I love Peggoty in David Copperfield. She is such a genuinely good and loving and loyal woman.

The nurse in "The English Patient." (Can't remember her name.)

She had such an other-worldly quality, took such tender care of the horrible burn victim, and kept her sanity and self-possession throughout such an emotionally crushing time in WWII.

Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables and (of course) Jo March in Little Women. Their spunk and determination inspired me as a child.

I really admired Ree Dolly in Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell.

By the way, I am very pleased that this astonishingly wonderful small film has been nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award. There's more to the book, of course, but the film is a truly wonderful adaptation of the novel. I actually liked the film better than the book, something I can't remember saying about any other books-made-into-movies.

Absolutely Anne Shirley....who was a smaller version of Scarlett O'Hara.

1. Elnora Comstock in Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton Porter. I loved that she knew all about animals, birds, moths and butterlies and that she was such a strong person. She had a hard life but didn't let it get her down.
2. Aerin in The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
3. Harry in The Blue Sword also by Robin McKinley
4. Ditto Elizabeth in Pride & Prejudice as well

I'm sure there are more but that's all I can think of right now.

Oh, definitely Amelia Peabody. That indomitable spirit encourages me sometimes when I feel incapable or weak.

Olive Kitteridge, I just loved that lady, she was there for all.

Becky Sharp from Thackeray's Vanity Fair. Perhaps more of an anti-hero, but a strong feisty character.

Lucy Pym from Josephine Tey's "Miss Pym Disposes". With no training in psychology, other than reading many books with which she does not agree, she writes a best seller on the subject! (Sigh) I cannot even start writing the book that is supposed to be in everyone :-(

Mammy in Gone with the Wind

Beatrice in The Divine Comedy. I love how she berates Dante when they meet in the Earthly Paradise and makes him break down blubbering! She's one tough cookie.

After having just finished up the Millenium trilogy in films (haven't read the books tho'), I am rather enamoured with Lisbeth Salamander just bc she is such a tough cookie.

Yes, she probably needs some heavy-duty therapy, but still - she is very tough and I admire that in her.

I have so many! Some already mentioned: Anne Shirley, Jo March, Elnora Comstock, and Mammy in Gone with the Wind.

All right, I'll include Scarlett O'Hara who was always going to land on her feet, no matter what life handed her or what she brought on herself. Besides that, Mammy loved Scarlett and, since Mammy had diapered three generations of Robillard girls, she had reason.

Katherine "Kit" Tyler in Elizabeth George Speare's The Witch of Blackbird Pond: The "hoity-toity young lady from Barbados" who -- when she was orphaned -- had to seek out her Puritan kin in the Connecticut Colony. She didn't know what to make of them and the Puritans didn't know what to think of her. Ultimately, her good sense prevailed. I always loved Kit for that. (I loved Kit's cousin Mercy, too; and Hannah Tupper, the so-called "witch"; and Mrs. Eaton, Nat's mother, who gladly accompanied her husband on his sea voyages in the fall and winter, but who, come spring, was just as glad to stay behind in Connecticut to tend her house and garden.)

My #1 heroine is, I think, Honor Harris in The King's General. Any woman who could bring out tenderness in that rapscallion Richard Grenvile has to be a heroine. Also, Honor was just as much a match for Richard's devious sister, Gartred -- that scene where Honor and Gartred are playing cards as the Roundheads take over Menabilly is utterly delicious. In spite of her physical disabilities, Honor is the pivot of the whole story, regardless of the book's title.

Vee, I'll go with Becky Sharp as another 'survivor'. Oh-oh, that reminds me of Drusilla Allen in Pursuit of Gentlemen. (Drusilla sat next to William Makepeace Thackeray at a dinner party in New York City.) Drusilla is an Austen-type heroine, if an Austen heroine could've born at Fort Phantom Hill, Texas!

And now I've just remembered Francie Nolan in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn...how could I have forgotten Francie?! Oh well, I've gone on too long as it is.

