The 100 Greatest Literary Characters

From Captain Ahab to Yuri Zhivago, discover the most remarkable characters in fiction.

Huckleberry Finn, Anna Karenina, Harry Potter, Hester Prynne . . . these are just a handful of remarkable characters found in literature, but of course the list is virtually endless! But why ponder which of these creations are the greatest? More than just a topic to debate with friends, the greatest characters from fiction help readers comprehend history, culture, politics, and even their own place in today’s world. Despite our reliance on television, film, and technology, it is literature’s great characters that create and reinforce popular culture, informing us again and again about society and ourselves.

In The 100 Greatest Literary Characters, James Plath, Gail Sinclair, and Kirk Curnutt identify the most significant figures in fiction published over the past several centuries. The characters profiled here represent a wide array of storytelling, and the authors explore the significance of the figures at the time they were created as well as their relevance today. Included in this volume are characters from literature produced around the world, such as Aladdin, James Bond, Holden Caulfield, Jay Gatsby, Hercule Poirot, Don Quixote, Lisbeth Salander, Ebenezer Scrooge, Jean Valjean, and John Yossarian.

Readerswill find their beloved literary figures, learn about forgotten gems, or discover deserving choices pulled from history’s dustbin. Providing insights into how literature shapes and molds culture via these fabricated figures, The 100 Greatest Literary Characters will appeal to literature lovers around the globe.

James Plath is R. Forrest Colwell Chair of English at Illinois Wesleyan University, and the author of six books, most recently John Updike’s Pennsylvania Interviews (2017). Gail Sinclair is scholar-in-residence and executive director of the Winter Park Institute at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. She is the coauthor of Key West Hemingway: A Reassessment (2009). Kirk Curnutt is the chair and professor of English at Troy University in Troy, Alabama. He is the author or coauthor of 17 books, among them Understanding Gay Talese (2019) and William Faulkner (2017).