Some of the most influential and interesting people in the world
are fictional. Sherlock Holmes, Huck Finn, Pinocchio, Anna
Karenina, Genji, and Superman, to name a few, may not have walked
the Earth (or flown, in Superman's case), but they certainly stride
through our lives. They influence us personally: as childhood
friends, catalysts to our dreams, or even fantasy lovers. Peruvian
author and presidential candidate Mario Vargas Llosa, for one,
confessed to a lifelong passion for Flaubert's Madame Bovary.
Characters can change the world. Witness the impact of
Solzhenitsyn's Ivan Denisovich, in exposing the conditions of the
Soviet Gulag, or Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom, in arousing
anti-slavery feeling in America. Words such as quixotic, oedipal,
and herculean show how fictional characters permeate our language.
This list of the Fictional 100 ranks the most influential
fictional persons in world literature and legend, from all time
periods and from all over the world, ranging from Shakespeare's
Hamlet 1] to Toni Morrison's Beloved 100]. By tracing characters'
varied incarnations in literature, art, music, and film, we gain a
sense of their shape-shifting potential in the culture at large.
Although not of flesh and blood, fictional characters have a life
and history of their own. Meet these diverse and fascinating
people. From the brash Hercules to the troubled Holden Caulfield,
from the menacing plots of Medea to the misguided schemes of Don
Quixote, The Fictional 100 runs the gamut of heroes and villains,
young and old, saints and sinners. Ponder them, fall in love with
them, learn from their stories the varieties of human
experience--let them live in you.
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