Writers Are Readers, Too

The Independent (online edition) published "The 100 favourite fictional characters . . . as chosen by 100 literary luminaries" earlier this month in honor of World Book Day. Since The Independent is a British publication, the newspaper "asked the leading lights of British letters to name the characters who give them the greatest reading pleasure."

In the resulting list, each character is linked to the author who chose him/her/it, along with a brief rationale, such as

• "There is something appealing about a man who stows his stethoscope under his top hat. . . ." (said of Dr. Watson, chosen by Judith Kerr)
• "I can't pick just one, but at the Fictional People Awards Ceremony I hope they put me on a table with Mikhail Bulgakov's Devil and Robert Bolt's Thomas More, for their erudition and conversation. The Cheshire Cat would be welcome for his humour and his knack with practical metaphysics. Finally, Madame Bovary should fumble her way to our table, flushed-looking and late, to dish some dirt on the judges." (chosen by David Mitchell)
• "For the charm of his intelligence, the quickness of his wit, the brilliance of his mimicry, the fastidiousness of his temperament, the soundness of his judgement, the excellence of his literary criticism, for his loathing of the world's opinion." (said of Hamlet, chosen by Howard Jacobson)
• "Morgan le Fay is my dream girl, Odysseus my hero guy, but the character I've really loved is Dr Seuss's the Cat in The Hat: a total anarchist getting away with it. Torturing the sanctimonious fish appealed, too." (chosen by Peter Florence)

The list is appealing and entertaining; see the whole thing at The Independent.