While chatting in email with Meghan, we stumbled upon an idea we think you’ll love as much as we do. March is the month of brackets, as everyone who loves basketball, cake or pie knows. As we lean more towards bookish than sporty and we have a collective unconditional love of all desserts, we’re trying something different.
Middlemarch Madness.
It’s lady heroine against lady heroine as we pit all of our favorite literary women against each other in a bracket challenge to the death. Okay, not to the death, just to the champion. Can Katniss destroy Jo March? Will Shakespeare’s Kate topple Tolkien’s Eowyn? It’s up to you, readers.
At this stage, we’re gathering a pool of contenders which we’ll narrow down to a list of 64 finalists. We’ve brainstormed amongst ourselves and come up with the list below, and now we need your help to fill it out. We want all the best women from all your favorite books, from YA fiction to sci-fi to fantasy to chick lit to classics and everything in between. We’re looking for ladies with a wide range of backgrounds and experiences, so help us make sure our final list is racially and culturally diverse.
We’ll be needing your help when we’ve narrowed the field down to the final 64 to prepare brief bios on all the contenders. In the meantime, feel free to use this and upcoming discussion posts and the forums to campaign for your favorites to make it to the finals.
Here’s who we’ve brainstormed so far. The interns, Meghan and I will keep this post updated with your suggestions, so bookmark this post and check back to see new additions.
Katniss Everdeen
Meg Murray
Vicky Austin
Jo March
Harriet the Spy
Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird
Frankie Addams from The Member of the Wedding
Eowyn
Nancy Drew
Portia from The Merchant of Venice
Dina Dalal from A Fine Balance
Susan and Lucy Pevensie
Claudia Kincaid from The Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankenweiler
Celie from The Color Purple
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Dorothy Gale
Alanna from Tamora Pierce’s novels
Rosalind from As You Like It
Kate from The Taming of the Shrew
Hester Prynne
Karin Murphy from The Dresden Files
Beatrix Potter (that one’s from Sara B and she said she knows she’s a writer and not a character but she had a badass life)
Irene Adler from A Study In Scarlet (Sherlock Holmes)
47 replies on “Middlemarch Madness: Prologue”
Guys, guys, guys.
Where is Tess of the d’Urbervilles?! Girl’s a fighter.
1. I must politely insist on the inclusion of Jane Eyre.
2. Cassandra Mortmain. Anyone who hasn’t read I Capture the Castle needs a trip to the bookstore stat.
3. Echoing the above suggestion of Thursday Next. I really like the concept of her character, even if Jasper Fforde’s rendering of the female mind is a wee bit off.
I prefer Miss Havisham from the series, myself.
Helen Graham from Wildfell Hall!
@Kitty Conner–Have you seen http://www.whatclaudiawore.com/? It’s insanely hilarious.
I didn’t see them, perhaps I looked them over, but how can we not include the Babysitters? (Claudia, Stacy, Dawn, et al.) I mean, they are successful young female entrepreneurs with bitchin’ outfits.
Of course! How could we forget them?
(Also the brilliant Janine Kishi. She may have been a minor character, but damn it, I want to be like her!)
Molly and Charity Carpenter from the Dresden Files! I see Karrin Murphy is already on the list, but I don’t think you can leave Molly and her mom out–especially Charity. She is fully badass.
Also, this March Madness is an insanely good idea. I am ridiculously excited about it. :)
This looks great! I’d like to suggest Madeline from Ludwig Bemelman’s series.
Susan Sto Helit from Discworld! Also Adora Belle Dearheart, Sacharissa Cripslock, Sybil Vimes, Angua, Cheery Littlebottom. Terry Pratchett writes great ladies.
Anathema Device from Good Omens, too.
Hey, what about Sabriel and Lirael from the Abhorsen series by Garth Nix?