“Book” magazine gathered more than fifty writers, editors, publishers, actors, critics, and academics to come up with a list of the best fictional characters in the 20th century. This was the result. See the March/April 2002 issue for the complete article.

1. Jay Gatsby, in The great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925

2. Holden Caulfield, in The catcher in the rye by J.D. Salinger, 1951

3. Humbert Humbert, in Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, 1955

4. Leopold Bloom, in Ulysses by James Joyce, 1922

5. Rabbit Angstrom, in Rabbit, run by John Updike, 1960

6. Sherlock Holmes, in The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1902

7. Atticus Finch, in To kill a mockingbird by Harper Lee, 1960

8. Molly Bloom, in Ulysses by James Joyce, 1922

9. Stephen Daedelus, in A portrait of the artist as a young man by James Joyce, 1916

10. Lily Bart, in The house of mirth by Edith Wharton, 1905

11. Holly Golightly, in Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote, 1958

12. Gregor Samsa, in The metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, 1915

13. The invisible man, in Invisible man by Ralph Ellison, 1952

14. Lolita, in Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, 1955

15. Aureliano Buendia, in One hundred years of solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1967

16. Clarissa Dalloway, in Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, 1925

17. Ignatius Reilly, in A confederacy of dunces by John Kennedy Toole, 1980

18. George Smiley, in Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy by John Le Carre, 1974

19. Mrs. Ramsay, in To the lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, 1927

20. Bigger Thomas, in Native son by Richard Wright, 1940

21. Nick Adams, in In our time by Ernest Hemingway, 1925

22. Yossarian, in Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, 1961

23. Scarlett O’Hara, in Gone with the wind by Margaret Mitchell, 1936

24. Scout Finch, in To kill a mockingbird by Harper Lee, 1960

25. Philip Marlowe, in The big sleep by Raymond Chandler, 1939

26. Kurtz, in Heart of darkness by Joseph Conrad, 1902

27. Stevens, in The remains of the day by Kazuo Ishiguro, 1989

28. Cosimo Piovasco di Rondo, in The baron in the trees by Italo Calvino, 1957

29. Winnie the Pooh, in Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne, 1926

30. Oscar Matzerath, in The tin drum by Gunter Grass, 1959

31. Hazel Motes, in Wise blood by Flannery O’Connor, 1952

32. Alex Portnoy, in Portnoy’s complaint by Philip Roth, 1969

33. Binx Bolling, in The moviegoer by Walker Percy, 1961

34. Sebastian Flyte, in Brideshead revisited by Evelyn Waugh, 1945

35. Jeeves, in My man Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse, 1919

36. Eugene Henderson, in Henderson the rain king by Saul Bellow, 1959

37. Marcel, in Remembrance of things past by Marcel Proust, 1913-1927

38. Toad, in The wind in the willows by Kenneth Grahame, 1908

39. The cat in the hat, in The cat in the hat by Dr. Seuss, 1955

40. Peter Pan, in The little white bird by J.M. Barrie, 1902

41. Augustus McCrae, in The lonesome dove by Larry McMurtry, 1985

42. Sam Spade, in The Maltese falcon by Dashiell Hammett, 1930

43. Judge Holden, in Blood meridian by Cormac McCarthy, 1985

44. Willie Stark, in All the king’s men by Robert Penn Warren, 1946

45. Stephen Maturin, in Master and commander by Patrick O’Brian, 1969

46. The little prince, in The little prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, 1943

47. Santiago, in The old man and the sea by Ernest Hemingway, 1952

48. Jean Brodie, in The prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark, 1961

49. The whiskey priest, in The power and the glory by Graham Greene, 1940

50. Neddy Merrill, in The swimmer by John Cheever, 1964

51. Sula Peace, in Sula by Toni Morrison, 1973

52. Meursault, in The stranger by Albert Camus, 1942

53. Jake Barnes, in The sun also rises by Ernest Hemingway, 1926

54. Phoebe Caulfield, in The catcher in the rye by J.D. Salinger, 1951

55. Janie Crawford, in Their eyes were watching god by Zora Neale Hurston

56. Antonia Shimerda, in My Antonia by Willa Cather, 1918

57. Grendel, in Grendel by John Gardner, 1971

58. Gulley Jimson, in The horse’s mouth by Joyce Cary, 1944

59. Big Brother, in 1984 by George Orwell, 1949

60. Tom Ripley, in The talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith, 1955

61. Seymour Glass, in Nine stories by J.D. Salinger, 1953

62. Dean Moriarty, in On the road by Jack Kerouac, 1957

63. Charlotte, in Charlotte’s web by E.B. White, 1952

64. T.S. Garp, in The world according to Garp by John Irving, 1978

65. Nick and Nora Charles, in The thin man by Dashiell Hammett, 1934

66. James Bond, in Casino Royale by Ian Fleming, 1953

67. Mr. Bridge, in Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell, 1959

68. Geoffrey Firmin, in Under the volcano by Malcolm Lowry, 1947

69. Benjy, in The sound and the fury by William Faulkner, 1929

70. Charles Kinbote, in Pale fire by Vladimir Nabokov, 1962

71. Mary Katherine Blackwood, in We have always lived in the castle Shirley Jackson, 1962

72. Charles Ryder, in Brideshead revisited by Evelyn Waugh, 1945

73. Claudine, in Claudine at school by Colette, 1900

74. Florentino Ariza, in Love in the time of cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1985

75. George Follansbee Babbitt, in Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis, 1922

76. Christopher Tietjens, in Parade’s end by Ford Madox Ford, 1924-1928

77. Frankie Addams, in The member of the wedding by Carson McCullers, 1946

78. The dog of tears, in Blindness by Jose Saramago, 1995

79. Tarzan, in Tarzan of the apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs

80. Nathan Zuckerman, in My life as a man by Philip Roth, 1979

81. Arthur “Boo” Radley, in To kill a mockingbird by Harper Lee, 1960

82. Henry Chinaski, in Post Office by Charles Bukowski, 1971

83. Joseph K., in The trial by Franz Kafka, 1925

84. Yuri Zhivago, in Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, 1957

85. Harry Potter, in Harry Potter and the sorcerer’s stone by J.K. Rowling, 1998

86. Hana, in The English patient by Michael Ondaatje, 1992

87. Margaret Schlegel, in Howards End by E.M. Forster, 1910

88. Jim Dixon, in Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis, 1954

89. Maurice Bendrix, in The end of the affair by Graham Greene, 1955

90. Lennie Small, in Of mice and men by John Steinbeck, 1937

91. Mr. Biswas, in A house for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul, 1961

92. Alden Pyle, in The quiet American by Graham Greene, 1955

93. Kimball “Kim” O’Hara, in Kim by Rudyard Kipling, 1901

94. Newland Archer, in The age of innocence by Edith Wharton, 1920

95. Clyde Griffiths, in An American tragedy by Theodore Dreiser, 1925

96. Eeyore, in Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne, 1926

97. Quentin Compson, in The sound and the fury by William Faulkner, 1929

98. Charlie Marlow, in Heart of darkness by Joseph Conrad, 1902

99. Celie, in The color purple by Alice Walker, 1982

100. Augie March, in The adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow, 1953

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