I am trying to read Jude The Obscure by Thomas Hardy, Jude I do not like, he is such a shallow character. I will not be reading much more as some of the other characters are annoying me also. My reading time is too important to continue if not enjoying.

Although Gone with the Wind remains one of my favorite books for its overall scope of those terrible times, I also felt frustrated by Scarlett's behavior and have had the impulse to give her a good shake. But really, I find Ashley to be almost as annoying since he seems to subtly encourage Scarlett's infatuation and won't put a definite and final end to her hopes.

I found the characters in Picture of Dorian Grey to be very distasteful and didn't finish that book.

WILLIE WONKA without question...disturbingly psychotic !

Vee, the other characters in the Victorian novels I felt sorry for were the tom-boy girls who invariably got some illness which they recovered from and became docile and feminine.Ugh!
The mother in "Little Women" gave me 'the pip'. Again the author had to conform with the ideal parent of the era.

Actually Emma Woodhouse annoyed me far more than Fanny Price did. She was an interfering busybody. I didn't like Fanny the first time I read Mansfield Park, and maybe even not the second time, but by my third reading I came to admire her very much. She had courage and principles while all around her dismissed her as a nonentity. Emma (the person, not the book) I liked less with each re-reading.

Rosefolly

Mrs. Bennett in P&P drives me batty when I read it... So try not to read it very often...

And Rumer Godden bugs me for some reason...

This question is a very subtle one. Of course there are characters who are meant to be tiresome, even offensive.

But then there are characters whom the author seems to finds interesting or appealing, but which are only irritating to the reader. For example, I enjoyed the first two novels in A.S. Byatt's The Virgin in the Garden series. I almost stopped reading the third book, however, because so much of it concerned a bizarre character who publishes a sprawling pornographic novel. His trial for obscenity may have fascinated Byatt, but I found it a colossal bore.

Poor Fanny Price. She seems to be taking a drubbing. I think she is one of Austen's most underrated heroines. Her watchfulness and quiet disapproval may be a bit priggish at times, but she is living in a situation in which she has no power nor control. When she refuses to marry Henry Crawford, she shows wisdom and strength of character utterly lost on her frivolous relatives. She gets the last laugh, which I suppose she enjoys silently.

I now also recall dropping out of a book of Rose Tremain's,
"Restoration".

The main character was a drunkard and a womaniser, I found that I disliked him, so that was that, end of book for me.
I was so disappointed as I have always liked Rose Tremain's books

The second Mrs de Winter in D du Maurier's Rebecca -- talk about a mouse! I just about want to jump in the pages and tell her to STOP IT when she's feeling inferior to Rebecca! But I love the story in spite of poor little 'No name'.

Come to think of it, I don't have much tolerance for characters who feel socially inferior or who want to climb the social ladder. Charles Pooter of The Diary of a Nobody mildly amuses me, but he's such a starched collar that I can't help but be delighted when his wife Carrie and his irreverent son Lupin exasperate him. But I suppose Pooter is supposed to be annoying, in a familiar sort of way, being an 'every man' and all.

Vee, have you ever read or heard of the 'Honey Bunch' books? They were an American children's series whose darling little heroine, with her dimpled knees, was so perfect that, as a child, I hated everything about her, especially her sickeningly sweet name. What were those nineteenth- and early twentieth-century writers trying to impart to young readers anyway, particularly girls?

Frieda, have you read Susan Hill's Mrs. de Winter? Ms. No Name is just as aggravating in it as in the du Maurier book. I liked Rebecca's Tale by Sally Beauman,

I just wanted to slap Marianne in Sense & Sensibility, I found her so annoying.

Agree totally, Astrokath.

The eponymous Smilla, in Smilla's Sense of Smell was just intolerably childish as I remember it. Her entire character was built on anger at her father and I found it tiresome. No redeeming traits. One of those books I wished I hadn't felt compelled to finish.

Less annoy than outright hate - Maurice Conchis from The Magus and by the very act of his creating the character also John Fowles. Nasty rationalizing bore. I like Humbert Humbert better and he was a pedophile. Nabokov clearly wrote a vile character. I never felt John Fowles understood just how vile his character was. He seemed invested in making us appreciate Conchis. No fondness from me for the protagonist either.

I, too, got exasperated with both Melanie and Ashley in GWTW. I had no issues with Scarlett.

I can't think of his name, but I thoroughly disliked the namby-pamby man who tried to court Jane Eyre. Was it Saint John, pronounced "Sinjin"? (I've just made a major move and my memory is rather distracted, to say the least).

