With the rising popularity of communities like Booktok, it’s no wonder then there have been more and more people looking into some of the most famous characters in literary Canon. What are your interests born from one thing to find interesting characters to read about or simply because you’ve seen a lot of advertising about technologies that allow you to have free AI character chat you might be interested to learn about some of the most famous and best characters ever written. So, let’s take a look at our selection of some of the best characters from fiction. It’s important to note that this is only a small selection of characters as the number of amazing characters in literary fiction is impossible to count.
One of the best characters in literary fiction that is coming directly from the English literary Canon. We are of course talking about Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes is not only one of the best literary canon characters but it is also one of the most recognizable. Arthur Conan Doyle’s character has been adapted so many times that people recognize every single aspect of the character from its villains to his outfit. One of the best examples that justifies our pick for this character is that Not only is he still being referenced to this day, but he spawned the old genre of procedural police stories. Whether you enjoy CSI or old episodes of Columbo the reality is that they wouldn’t be what they are today without the stories of Sherlock Holmes. Whether you are a fan of The Hounds of Baskerville or the classic study in Scarlet you will see that there is so much to Sherlock Holmes that every single story is worth exploring.
Our next big is not a character but it is a cast of character rather. We are talking about the fellowship of the ring. From Gandalf to Aragorn order to Lord of Darkness himself Sauron the reality is that without the Lord of the Rings, we wouldn’t have any of the fantasy that we know now that is. It is very much a testament to how great the characters in those books are that even to this day many people who are starting their very first Dungeons and Dragons campaign will model their first character on one of the members of the Fellowship of the Ring. Whether you enjoy video games like World of Warcraft or tabletop games like Warhammer the reality is of course that fantasy is the way it is thanks to JRR Tolkien. The importance of those characters to any sort of fantasy world cannot be overstated.
Now let’s cross the ocean and look at a little bit of American literature. For many people, there is no debate that Cormac McCarthy is one of the best if not the Best Western author when it comes to writing Wild West stories. While the author himself would probably grant the title to Charles Portis who wrote True Grit. Despite that McCarthy’s book Blood Meridian remains one of the most haunting books to come out of the United States and his main character the judge must be one of the most frightening literary characters of Modern literature. Not only is he a profoundly evil man who encapsulates all of humanity’s disgusting and wrong sides he also cuts an impressive figure that even in the written form will stick with you probably forever. If you’ve never read Blood Meridian, you should avoid reading anything about it and go into it blind.
Now for something completely different let’s talk about comics. Why do many people consider him to be one of the most boring superheroes the reality is that he is a profoundly interesting character who has so much history behind him that to dismiss him like that is reckless. While you might be thinking of a bad man we’re talking about Clark Kent or Superman. For many people, the idea of a character just being a good person and always keeping hope can seem uninteresting, but the reality is that there is a real complexity to a character like this. The world is bleak enough for us to deprive ourselves of our Hopeful fiction. Having characters who believe in humanity and believe in the good that people can do is important since it is very easy to become cynical about the state of the world. Even when comics become bleak Superman always ends up being a shining beacon that allows us to remember that there is good in the world, and everybody can do good in the world if they work to do it.