A Room with a View is a captivating read, and the truth is, it kept me up at night. That's right. After I'd turned out the light and tried to go to sleep, my brain kept returning to the book. In that weird space between sleep and wakefulness, my mind invented articles and analysis about the book, and my dream-self read them all. Up to and including an article all about how George Emerson showed several signs of autism. Let me remind you, I MADE THE WHOLE THING UP. The human mind is an amazing--and often frightening (if you're talking about mine)--thing.
After reading this book, I have to admit that George Emerson has climbed onto my list of literary boyfriends. Oh, did you want to see that?
MY TOP FIVE BOYFRIENDS IN LITERATURE
5. Atticus Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird
I do love a man who can argue. And who is just. And who treats everyone fairly. One of the greatest lines in literature: "Stand up, Miss Jean Louise. Your father's passing."
(He's not in the top three because he shot that dog.)
4. Joe Morelli, the Stephanie Plum novels
Lots of people make a big deal about Ranger, but he's not for me. I don't go for that bad-boy thing, or the man-with-a-past thing, or the he's-so-mysterious thing. That's why I prefer Joe, because he doesn't mess around; he just tells it like it is. I realize Evanovich had to draw out the tension in the whole Ranger-Stephanie-Morelli triangle, but I think it's obvious who Stephanie belongs with.
3. Henry Tilney, Northanger Abbey
Most women, I think, would choose Mr. Darcy out of all of Austen's heroes, but I choose Henry, the only one who starts out as an honestly nice guy. There's no cold demeanor, and he doesn't do that whole schoolmaster thing, like he's trying to teach her a lesson. He's just a nice guy with a great sense of humor.
2. George Emerson, A Room with a View
He's not into playing games; he knows what he wants and he goes after it. He respects women, he loves his dad, and he's not ashamed to show his feelings.
1. Gilbert Blythe, Anne of Green Gables, etc.
I loved him from the first time he grabbed Anne's braid and hissed, "Carrots!"
(You can read my review of A Room with a View here).
Ms. Mei Flower
- Mei
- I'm a spinster schoolmarm with a degree in English; I watch artsy movies about British people; I knit while watching the History Channel; I listen to NPR in the car; I eat frozen dinners on the couch. Is that stereotypical enough for you? No? Well, then ... and I have a cat.
Reading
2 comments:
I've never read the Stephanie Plum novels...should I? I'm always looking for other terrific authors to satisfy my insatiable fiction hunger.
OK, my boyfriends in books...well, it doesn't make a lot of sense (he was actually kind of a jerk), but Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. I guess that was my first realization that "bad boys" can be attractive.
Also a jerk (until love mellowed him out and made him charming), but I still had a crush on, was Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice.
Those are the first that come to my mind...
I like Stephanie Plum. She's funny and she is a TERRIBLE bounty hunter. The first in the series (One for the Money) is kind of gritty, but it's a good test of whether or not you'll like the rest.
re: Heathcliff
I hate that book. I'd always heard it was one of the greatest love stories of all time, and I didn't think anyone in the book showed any kind of love at all. So that's why Heathcliff is on another list: Biggest Jerks in Literature :)
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