than "in U.S. literature". The panel voted in more characters by authors from the
United States (55) than any other nation, followed by the
United Kingdom and
Ireland (29), and the rest of the world (
Canada ,
South America ,
Europe ,
Africa ,
Australia , and
Asia ) (17).
Results
Jay Gatsby ,
The Great Gatsby ,
F. Scott Fitzgerald ,
1925
Holden Caulfield ,
The Catcher in the Rye ,
J.D. Salinger ,
1951
Humbert Humbert,
Lolita ,
Vladimir Nabokov ,
1955
Leopold Bloom ,
Ulysses ,
James Joyce ,
1922
Rabbit Angstrom ,
Rabbit, Run ,
John Updike ,
1960
Sherlock Holmes ,
The Hound of the Baskervilles ,
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ,
1902
Atticus Finch ,
To Kill A Mockingbird ,
Harper Lee ,
1960
Molly Bloom ,
Ulysses ,
James Joyce ,
1922
Stephen Dedalus ,
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ,
James Joyce ,
1916
Lily Bart ,
The House of Mirth ,
Edith Wharton ,
1905
Holly Golightly ,
Breakfast at Tiffany's ,
Truman Capote ,
1958
Gregor Samsa ,
The Metamorphosis ,
Franz Kafka ,
1915
The Invisible Man,
Invisible Man ,
Ralph Ellison ,
1952
Lolita,
Lolita ,
Vladimir Nabokov ,
1955
Aureliano Buendia ,
One Hundred Years of Solitude ,
Gabriel García Márquez ,
1967
Clarissa Dalloway ,
Mrs. Dalloway ,
Virginia Woolf ,
1925
Ignatius Reilly ,
A Confederacy of Dunces ,
John Kennedy Toole ,
1980
George Smiley ,
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy ,
John le Carré ,
1974
Mrs. Ramsay ,
To the Lighthouse ,
Virginia Woolf ,
1927
Bigger Thomas ,
Native Son ,
Richard Wright ,
1940
Nick Adams ,
In Our Time ,
Ernest Hemingway ,
1925
Yossarian ,
Catch-22 ,
Joseph Heller ,
1961
Scarlett O'Hara ,
Gone with the Wind ,
Margaret Mitchell ,
1936
Scout Finch ,
To Kill A Mockingbird ,
Harper Lee ,
1960
Philip Marlowe ,
The Big Sleep ,
Raymond Chandler ,
1939
Kurtz ,
Heart of Darkness ,
Joseph Conrad ,
1902
Stevens ,
The Remains of the Day ,
Kazuo Ishiguro ,
1989
Cosimo Piovasco di Rondo ,
The Baron in the Trees ,
Italo Calvino ,
1957
Winnie-the-Pooh ,
Winnie-the-Pooh ,
A. A. Milne ,
1926
Oskar Matzerath ,
The Tin Drum ,
Gunter Grass ,
1959
Hazel Motes ,
Wise Blood ,
Flannery O'Connor ,
1952
Alex Portnoy ,
Portnoy's Complaint ,
Philip Roth ,
1969
Binx Bolling ,
The Moviegoer ,
Walker Percy ,
1961
Sebastian Flyte ,
Brideshead Revisited ,
Evelyn Waugh ,
1945
Jeeves ,
My Man Jeeves ,
P.G. Wodehouse ,
1919
Eugene Henderson ,
Henderson the Rain King ,
Saul Bellow ,
1959
Marcel ,
Remembrance of Things Past ,
Marcel Proust ,
1913 –
1927
Toad ,
The Wind in the Willows ,
Kenneth Grahame ,
1908
The Cat in the Hat ,
The Cat in the Hat ,
Dr. Seuss ,
1955
Peter Pan ,
The Little White Bird ,
J.M. Barrie ,
1902
Augustus McCrae ,
Lonesome Dove ,
Larry McMurtry ,
1985
Sam Spade ,
The Maltese Falcon ,
Dashiell Hammett ,
1930
Judge Holden ,
Blood Meridian ,
Cormac McCarthy ,
1985
Willie Stark ,
All the King's Men ,
Robert Penn Warren ,
1946
Stephen Maturin ,
Master and Commander ,
Patrick O'Brian ,
1969
The Little Prince ,
The Little Prince ,
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ,
1943
Santiago ,
The Old Man and the Sea ,
