The contestants are getting ready for their duels to the death (not really, just championship) and you, dear readers, should be getting ready to defend them!
We have classified them as Olds vs. Youngs for now (Team Youngs!), and we’ll be cutting down to the final 64 in the coming weeks.
Adult
Fantasy:
Susan Sto Helit, Esmerelda Weatherwax, Gytha Ogg, Adora Belle Dearheart, Sacharissa Cripslock, Sybil Vimes, Angua, Cheery Littlebottom. All from Terry Pratchett.
Anathema Device from Good Omens
Karin Murphy, Molly Canpenter and Charity Carpenter from The Dresden Files
Janelle from Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels series
Morgaine and Viviane from The Mists of Avalon
Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series
Liath from Kate Elliot’s Crown of Stars books
Nynaeve, Egwene, Aviendha, and Elayne from the Wheel of Time series
Rachel Morgan from the Hollows series
Tarma and Kethry, Kerowyn, and Elspeth from Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar books
Harry from The Blue Sword
Jenna/Skada from Jane Yolen’s Sister Light Sister Dark trilogy
Phedre from Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel
Fran from The Stand
Fiction
Jo March from Little Women
Celie from The Color Purple
Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter
Nora from A Doll’s House
Sethe from Beloved
Ophelia, Lady Macbeth, Desdemona, Juliet, Portia, Rosalind, Kate, from Shakespeare
Frankie Addams from The Member of the Wedding
Dina Dalal from A Fine Balance
Ayla from the Earth’s Children series
Scarlett O’Hara
Offred from The Handmaid’s Tale
Carrie White, Steven King’s Carrie
Lily Bart from The House Of Mirth
Irene Adler from A Study In Scarlet (Sherlock Holmes)
Becky Sharp from Vanity Fair
Lisbeth Salander from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy
Jordan Baker, Myrtle, and Daisy from The Great Gatsby
Catherine from Wuthering Heights
Claire from Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series
Mulan from the ballad of Hua Mulan
Dorothea Brooke, the heroine of MIDDLEMARCH
Francie Nolan from A Tree Grows In Brooklyn
YA
Fantasy:
Dorothy Gale from The Wizard of Oz
Cimorene from the Dealing with Dragons books
Pandora, Claudia, Gabrielle, Merrick, Akasha, Maharet, and Mekare from The Vampire Chronicles
Lyra Belaqua, from His Dark Materials
Hermione Granger
Katniss Everdeen
Eowyn
Alanna, Keladry, Daine and Aly from Tamora Pierce’s novels
Aerin from The Hero and the Crown
Paksenarrion
Katsa from Graceling
Viola from the Chaos Walking trilogy
Gemma Doyle from A Great and Terrible Beauty
Vicky Austin from A Ring of Endless Light and Troubling a Star
Sally Lockhart
Sabriel
Lirael
Alice from Alice in Wonderland
Tiffany Aching
Coraline
Susan Pevensie
Lucy Pevensie
Meg Murray from A Wrinkle In Time
Vicky Austin, Madeline L’Engle
Ginny Weasley
Luna Lovegood
Tally Youngblood from Uglies
Elena from Vampire Diaries
Fiction
Harriet the Spy
Blair Waldorf
Scout Finch
Nancy Drew
Margaret Simon from Are You There God, it’s Me, Margaret
Ramona Quimby
Lesley from Bridge to Terabithia
Karana from Island of the Blue Dolphins
Emily Byrd Starr from LM Montgomery
Anne Shirley, from Anne of Green Gables
Claudia Kincaid from The Mixed up Files
Laura Ingalls
Turtle Wexler from The Westing Game
Remy from Sarah Dessen’s This Lullaby.
Jessica “Not So” Darling from Sloppy Firsts
Melinda from Speak
Frankie Landau-Banks
Here’s your chance to come to the defense of your favorites to make sure they make it to the finals and give the axe to your least favorites.
And, go!
53 replies on “Middlemarch Madness: Our contestants!”
Let’s be ruthless here.
Should definitely stay:
Sethe from Beloved.
Shakespeare’s Rosalind has to stay. Possibly Lady Macbeth too. Beatrice should also be here, but nothing in life is perfect.
Jordan Baker (The Great Gatsby), even though she is terrible. Terrible women need role models too, and this one taught me everything I know about driving.
Sally Lockhart.
Harriet the Spy.
Could live without:
Laura Ingalls.
Catherine from Wuthering Heights.
Scarlett O’Hara.
Jo March.
Rachel Morgan needs to stay,
Phedre from the Kushiel books would enjoy it even if she looses
definately Claire Fraser
the Discworld women are all on my list
Janelle from the Black Jewels series
Portia is the only Shakespear woman who I think would do well in this contest
Hermione Granger and Ginny
Ayla
Lucy Pevensie
This is awesome.
Nora from A Doll’s House has to stay. A subtle feminist choice maybe but I’m a big fan.
Irene Adler, the only woman to charm the smartest detective in literary history, and my first love, is an obvious win.