Frieda, I haven't had the misfortune to come across the 'Honey Bunch' books so looked them up and read they and many similar children's titles were syndicated, with a team of authors churning out a load of easy-reading tripe with which to stimulate America's young minds.
I suppose over here in the UK, we had Enid Blyton, but, for what it was worth (quite a bit to EB) she did write all her own books. ;-)

I think the 'Little House on the Prairie' and the others in the series, although interesting for the 'real life' events they describe, often come across as slightly moralising with Laura reminding us that little children should obey their parents, eat their greens, say their prayers etc. No doubt, all good Victorian sentiments that form no part of the lives of modern young people.

Here is a link that might be useful: Syndicated books

Confession -- I'm somewhat annoyed with everyone right now, so this may not be a fair assessment. But I'm trying to read two books: One book - "The 19th Wife" is making me crazy because of how the women are treated and how they submissively accept it.

The other book is "The Terror" -- and I'm quite annoyed with the British captain and I'm having trouble going back to the book because of it.

Sarah, Simmons doesn't make Sir John Franklin out to be a sympathetic character, does he? I loved the book, but certainly see it isn't for everyone. BTW Canadian archaeologists have started a new search for the two ships using the latest sonar for mapping the sea bottom.

Carolyn, do you think Susan Hill in Mrs. de Winter was too faithful in keeping the personality and character traits of 'No Name' true to the way DduM created her?
I thought there was a hint at the end of Rebecca that No Name was getting some gumption. I would like to have seen that develop more in her, but she must've regressed in Hill's continuation.

Vee, I came entirely too late to Enid Blyton to ever develop an appreciation for her style. I think it has to be acquired in childhood to be remembered fondly. As for the 'Little House' books, I was forty-seven years old before I read them. Now a dozen-plus years later all I can recall are the food scenes and Laura with her students nearly freezing to death in that one-room schoolhouse. I suspect you're right about the background moralizing; but I was probably immune to it, unlike in those confounded Honey Bunch books which I was absorbing at my most questioning stage.

Re GWTW: I'll defend Scarlett any day! I think Margaret Mitchell was a genius in making her protagonist human and real. I've never found 'perfect' people in real life to be very interesting so that may be why I find Scarlett fascinating. I didn't like Melanie, either, because she seemed to be as mealy-mouthed as Scarlett thought she was, until that scene at Tara when she (Melanie), weak from horribly prolonged childbirth, came down the stairs in only her shift, gripping the heavy saber, ready to help Scarlett. Rhett recognized Melanie's mettle so she was, perhaps, the only woman he really respected. But wasn't it delicious to watch Melanie play-act when Rhett brought Ashley home from the 'political meeting' accompanied by the Yankee captain and his policing agents? What a quick study she was! As for Ashley: he was a man out of his time, place, and element. He was ineffectual and not able to adapt, true; but I suspect that he was much like a lot of actual people when life bewilders them. I'll give Ashley a pass, because there was something in him that Melanie loved and Scarlett wanted to love (for whatever was Scarlett's wrongheaded reason).

Vicki, which captain in The Terror is annoying you? Francis Crozier? I had my own annoyances with him as a character in that book, though I actually like what I know of the real-life Crozier.

Frieda - It was Cap. Franklin, as Chris noted. He's just so incompetent, and yet the men have to follow his orders. I actually like Crozier, so far.

Thanks for the link, Chris. I won't check it until/if I finish the book, although I already know how it all comes out.

As one with a lifelong devotion to the "Little House" books, I don't agree with the idea of "too much moralizing." The books accurately reflect the mores of the time they describe. BUT . . . my pet peeve is Laura's sister Mary. From book one Mary comes across as a smart-ass, highly unpleasant little prig, ever eager to criticize and provide an on-the-spot sermon if anyone offends against her holier than thou beliefs. If anyone ever deserved a slap, it's Mary!

Oh, good, Frieda, another defender of Scarlett! I completely agree with your assessment of Peggy Mitchell's creation.

As for moralizing, I think a lot of it went on in YA and children's books, before post-modern mores. I am thinking of the Little Colonel stories, in particular, where southern misdemeanors were often white-washed. As well, Alcott's "Little Women" is constantly moralizing, even citing John Bunyan as standard bearer. Having said that, something about Jo's family greatly appeals to me, and I find it timeless.

I have found all the characters of Anne Rivers Siddons' novels to be insuffrable, as they are all cliches and copies of each other, IMHO.

Yes, Frieda, Susan Hill "regressed" No Name to the point of unbelief. She even had another run in with Mrs. Danvers and still didn't have the gumption to figure it out. And the end . . . well, it is beyond belief. Of course, you have to know nothing will go well with Ms. Hill. I am anxiously awaiting her next Simon Serrailler to see what else will befall the poor man.

I've always been a Scarlett fan, too, for the reasons you gave.

Mary, the Little Colonel books may moralize, but I have always loved the advice her father gave her on choosing a husband and that was to remember that she would also be choosing a father for her children. More young women should know that, IMO.

