The 100 Best Characters in Fiction Since 1900


According to Book magazine, March/April 2002

Call numbers refer to the Browning Library


1 Jay Gatsby The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald 1925, PS 3511.I9 G7 1987
2 Holden Caulfield The Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger 1951, PS 3537 .A426 C3 1951
3 Humbert Humbert Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 1955, 891.742 L837
4 Leopold Bloom Ulysses James Joyce 1922, 823.94 U47g
5 Rabbit Angstrom Rabbit, Run John Updike 1960, 813.5 U66r
6 Sherlock Holmes The Hound of the Baskervilles Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 1902, 808.837 D772h
7 Atticus Finch To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee 1960, PS 3562 .E353 T6 1986
8 Molly Bloom Ulysses James Joyce 1922, 823.94 U47g
9 Stephen Dedalus Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce 1916, 823.94 P853
10 Lily Bart The House of Mirth Edith Wharton 1905, PS 3545 .H16 H68 1981
11 Holly Golightly Breakfast at Tiffany's Truman Capote 1958, 813.5 C246b
12 Gregor Samsa The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka 1915, PT 2621 .A26 V428 1988
13 The Invisible Man Invisible Man Ralph Ellison 1952, 813.5 EL59
14 Lolita Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 1955, 891.742 L837
15 Aureliano Buendia One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez 1967, 863 G216o
16 Clarissa Dalloway Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf 1925, 823.912 W9135m
17 Ignatius Reilly A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole 1980, 813.5 T618c
18 George Smiley Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy John LeCarre 1974, 823.914 L494t
19 Mrs. Ramsay To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf 1927, 823.912 W9135t
20 Bigger Thomas Native Son Richard Wright 1940, 813.5 W952n
21 Nick Adams In Our Time Ernest Hemingway 1925, PS 3515 .E37 I5 1990
22 Yossarian Catch-22 Joseph Heller 1961, 813.5 H367c
23 Scarlett O'Hara Gone With the Wind Margaret Mitchell 1936, 813.5 M682g
24 Scout Finch To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee 1960, PS 3562 .E353 T6 1986
25 Philip Marlow The Big Sleep Raymond Chandler 1939
26 Kurtz Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad 1902, 823.93 H351Xd
27 Stevens The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro 1989, 823.914 Is3r
28 Cosimo Piovasco di Rondo The Baron in the Trees Italo Calvino 1957
29 Winnie the Pooh Winnie the Pooh A. A. Milne 1926, Fic M659w
30 Oskar Matzerath The Tin Drum Gunter Grass 1959, 833.914 G769t
31 Hazel Motes Wise Blood Flannery O'Connor 1952, 813.5 O184w
32 Alex Portnoy Portnoy's Complaint Philip Roth 1969, 813.5 R742p
33 Binx Bolling The Moviegoer Walker Percy 1961, 813.5 P412m
34 Sebastian Flyte Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh 1945, 823.912 W357br
35 Jeeves My Man Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse 1919, 823.914 W817s
36 Eugene Henderson Henderson the Rain King Saul Bellow 1959, 813.5 B448h
37 Marcel Remembrance of Things Past Marcel Proust 1913, 843.928 Sco85
38 Toad The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame 1908, Fic G742w
39 The Cat in the Hat The Cat in the Hat Dr. Seuss 1955, Pic S496c
40 Peter Pan The Little White Bird J. M. Barrie 1902, PR 4074 .P47 1992
41 Augustus McCrae Lonesome Dove Larry McMurtry 1985, 813.5 M229Lo
42 Sam Spade The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett 1930, 813.5 H224m
43 Judge Holden Blood Meridian Cormac McCarthy 1985, PS 3563 .C337 B4 2001
44 Willie Stark All the King's Men Robert Penn Warren 1946, 813.5 W292a
45 Stephen Maturin Master and Commander Patrick O'Brian 1969, 823.914 Ob6m
46 The Little Prince The Little Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupery 1943, Fic S137L
47 Santiago The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway 1952, 813.55 O44
