Tuesday 24 February 2015

Top Ten Tuesdays - Favourite Heroines

Back again for another Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. Hooray!


This week's topic is a really exciting one, and it is:

Top Ten Heroines from Books


1. Hermione Granger 

This will come as a surprise to no one, but this lady is one of my favourite book heroines! She's bossy, occasionally misguided, and possibly a bit too obsessed with homework, but she's so brave and kind and intelligent. While I also love Emma Watson, the film just doesn't quite capture Hermione in all her flawed splendour, not least because her hair is nowhere near bushy enough!

2. Bridget Jones

One of my dearest friends absolutely loves the Bridget Jones books, just because she finds Bridget so relatable. She always has the best intentions but somehow never follows them through... I think we can all relate to that! Plus she's hilarious. What's not to love?

3. Emma Woodhouse

The eponymous heroine of Jane Austen's Emma kind of snuck up on me as a favourite. I found her completely infuriating while I was reading the book, but she grew on me towards the end, and she's the Jane Austen heroine that has stuck with me the most out of all of them. Sure, Lizzie Bennet may be a lot less annoying, but for me she just wasn't quite as memorable!

4. Miss Marple

While I prefer Hercule Poirot on screen, Miss Marple has got to be my favourite character from Agatha Christie's novels. She seems fluffy and harmless, but her mind is razor sharp and she understands even the darkest facets of human nature. Plus, you can't beat Christie for a cosy mystery.

5. Mary Lennox

This heroine of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett is one of my all-time favourite characters, simply because she undergoes such an incredible transformation during the story. It's so wonderful to watch her grow from a sullen, sallow sulk into a happy and healthy child, completely full of life.

6. Tiffany Aching

While I still think The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents is my favourite children's book by Terry Pratchett, the Tiffany Aching books are not far behind. Tiffany is not really that special (apart from, ya know, being magic 'n all), but she's shoved into crazy situations that she has to make sense of, and she just does it in such a real way.

7.  Lyra Belacqua

Lyra is the heroine from Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy (which I love and desperately want to re-read!) and has always been a firm favourite of mine. In a lot of ways, she's very average and unremarkable, but she is forced to make some brave decisions and we see her grow so much as a character.

8. Roberta Waterbury

The heroine of The Railway Children (affectionately known as Bobbie) is another protagonist on this list who is entirely unremarkable, though in this case she doesn't have any dramatic decisions or daring escapades thrust upon her. Instead, we see her deal with the everyday trials of childhood and her attempts to make sense of the world. We, as the (grown-up) reader, are in the privileged position of seeing and understanding things that Bobbie does not - we see her naivety and flawed judgement, and we love her all the more for it!

9. Jo March

Jo is the protagonist of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, and she's definitely the best of the March sisters. She's feisty and opinionated, but also tries her hardest to do the right thing, even though she falls short on many occasions. 

10. Minerva McGonagall

OK, so I know I've already included a Harry Potter character on this list, and I also know McGonagall isn't exactly the heroine of the stories... But since she's my absolute favourite HP character I couldn't not include her! Not only is she fiercely loyal to the school and students, even when this puts her in serious danger, she also captures everything I loved about my favourite teachers at school - very strict but understanding and ruthlessly fair.


So there you have it, a list of my favourite heroines of all time! To be honest, I could add loads more to this list (including pretty much every Jane Austen character), and this list would probably include different people if you asked me on a different day... But oh well! I hope you enjoyed it anyway.

Who are your favourite heroines?

8 comments:

  1. Interesting, I prefer Miss Marple on screen and Poirot in print!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Intriguing! I think my preferences are based on the actors - David Suchet is absolutely perfect (in my opinion!), but I'm undecided on my favourite Miss Marple actress..

      Delete
  2. I love Bobbie! I haven't read those books in so long-- I didn't even think of her!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. She's so great isn't she!? I love her in the film too, though she's quite different

      Delete
  3. Rachel, I've nominated you for The Versatile Blogger Award. I'm not sure if you been nominated before or not but you can get all the information on my blog post here (http://mountainrhinestones.blogspot.com/2015/02/versatile-blogger-award.html)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Andrea! I'm so sorry, I managed to completely miss this! I'll head over to your post now :) Thanks so much for the nomination <3

      Delete
  4. I'm a HUGE fan of Betsey Trotwood (a la David Copperfield). Hermione is also way up there. Though I'm not exactly raving about the book itself, Lucy in 'A Room with a view' is also definitely a grower....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, yet another reason to read that book! Hmm, I think I'm the opposite with Lucy - I enjoyed the book but wasn't such a fan of her...

      Delete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...