A recent post on A Work in Progress mentioned in passing literary “crushes.”  As I told Danielle, I had just been thinking about writing a post about that topic—I’ve had a number of crushes on literary characters and was relieved to know it’s pretty common! After all, there are legions of “Edward” fans out there, and apparently, quite a faction of Weasley twin admirers. Mr. Rochester and Heathcliff remain popular, too.

Making movies from books has probably made literary crushing a lot easier, bringing to life the men on the page, helping out our imaginations. While some versions help, there’s always the chance that you’ll think, “That’s not how I imagined him!”

The first crush I remember having was on Gilbert Blythe, of the Anne of Green Gables series. Then there was Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant, the hero of several of mystery writer Josephine Tey’s novels. Grant has a certain sophistication and humor that appeals to me, as well as plenty of brains and courage. He’s not bad looking either, from what I remember.

Other crushes include:

The Scarlet Pimpernel

Lord Peter Wimsey

Archie Goodwin

Mr. Darcy (actually, several of Jane Austen’s leading men are crushtastic)

And, I’m currently developing a little crush on Patricia Wentworth’s Frank Abbott, a character in her Miss Silver mysteries.

Besides being fun, literary crushes can teach us about what we admire about the opposite sex, as well as what qualities we ourselves would like to have. (I seem to have a thing for detectives…hmmm…) What about you? Have you ever had a literary crush? Did having a movie version help or hurt your crush?

Note: For the next few weeks, we’ll be busy with family vacation and out-of-town guests, so I’ll be writing here only sporadically. Hope your summer is full of simple pleasures and everyday adventures!