Meg Murray, absolutely. She and Hermione.
Please though, let’s let Scarlet O’Hara go. Even if you were able to overlook her casual racism, making a dress from curtains does not make you a hero.
The love for Scout makes me happy :) She was my nomination when Bee asked for the staff picks!
Miss Shirley votes for Anne Shirley. Team Shirley all the way. Shirley! Shirley!
Well I’ll automatically throw in my vote for the Robin McKinley characters (and Susan Sto Helit), but out of curiosity, why is Harry in adult fiction and Aerin in YA? I haven’t read either of them in the last few months, but I read the Blue Sword when I was eleven and the Hero and the Crown when I was twelve and don’t remember much of a difference reading-level wise. (Though now that I think of it, I suppose I did pick up my copy of the Hero and the Crown in the YA section, but I was surprised to see it there and thought someone else put it there in error at the time.)
I think the answer to your question about Aerin and Harry is that a couple of us worked on classifying the list at different times and most of McKinley’s books are shelved in both teen and adult fantasy sections at the same time.
Thanks for pointing out the inconsistency, we’ll put both on one side or the other when it comes time for the final list.
No problem! Yeah, I’ve noticed that as well. While she does have some proper YA (Beauty was what started me on her), I personally think both the Blue Sword and the Hero and the Crown should count as “adult” fiction – and I see her things much more often in the adult section, honestly.
I’d get rid of Catherine from Wuthering Heights, mostly because I really hate that book.
Can the list be amended so that all of the characters have their source material/book listed? I recognize some, not all, and I know I’ll want to read all the books I haven’t (and reread some that I have).
Ohh that’s a good idea! I think we’ll do that :)
Kick off that Laura Ingalls… I read all those damn books, they were repetitive, dry, and her real-life politics annoy me. :)
I can’t believe we missed Beatrice from “Much Ado About Nothing.” [d’oh]
Since there’s a lot of Shakespeare ladies going on, I’ll suggest cutting Ophelia and Juliet. While I love Ophelia, she really just let her life be led by the men around her (which is her tragedy). And Juliet is a kid who makes bad choices left and right.
I fully support adding Lizzie Bennett and Beatrice in (I know, I know, we’re trying to cut it down!). Also, if Nora and Scout end up going head to head, that’ll be my own personal Sophie’s Choice.
Maybe we can exchange them ;) I totally agree, Juliet should be off.
I always wanted to write a paper in college examining R&J as a sardonic commentary on young love rather than a tragedy, but never got around to it.
@Sandra–Okay, I’m officially starting the Discworld series based entirely on your comment. I’ve heard people talk about it a million times and just never bothered to go read them, but it’s clearly time. The first one is on hold at my library, so I have to wait for it; do I have to read them in order? A later one is available, but if they need to be read in order I’ll wait.
Offred is my lady. She survives tremendous loss and she’s resilient- she remains fantastically clever, resourceful, and critical in a society that values women only as uteri and that really redefines “dystopia.”
I also support Claire from Outlander, Hermione, Sethe, and Claudia Kincaid.
Strangely, one of my favorite female characters is Caddy Compson, although she’s probably not appropriate for this, e-heh. Also, Dolores Haze (I think I just have a thing for tragic girl figures).
Lyra Belaqua, though! So awesome! She was persuasive and brave but still realistically flawed, and not with one major flaw (like all those little women), but like…a real person!
I am ALL ABOUT the Pratchett women. Susan is the granddaughter of DEATH and the only other one who gets to ride his White Horse (whose name is Binky). Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg have more say in the running of the kingdom of Lancre than the King does – not to mention their powers when it comes to people and nature. Sybil Vimes is a Duchess who runs a dragon sanctuary. Angua is a werewolf and the first woman to join the City Watch; Cheery is the first openly female-identified dwarf. Sacharissa is a journalist in Ankh-Morpork and Adora Belle is, despite the name, a crossbow-wield, golem-rescuing, utterly fierce badass.
then there is Gaiman/Pratchett heroine Anathema Device, descendant of the only accurate psychic to ever exist (Agnes Nutter, herself a formidable woman and witch), who had a good hand in saving the world.
(I think I’m the official Discworld cheerleader :) )
others I love include: Lyra Belacqua, Nora, Jo March, Meg Murray, Portia, Hermione Granger, Scout Finch, the Pevensie sisters, Luna Lovegood.
Meg Murray, forever and always. She got me through childhood.
Looks like my reading list has just doubled. There are a few names I don’t recognize and of course some characters I need to revisit. I’m so excited! Lucky for me I just picked up the Handmaid’s Tale today, so I’m already on my way to concurring this list. Reading the YA list really took me back. I idolized Laura Ingalls Wilder as a kid, and Scout Finch is the best.
I want Scarlett off. Yeah, I get the whole “I’ll make it no matter what” theme, but I have a couple serious problems with her.
Casual racism and extreme entitlement? Just to name a few. LIZZIE FTW