Ernest Hemingway ,
1952
Jean Brodie ,
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie ,
Muriel Spark ,
1961
The Whiskey Priest ,
The Power and the Glory ,
Graham Greene ,
1940
Neddy Merrill ,
The Swimmer ,
John Cheever ,
1964
Sula Peace ,
Sula ,
Toni Morrison ,
1973
Meursault ,
The Stranger ,
Albert Camus ,
1942
Jake Barnes ,
The Sun Also Rises ,
Ernest Hemingway ,
1926
Phoebe Caulfield ,
The Catcher in the Rye ,
J.D. Salinger ,
1951
Janie Crawford ,
Their Eyes Were Watching God ,
Zora Neale Hurston ,
1937
Ántonia Shimerda ,
My Ántonia ,
Willa Cather ,
1918
Grendel ,
Grendel ,
John Gardner ,
1971
Gulley Jimson ,
The Horse's Mouth ,
Joyce Cary ,
1944
Big Brother ,
1984 ,
George Orwell ,
1949
Tom Ripley ,
The Talented Mr. Ripley ,
Patricia Highsmith ,
1955
Seymour Glass ,
Nine Stories ,
J.D. Salinger ,
1953
Dean Moriarty ,
On the Road ,
Jack Kerouac ,
1957
Charlotte ,
Charlotte's Web ,
E.B. White ,
1952
T.S. Garp ,
The World According to Garp ,
John Irving ,
1978
Nick and Nora Charles ,
The Thin Man ,
Dashiell Hammett ,
1934
James Bond ,
Casino Royale ,
Ian Fleming ,
1953
Mr. Bridge ,
Mrs. Bridge ,
Evan S. Connell ,
1959
Geoffrey Firmin ,
Under the Volcano ,
Malcolm Lowry ,
1947
Benjy ,
The Sound and the Fury ,
William Faulkner ,
1929
Charles Kinbote ,
Pale Fire ,
Vladimir Nabokov ,
1962
Mary Katherine Blackwood ,
We Have Always Lived in the Castle ,
Shirley Jackson ,
1962
Charles Ryder ,
Brideshead Revisited ,
Evelyn Waugh ,
1945
Claudine ,
Claudine at School ,
Colette ,
1900
Florentino Ariza ,
Love in the Time of Cholera ,
Gabriel García Márquez ,
1985
George Follansbee Babbitt ,
Babbitt ,
Sinclair Lewis ,
1922
Christopher Tietjens ,
Parade's End ,
Ford Madox Ford ,
1924 –
1928
Frankie Addams ,
The Member of the Wedding ,
Carson McCullers ,
1946
The Dog of Tears ,
Blindness ,
José Saramago ,
1995
Tarzan ,
Tarzan of the Apes ,
Edgar Rice Burroughs ,
1914
Nathan Zuckerman ,
My Life As a Man ,
Philip Roth ,
1979
Arthur "Boo" Radley ,
To Kill A Mockingbird ,
Harper Lee ,
1960
Henry Chinaski ,
Post Office ,
Charles Bukowski ,
1971
Joseph K. ,
The Trial ,
Franz Kafka ,
1925
Yuri Zhivago ,
Dr. Zhivago ,
Boris Pasternak ,
1957
Harry Potter ,
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone ,
J.K. Rowling ,
1998
Hana ,
The English Patient ,
Michael Ondaatje ,
1992
Margaret Schlegel ,
Howards End ,
E.M. Forster ,
1910
Jim Dixon ,
Lucky Jim ,
Kingsley Amis ,
1954
Maurice Bendrix ,
The End of the Affair ,
Graham Greene ,
1951
Lennie Small ,
Of Mice and Men ,
John Steinbeck ,
1937
Mr. Biswas ,
A House for Mr. Biswas ,
V.S. Naipaul ,
1961
Alden Pyle ,
The Quiet American ,
Graham Greene ,
1955
Kimball "Kim" O'Hara ,
Kim ,
Rudyard Kipling ,
1901
Newland Archer ,
The Age of Innocence ,
Edith Wharton ,
1920
Clyde Griffiths ,
An American Tragedy ,
Theodore Dreiser ,
1925
Eeyore ,
Winnie-the-Pooh ,
A. A. Milne ,
1926
Quentin Compson ,
The Sound and the Fury ,
William Faulkner ,
1929
Charlie Marlow ,
Heart of Darkness ,
Joseph Conrad ,
1902
Celie ,
The Color Purple ,
Alice Walker ,
1982
Augie March ,
The Adventures of Augie March ,
Saul Bellow ,
1953
See also