I always hated Edmund from Mansfield Park as much as Fanny. What a spineless, moralizing jerk.
And I'd like to put in a bad word for Amelia from Vanity Fair. She is probably the only character who could make Becky seem sympathetic.
Did anyone read the Bobbsey Twins when they were young? Nan and Bert still stand in my memory, more than 50 years later, as obnoxious little prigs. I still remember how much I hated them when I was six years old. I'm surprised I continued reading.
I'd also like to mention Alice Vavasor, in the novel 'Can You Forgive Her', by Anthony Trollope. What a pill! Although I love Trollope, and have read the Palliser series several times, I always struggle to get through the first book, because Alice is such a twit. In the novel, she is a mature woman, with her own fortune, who acts like a besotted teenager because her entirely unsuitable cousin is running for parliament. She's a political groupie, willing to sacrifice herself and her life so that her cousin and eventual fiance can enter politics. I always imagine her with a large, unbecoming mole on the side of her nose.

I read the Bobbsey Twins books, but soon opted out, as they were boring. Instead, I morphed into a fan of Nancy Drew, around that time. I even got into reading the boy's version of the detective YA stories, which name escapes me now.

As for Enid Blyton, my English friend adored her work and still keeps her complete set in her condo, albeit she is in her Seventies.

I am laughing to myself because there seems to be two camps: The Scarlett Fans and The Melanie Fans. I was always intrigued by Melanie and wished she had a larger role. I was immediately taken with her precisely because she very early on, and by the force of her own personality and without apparent effort, had what Scarlett wanted. She also seemed to be able to operate within the confines of the times without losing her own self and her own integrity, which was more than Scarlett did. And the scene where Melanie recognized Ashley before Scarlett did embodies an almost impossible standard of what love is all about.

But it wouldn't have been GWTW without Scarlett!

I actually like Scarlett and Melanie both, though I do get exasperated with Scarlet's tunnel vision. It is Ashley who annoys me.

My 8th grade English teacher Miss Jordan once told our class that the original name Margaret Mitchell chose for her heroine was 'Pansy'. She did not change it to 'Scarlet' until after the book had been accepted for publication. I think most would agree that GWTW with Pansy would somehow be make quite a different impression than GWTW with Scarlet, even if nothing else about the book were changed.

Melanie and Scarlett...both very strong women, but with different ethic !
Of the two, I would have to be a Scarlett fan because she had spunk and fight in her.
Melanie ended up being a bit too whimpering for me.

I agree with Phaedosia, I ended up throwing Confederacy of Dunces across the room, it was so annoying. But my MIL found it hilarious and we usually agree on books.

I don't think I liked any of the characters in Wuthering Heights. Jane Eyre was much better.

I tried reading Lewis Carroll's "Sylvie and Bruno" but quickly got thoroughly fed up with the title characters' irritating and not very convincing baby talk.

Gordon Comstock from Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell. He is awful.

Count me in as detesting every single character in "Wuthering Heights" when I tried to re-read it a year or so ago.

I think Scarlett had her own sense of "self" and her own "integrity".

I am another who detests everyone in Wuthering Heights so much that I don't think I can ever re-read the book.

I read the first Winnie the Pooh book to my children when they were 4 and 6 and could not yet read themselves. It was a great success probably because it was the right moment for them to appreciate it. I had to do a little play acting and stress all the funny bits, of course.

My 11-year-old granddaughter is listening to Alice in Wonderland and finds it too strange. On the other hand she has read all the Twilight books and loves them. I haven't read them but I had to go with her to watch the Eclipse movie. Needless to say I found it very strange and even stranger that Mai should have liked it. She is a very playful and childish pre-teen now but perhaps she is training herself to become a real teenager?!

My twelve-year-old daughter has just said to me "Dad - when you read I Capture the Castle, did you want to slap Cassandra?!" It's a while since I read it, though, so I can't remember if I agree with her.

Count me in for Gordon Comstock in Aspidistra - what an arse.

I'm also reading Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Angel Clare is such a precious, sanctimonious git - and Tess is a damn fool for loving him.

Woodnymph and Mariannese, what a relief to discover others who despise the characters in Wuthering Heights. I have an intense dislike of that book, and luckily will never have to read it again!

Martin, Tess is my least favourite Thomas Hardy book.

Edward from Sense and Sensibility bugs me for his passivity and Pa -Charles Ingalls- from The Little House Books for his incessant wanderlust.

Jude in Jude The Obscure - Hardy
Such a shallow character I also disliked Sue.

Peter Pan. I did not trust this kid when I was a kid. I would not have flown off with him anywhere, even for an adventure. I have never understood why some people, mostly adults, find him enchanting when he is so mean-spirited toward adults.

