Friday, April 12, 2013

Literary Crushes



By Kim

As an avid reader from the age of three and a sucker for a good love story, I confess I’ve fallen in love with more fictional men than real ones in my lifetime. Most are transitory infatuations that last only as long as it takes for me to finish a novel or until they do or say something that annoys me, whichever comes first. I don’t remember their names a month later.

Some remain with me, luring me back to their pages so I can again experience that heady rush. I don’t always get it. At nineteen, I loved Emily Bronte’s Heathcliff. Twenty years later, I wonder why. My opinion about Diana Gabaldon’s Jamie Fraser has not changed since 1992, however. I’m sure I’ll feel much the same about Cathy Marie Buchanan’s Tom Cole and Stephanie Cowell’s imagined version of Claude Monet.

I met my first literary love at twelve, when my mother gave me my first copy of Jane Eyre. Ever since, Edward Rochester is like the bad boy ex-boyfriend I’d take back in a heartbeat, damn the consequences. I forgive him the moodiness, the mind games, and even the mad wife imprisoned in the attic. Each time a movie version comes out, I’m at the theater and praying that the actor in that role fits the image in my mind. He never does, though Toby Stephens was my favorite.

My eldest daughter is now almost twelve and she, too, has fallen in love for the first time. The object of her affection: Peeta Mellark from The Hunger Games. As soon as she finished book three, she immediately picked up book one again, so she could have “her” Peeta back the way she wants to remember him.

How about you? Who are your literary crushes?

8 comments:

  1. Haha! I love this. And to answer: JAMIE FROM OUTLANDER!!!

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  2. Erika - I have the feeling we may be battling about a million other women for him! If they ever do make a movie, they better cast him right. If they cast a blond American, like they did for one version of Jane Eyre, I'll have to seriously hurt someone.

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  3. Doesn't happen too often for me, but my first was Anjuli from The Far Pavilions. I was really disappointed in the TV mini-series, for many reasons - but foremost among them was the casting of Amy Irving as Anjuli. :-/

    Most recent, Moirin, the heroine of Jacqueline Carey's Naamah trilogy. Fun post, Kim!

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  4. Tom Builder from Follett's Pillars of the Earth, though I read it after watching the mini-series so have to admit it might have been the casting of Rufus Sewell that got me!

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  5. That's funny, Joan, because I had a crush on Jack! I also read it after watching the mini-series, and so I'm sure my crush had something to do with Eddie Redmayne! I like Rufus, too, though.

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  6. My feet are firmly planted in the Jamie Fraser camp! :)

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  7. I took my little sister to see Oliver! in 1968 and she exhibited her first sensitivity when she fell head over heels for Mark Lester. Started hanging pics on her wall for the first time! As for me, I fell for my own character, Ned Low. I'm just finishing up the sequel to When Two Women Die now, and I'm completely in love with the evil fellow.

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  8. Wow Cindy - Jamie is quite the popular guy!

    Vaughn - I completely get why you wouldn't be thrilled with that casting. Too bad readers have no say in casting decisions!

    Patricia - I get that, too. Part of me fell for my hero as well, but only while composing from the heroine's POV. As soon as I stepped away from the keyboard the infatuation vanished - he is my great-grandfather after all!

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