48 Jean Brodie The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Muriel Spark 1961, 823.914 Sp26p
49 The Whiskey Priest The Power and the Glory Graham Greene, 1940 823.914 G832p
50 Neddy Merrill The Swimmer John Cheever 1964, 813.5 C515s
51 Sula Peace Sula Toni Morrison 1974, Audio PS 3563 .O8749 S8
52 Meursault The Stranger Albert Camus 1942, 843.95 St81g
53 Jake Barnes The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway 1926, PS 3515 .E37 S8 1990b
54 Phoebe Caulfield The Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger 1951, PS 3537 .A426 C3 1951
55 Janie Crawford Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston 1937, PS 3515 .U789 T5 1998
56 Antonia Shimerda My Antonia Willa Cather 1918, 813.5 C3635m
57 Grendel Grendel John Gardner 1971, 813.5 G174g
58 Gulley Jimson The Horse's Mouth Joyce Cary 1944, 823.91 C3325h
59 Big Brother 1984 George Orwell 1949, 823.912 Or9ni
60 Tom Ripley The Talented Mr. Ripley Patricia Highsmith 1955, PN 1997 .T29 1999
61 Seymour Glass Nine Stories J. D. Salinger 1953, 813.5 S1655n
62 Dean Moriarty On the Road Jack Kerouac 1957, 813.5 K459o
63 Charlotte Charlotte's Web E. B. White 1952, Fiction W5836c
64 T. S. Garp The World According to Garp John Irving 1978, 813.5 I72w
65 Nick and Nora Charles The Thin Man Dashiell Hammett 1934
66 James Bond You Only Live Twice Ian Fleming 1953, PR 6056 .L4 Y6 1964c
67 Mr. Bridge Mrs. Bridge Evan S. Connell 1959, 813.5 C752m
68 Geoffrey Firmin Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry 1947, 823.914 L955un
69 Benjy The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner 1929
70 Charles Kinbote Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov 1962, 891.742 P174
71 Mary Katherine Blackwood We Have Always Lived in the Castle Shirley Jackson 1962, 813.5 J138
72 Charles Ryder Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh 1945, 823.912 W357br
73 Claudine Claudine at School Colette 1900
74 Florentino Ariza Love in the Time of Cholera Gabriel Garcia Marquez 1985, 863 G216L
75 George Follansbee Babbitt Babbitt Sinclair Lewis 1922, 813.5 L676ma
76 Christopher Tietjens Parade's End Ford Madox Ford 1924, 823.96 P211
77 Frankie Addams The Member of the Wedding Carson McCullers 1946, PS 3525 .A1772 M5 1965
78 The Dog of Tears Blindness Jose Saramago 1995
79 Tarzan Tarzan of the Apes Edgar Rice Burroughs 1914, 813.5 B972t
80 Nathan Zuckerman My Life As a Man Philip Roth 1979, 813.5 R742m
81 Arthur "Boo" Radley To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee 1960, PS 3562 .E353 T6 1986
82 Henry Chinaski Post Office Charles Bukowski 1971
83 Joseph K. The Trial Franz Kafka 1925, 833.901 T73Xb
84 Yuri Zhivago Doctor Zhivago Boris Pasternak 1957, PG 3476 .P27 D613 1986
85 Harry Potter Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone J. K. Rowling 1998, Fiction R8847ha
86 Hana The English Patient Michael Ondaatje 1992, 813.5 O585e
87 Margaret Schlegel Howards End E.M. Forster 1910, 823.91 F7335h
88 Jim Dixon Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis 1954
89 Maurice Bendrix The End of the Affair Graham Greene 1951
90 Lennie Small Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck 1937, PS 3537 .T3234 O2 1965
91 Mr. Biswas A House for Mr. Biswas V. S. Naipaul 1961
92 Alden Pyle The Quiet American Graham Greene 1955 823.914 G832q
93 Kimball "Kim" O'Hara Kim Rudyard Kipling 1901, 823.92 K49
94 Newland Archer The Age of Innocence Edith Wharton 1920, 813.5 W555ag
95 Clyde Griffiths An American Tragedy Theodore Dreiser 1925, 813.5 D814a
96 Eyeore Winnie the Pooh A. A. Milne 1926, Fic M659w
97 Quentin Compson The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner 1929, 813.54 So84
98 Charlie Marlow Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad 1902, 823.93 H351Xd
99 Celie The Color Purple Alice Walker 1982, PS 3573 .A425 C6 1992
100 Augie March The Adventures of Augie March Saul Bellow 1953, 813.5 B448a