Awesome Female Characters in Literature (1 Viewer)

WTF!bbq

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Ok, partly for inspiration for EE2 but mainly out of my own strange interests, have any of you read books with a particular female character who was stunningly well-written and absolutely fall-in-love-with-able? (Not cutesy lovable, more "IT'S ALIVE" lovable cause she seems like a real human being.)

I'm asking because I so often find that while male characters tend to be basically cool and believable and all that, their female counterparts are presented in a rather "meh" way. My own sexist bias? The effect of the corporate patriarchy on literature? Am I just going crazy? Whatever, I'm just hungry for more alive women.

For instance, three characters I am in love with:
  • The redhead Irish Catholic commie woman in The Pledge by Howard Fast (read it a long time ago, can't be bothered to look up her name again). She was the first one to make me realise how sub-par other female characters are.
  • Marla Singer, in both the novel and movie versions of Fight Club. But sort of for different reasons, and the book was cooler anyway.
  • (doesn't really count, but...) the girl RHCP sing about in She's Only 18. I want her and I can't have her because she's not real :(
Yes, I am a straight female. But damn, what is it about these ladies?

Do share. :D

EDIT: Forgot to mention, Sarah Woodruff from The French Lieutenant's Woman is also pretty cool, except for the ending.
 
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T

trolloutaface

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cathy from 'Flowers in the attic'
hermione granger from 'Harry Potter'.

:k
 

nichhhole

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WTF!bbq said:
Ok, partly for inspiration for EE2 but mainly out of my own strange interests, have any of you read books with a particular female character who was stunningly well-written and absolutely fall-in-love-with-able? (Not cutesy lovable, more "IT'S ALIVE" lovable cause she seems like a real human being.)

I'm asking because I so often find that while male characters tend to be basically cool and believable and all that, their female counterparts are presented in a rather "meh" way. My own sexist bias? The effect of the corporate patriarchy on literature? Am I just going crazy? Whatever, I'm just hungry for more alive women.

For instance, three characters I am in love with:
  • The redhead Irish Catholic commie woman in The Pledge by Howard Fast (read it a long time ago, can't be bothered to look up her name again). She was the first one to make me realise how sub-par other female characters are.
  • Marla Singer, in both the novel and movie versions of Fight Club. But sort of for different reasons, and the book was cooler anyway.
  • (doesn't really count, but...) the girl RHCP sing about in She's Only 18. I want her and I can't have her because she's not real :(
Yes, I am a straight female. But damn, what is it about these ladies?

Do share. :D

EDIT: Forgot to mention, Sarah Woodruff from The French Lieutenant's Woman is also pretty cool, except for the ending.
hahha.
um...
it's not non-fiction.. [or whatever it is.. i always forget.. itsthe real/non made up one..]
have alook at leni Riefenstahl..
we're studying her for Modern..
she thins every man was in love with her.. [inclu. Hitler..]
and we did cool things like go deep sea diving at 90
etc..
have a look at her memoirs..
she's tres controversial....


and as for fcitional characters

um...
the lead in Kate Chopin's, 'the awakening..'
but she ends up killing herself...
 
T

trolloutaface

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nichhhole said:
hahha.
um...
it's not non-fiction.. [or whatever it is.. i always forget.. itsthe real/non made up one..]
have alook at leni Riefenstahl..
we're studying her for Modern..
she thins every man was in love with her.. [inclu. Hitler..]
and we did cool things like go deep sea diving at 90
etc..
have a look at her memoirs..
she's tres controversial....


and as for fcitional characters

um...
the lead in Kate Chopin's, 'the awakening..'
but she ends up killing herself...
I heart the way you type :)
 

jb_nc

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Emma Woodhouse? Ms Bennet? Juliet? Katherine from Taming of the Shrew?

Comedy modernist option: Diane from Trainspotting. Lolita from Nabokov's Lolita; that book is very well written.

There aren't many 'femmes fatales' in the English Canon really, besides Austen, literature was very much male driven.
 

Davriel

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Let me see....

Polgara - The Belgariad, Mallorean (and others)

Ce'Nedra - The Belgariad/Mallorean

Zandramas - The Mallorean

Liselle/Velvet - The Mallorean

Mirtai - The Tamuli

Joan Eunice Smith - I Will Fear No Evil

Azhure - Axis Trilogy
 

FerengCheng

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Lyra Silvertongue- His Dark Materials Trilogy
Thirrin Freer- Icemark Chronicles
Alice/ Lyssa- Greylands
Hester- Hungry City Chronicles
 

kony

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Davriel said:
Let me see....

Polgara - The Belgariad, Mallorean (and others)

Ce'Nedra - The Belgariad/Mallorean

Zandramas - The Mallorean

Liselle/Velvet - The Mallorean

Mirtai - The Tamuli

Joan Eunice Smith - I Will Fear No Evil

Azhure - Axis Trilogy
yay an Eddings fan.

I'm going to say Caswell's Merryll from Merryll of the Stones.
 

dead cactus

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phryne fisher from the kerry greenwood series based on her. she's a detective in mellbourne in the 1920s, she's smart, sexy, stylish and has sex with lots of beautifull men. fantastic stuff!
 

pinkly

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  • Maud Lilly from Fingersmith
  • Jasmine from Deltora Quest
  • Jessica from Bryce Courtenay's Jessica
 

jazzmuzik

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Josephine Alibrandi Looking For Alibrandi
The female Narrator of Rebeccaby Daphne Du Maurier. (no her name is not Rebecca)
The Handmaid/ narrator in The Handmaid's Tale. (her name is secret...)
 

nichhhole

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FerengCheng said:
Lyra Silvertongue- His Dark Materials Trilogy
Thirrin Freer- Icemark Chronicles
Alice/ Lyssa- Greylands
Hester- Hungry City Chronicles

haha yeah she's good..
but she's also young :|!

12 or something in the book?

and as for someone else's suggestion for Lollita.....
that would be a hoot!

come to think of it..
it could be quite good, [as it would be so daring..
 

WTF!bbq

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Thanks dudes, these are awesome. I just thought I'd throw in another one that I remember from way back: Lilian's Story by Kate Grenville. I would have been in year 7 when I got a hold of that book (much to the horror of my mother) and it filled my mind with all sorts of odd things. Lilian was another one of those super-real characters, mainly in the way she observed her world rather than how she was portrayed within the text. (I think.) I misplaced that book a few years ago, and I miss it dearly. :(

I haven't read anything else by Kate Grenville but I intend to, and hope it's as good as Lilian's Story.
 
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jhakka

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Julia in Nineteen Eighty-Four (George Orwell)
Shilly in The Books of the Change and Books of the Cataclysm (Sean Williams)
Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
Clarice Starling in the Hannibal Lecter books (Thomas Harris)
Ellie in The Tomorrow Series and The Ellie Chronicles (John Marsden)

And so on. :)
 

kami

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Odrade from Heretics of Dune (Frank Herbert)
Jill from A Monkey's Mask (Dorothy Porter)
Bellis Coldwine from The Scar (China Mieville)
 

WTF!bbq

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jhakka said:
Ellie in The Tomorrow Series and The Ellie Chronicles (John Marsden)
Ah, good old Ellie. Am I a girlygirl if I got a tear in my eye when I finished Circle Of Flight cause I knew I'd never again hear Ellie's voice telling me new things?
 

lengy

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The chick in Tales Of The Otori series by Lian Hearn ( Nightgale Floor, Grass For His Pillow etc. )
The chick in Sword Of Truth series by Terry Goodkind
 

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