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Saturday, September 11, 2021

Favourite Female Characters in Literature from the Last 10 Years of Reading

I recently finished ‘A Town Like Alice’ (review in around 5 weeks) and not only loved it but became very impressed by the main female character Jean Paget. I couldn’t help but think about all of the other great female characters I’ve discovered in other books over the years so started to put together a ‘Top 10’. Needless to say, looking below, this grew beyond 10 fairly quickly so I restricted it to the last 10 years of Blog reviews. Some of the characters have become famous in their own rights whilst others are obscure characters from equally obscure books but, for me at least, stood out in some way or other. So, here they are – in no particular order:

Jean Paget – A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute

Elizabeth Bennett – Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

Anne Elliott – Persuasion by Jane Austen

Mara Carlyle – Spontaneous by Aaron Starmer

Jean Louise Finch (AKA ‘Scout’) - To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Clarissa Oakes - Clarissa Oakes by Patrick O’Brian

Claire Abshire - The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Berenice Charlotte de Mornay-Perigord, former vicomtesse de Laval - The Rising by Ian Tregillis

Sarah Fry - Sharpe’s Escape by Bernard Cornwell

Andy (Andrea) Rodriguez - Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

Mary Boulton - The Outlander by Gil Adamson

Georgia Mason - Feed by Mira Grant

Tomisen (Tomi) Harkaway - The Last by Hanna Jameson

Irene Sauvelle - The Watcher in the Shadows by Carlos Ruiz Zafo

Miss Jane Marple – Various by Agatha Christie

Helen Ambrose - The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf

Ms Michael Tree - Deadly Beloved by Max Allan Collins

Madame Defarge - A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Lacey Flint - A Dark and Twisted Tide by Sharon Bolton

‘Skeeter’ Phelan - The Help by Kathryn Stockett

‘Reno’ - The Flame Throwers by Rachel Kushner

Martha Andersson - The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules by Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg

Mathilde Donnay - A Very Long Engagement by Sebastien Japrisot

Anna-Maria Mella - The Blood Spilt by Asa Larsson

Jane Eyre - Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Mina Harker - Dracula by Bram Stoker

Lea Prism - Prodigal by Marc D Giller

Rae "Sunshine" Seddon - Sunshine by Robin McKinley

5 comments:

mudpuddle said...

how do you keep track of all that?

Helen said...

I love some of those characters too, particularly Anne Elliot, Scout Finch and Lacey Flint. I'm slowly working through the Patrick O'Brian series but haven't met Clarissa Oakes yet!

CyberKitten said...

@ Mudpuddle: I just went back on my Blog checking the last 10 years of posts. Plus I handily left myself clues in my reviews which jogged my memory when I needed it. Nothing too onerous or skillful!

@ Helen: I've always thought Anne Elliott was very underrated. I was very impressed by her (although my favourite Austen is sill Lizzie Bennett).... Clarissa Oaks is the 15th book in the Aubrey & Maturin series.

I'll do my favourite Male characters in a few weeks.

James said...

Some of my favorite female characters are on your impressive list. I would highlight Jane Eyre, Anne Elliott, and Mathilde Donnay in particular.

CyberKitten said...

@ James: Thanks. There'a a lot of impressive female characters out there - written by both male & female authors too.