(I was going to post Lisabeth Salamander, too!)

Another modern heroine, to me, is Anna Pigeon in the Nevada Barr books. She is tough, physically, but not cruel. What I enjoy most about her, though, is that she is not the typical beautiful protagonist as seen in so many modern novels.....she's middle-aged, greying hair, but attractive in her own right.

Phyllis's comment about the "typical beautiful protagonist" reminded me of another favorite character: Sarah, Plain and Tall.

Oh, froniga -- I love Sarah, Plain and Tall. The opening paragraphs always make me cry. So simple yet so beautiful

In addition to many already mentioned, I also like:

For feisty/spunky -- Scout Finch.
For strength -- physical and mental -- Sarah Prine from These Is My Words and several follow-up books.

I also rather liked Mrs. Jasmina Ali in Major Pettigrew's Last Stand.
One of my new favorites is Aibileen in The Help for courage and strength of character.

I know there are more. I'll keep thinking.

I adored Scout Finch! And certainly Atticus would be my all time literary hero.

Frieda, I'm on your side re feisty Scarlett O'Hara. She is inimitable and unforgettable. Perfection is so boring....

No one has mentioned Jane Eyre. I love her! Especially how she refuses to marry that simpering St. John. . .

Caroline Meeber in Sister Carrie.

So many -- Anne Shirley, Jo March, Elnora Comstock, Jane Eyre, Anne Elliott, Caddie Woodlawn, and let's not forget Judy Bolton. I wanted to be her when I grew up.

Rosefolly

Ach! To think that I didn't mention Scout Finch (from my all-time favorite book) or Jane Eyre...I am slipping.

Anne Elliot, Caddie Woodlawn: Rosefolly, you and I read a lot of the same books. I didn't learn to appreciate Anne Elliot until much later, though.

And Judy Bolton! Many girl readers thought Nancy Drew was the heroine to follow through however-many-beaucoup mysteries she solved. She was blonde; had an adoring father, a blue roadster, and an ever-ready boyfriend; and she never aged. Good gravy, but I think I realized, even as an adolescent, that Nancy was unreal. Judy Bolton, on the other hand, could solve mysteries, and she grew up, changed, and even got married. She was a multi-faceted, real character in a way that Nancy never was and never would be. Rosefolly, like you, for a while I wanted to be Judy.

Hmmm, ladyrose, Caroline Meeber is an interesting choice. It's been too long since I last read Sister Carrie, so about all I can recall of her is that she made Scarlett O'Hara seem like a rank amateur in the collecting of men. Scarlett, after all, married three times; Carrie dispensed with marriage. Maybe it was the ending of Sister Carrie that left me feeling a little out of sorts with its protagonist -- she came to the conclusion that art was preferable to materialism; but by that time she was so doggone jaded and I was too! What have I forgotten about Carrie, ladyrose?

Not very well known, but Jacqueline Levy-Monot from Marge Piercy's Gone to Soldiers will stay in my memory for quite a while. She starts out as a self-centered, somewhat shallow and vain 17-year-old, then grows up in a hurry when her mother and sister are taken in the Vel d'Hiv roundup of Jews in July 1942. She goes from a sobbing wreck hiding in her boyfriend's rooms to being a hero of the resistance to Auschwitz survivor to Jewish activist and protector of her formerly despised younger sister. As she states near the end, "My bones are made of steel hammered thin. But I still know how to love my family and my friends." A great character.

How could I have forgotten Kristin Lavransdatter, medieval heroine of the wonderful trilogy by Sigrid Undset....

I loved Caddie Woodlawn, too. In fact, I still have my copy of the book, much the worse for wear.

Sionbhan - Is Gone to Soldiers fiction or non-fiction or creative non-fiction?... Sounds like it would be right up my alley, and I even used to have a copy (unread), but it was removed during a culling of the book shelves one day...

I just loved the daughter Glory in "Home" by Marilynne Robinson.