Booking Through Thursday question from Ted (via Deb):
Have you ever fallen in love with a fictional character?
Who and what about them did you love?
Laughing a little at this question… I think that back in my pre-teens and teens I sort of did, occasionally. Not so much lately ;) - not in that truly (hm!) “romantic” sense; although I do still very much enjoy whenever I come across a well-written, pleasant and interesting fictional character.
Skipping over some possible childhood/early teens infatuations, I think one of my more long-lasting bookish romances may have been Lord Peter Wimsey (Dorothy Sayer’s gentleman detective). Handsome, clever, polite, rich… What more does a girl want? LOL
Ian Carmichael as Lord Peter Wimsey, image from dvdtalk.com.
Now look what you just made me do! Still not able to find the classic TV-series on DVD at any of the online stores I usually buy from – but I just went and ordered a set of BBC radio dramas on audio-cd instead! (I know I enjoyed two or three of those on loan from the library on cassettes in the past.)
Yes, my mind traipsed backwards, since I rarely have those feelings about characters nowadays...lol
ReplyDeleteHere's MY THURSDAY MEMES POST
I have never heard of that character or read the book. But looks kind of old to me...and definitely rich (LOL!).
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by my blog!
Ah, age is such a relative thing in the longer perspective! ;) The books were written between 1923-1937. The TV-series starring Ian Carmichael from 1972-75 according to Wiki. (Maybe to attract new readers to old books I should have left out the picture!)
ReplyDeleteI don't know this character, is that is wife's tombstone he's standing in front of? As a teenager, I read probably hundreds of gothics, and also the period pieces set in 1800's England, all so romantic!
ReplyDeleteI loved Ian Carmichael as Peter Wimsey! So much more interesting than the way Edward Petheridge played him in the early 1990's, dontcha know, and Bunter was terrific.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reminding me about him. Haven't thought about Wimsey in ages, though at one time I read every single one of the books.
CC, I'm glad to see someone remembers Lord Peter! - and Ian Carmichael. I don't think we got the Edward Petheridge version here in Sweden (?)
DeleteI'm afraid i don't know this character, 1972 was before my time but i will look him up. :)
ReplyDeleteI too recall Peter Wimsey well. I think I worked my way through all the Dorothy L Sayers about the same time as I had my Agatha Christie phase, in my late teens. I never saw the TV series but can imagine Ian Carmichael would play him well.
ReplyDeleteYes John that would be when I first read her books too; and also in my late teens when that TV series was first broadcasted.
DeleteLord Peter is one of my favorites, too. Not someone I'd fall in love with, but I do adore the books.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to have to look him up! Yum. Actually, in looks, he reminds me of a real person - a lovely doctor - a locum to my own (they swapped houses for six months). And he was/is still yummy.
ReplyDeleteAt different times I have fallen for dozens: Zeke (Tour of Duty), Stephen Maturin (Patrick O'Brien series), Sam Vimes (Night Watch), Frank Farmer (The Bodyguard), Jim Bergerac (Bergerac), Eugene Wrayburn (Our Mutual Friend), Arthur Hogget (Babe) and of course Lord Fitzwilliam Darcy (Pride and Prejudice), to name but a few!
Not really familiar with most of those, Katherine, except Darcy (a common enough crush I imagine!) and Sam Vimes... As much as I'm fond of Sam though I think I can honestly say I never had a romantic crush on him! (Btw I'm listening to "Snuff" right now which I believe is the latest about Sam.)
DeleteI didn't answer the second part: It seems the thing I like most about each of the characters is that they each have something they are almost obsessively passionate about. Additionally, they are all very confident, but tempered with an occasional, natural, human doubt, that allows one to see them as real, three-dimensional characters. And of course it doesn't hurt that most of them have been played by good-looking actors!
ReplyDeleteThat's one of the things I love about you Katherine: a really considered complex reason and then the realistic and slightly humourous after-comment.
DeleteI think this is one of the most challenging questions I've seen posed on BTT. I often pass no comment on your BTT posts but I decided when I first read this that I'd consider it because it's a subject which has been close to my heart most of my life - falling in love that is - until I arrived at 60 and saw the light. The post has been on my browser since it was posted and though I keep coming back to it I still can't answer it. Why? I'm sure that I could come up with lots of names but the problem is the reasons. I seem to fall for women in novels with two very distinct characteristics: those who are vulnerable and whom I could protect and those who are strong and whom I could admire (they all have to be kind and considerate though). So no answer there then. I'm off to have my breakfast.
ReplyDeleteNow you have me intrigued as to which heroines you'd place in which category, and whether there are any that fall in between!
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