Good choice Lydia. You wouldn't have caught me flying out of the nursery window in my nightie, just to do the Lost Boys cooking and laundry. ;-)

Another character I don't like is Mr Rochester. He may have been dark and brooding, but he was a nasty bully to Jane Eyre (not that I liked her either) and obviously expected to get what he wanted by throwing both his money and his weight around.
And I agree about Wuthering Heights. Amazing to think of a young woman brought up in a quiet vicarage having such a disturbed imagination.

In the book I am reading "The Moving Toyshop" two characters play a game similar to this thread Detestable Characters in Fiction". Their nominations are: Beatrice and Benedick (awful gabblers) Lady Chatterley and Mellors, Britomart from The Faerie Queen, almost everyone in Dostoevsky and all the Bennett girls!
They also play "Unreadable Books"!
This book was originally published in 1946, so we are part of a long-standing game. Probably goes back thousands of years, can you imagine that?

About FANNY PRICE -

I agree with TimAllan. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place: she was living in a home not her own family's; she lived in a garret like a pet mouse or something. She couldn't very well just walk off and get a job, and apartment -- be independent, like girls today. The master of the estate she lived at was decent to her, and I can see how she felt beholden to him. (One thing that does bother me about "Mansfield Park" is that he had a sugar cane business in the Caribbean, which almost certainly means slaves were used .... something Austen didn't address in the book; yet, he's supposed to be such a great guy.)

Yes, I know she's a grizzler (someone who sobs, tears-up easily); but I liked her sensitivity of mind when it came to sizing up the effect a situation would/could have upon someone whom she cared about. Her sensitivity wasn't self-focused, as is sometimes the case with so-called "sensitive" types.

"I Capture the Castle"

One of my very favourite books of all the ones I've read in the last 10 years! I will never get rid of that book; it's in my permanent library. A whole lot of posters at another Website kept raving about it; so I bought it. From page 1 I was HOOKED! (Two women I've given this book to as presents, loved it so much they're keeping it "forever.")

Why anyone would be irritated w/Cassandra is puzzling. It's been around 9 years since I've read it; so can't remember her very clearly. I remember a lot of her character traits -- intelligence, independence, perseverance, good nature, sense of adventure. And her love of the funky old place that she and her family lived at -- "the Castle." I loved that weird place,too!

If anyone was annoying, it was the father -- just drifted through life w/his head in the clouds, planning on his next great novel. He let his wife and children live in misery. Unless, I've forgotten, he didn't even have a part-time job or inheritance; just bummed around all day. Oh, just remembered something else about Cassandra: the way she "hijacked" her father -- a sort of kick-in-the-pants therapy to get him to write again... . It worked!

Oh! Cassandra is one of my all-time favorite characters, and I Capture the Castle is in my Top 5 of all-time favorite novels. Long-timers here at RP have repeatedly read my paeans to ICTC, but I can't help myself for singing this refrain. I first read it almost fifty years ago; then I read it over and over for about ten years. But in the early 1970s I lost track of it and spent the next quarter of a century trying to find it again. In the mid 1990s a now-defunct bookseller with a glorious catalogue ran a question to its subscribers asking what out-of-print books they would most like to see back in print. My choice, of course, was I Capture the Castle and I wrote up a piece about why I liked it so much and why I thought it should be reissued. The bookseller printed my piece and the response was tremendous. All this was turned over to the publisher and voila! within a couple of years (1998, if I remember correctly) I Capture the Castle was back for new generations of readers to enjoy. I like to think I was instrumental in its return, but I figure it was bound to happen, with or without me...I Capture the Castle was fondly remembered by so many other readers.

Well, as much as I like Cassandra, I do see how she could be a tad annoying sometimes. Just a couple of examples: 1) Stephen, the son of the Mortmains' deceased housekeeper, was sweet on Cassandra, but she was uncomfortable with his devotion to her. I still have the impression that she thought he was beneath her in social status, although she and her family were dependent on him, as he was the only one who knew how to work and make money. I have never liked this aspect of Cassandra. 2) Stephen worked and saved to buy Cassandra a wireless. She appreciated the gift, somewhat, until Simon gave her a fancier model that included a gramophone (no hardship for Simon). Now whose was the greater gift? It's so poignant and realistic, I'm afraid, and I'm not proud of Cassandra's reaction.

Mortmain irked me, too, for being so lazy and languishing with his writer's block. But I think Cassandra's sister, Rose, annoyed me even more: she was so self-conscious, pretentious, and "willing to sacrifice" herself -- for the good of her family -- by marrying Simon. But in the end she was too self-centered, which I suppose was a good thing, in a way.

I adored all the characters in "I Capture the Castle" and, with Frieda, it is one of my all time favorite novels, right up there with "The Go-Between" and "Greengage Summer."

If ever there was book I detested more than "Wuthering Heights", it was "Lady Chatterly's Lover." I despised every single one of its characters and could not finish this greatly over-rated novel.

I've been attempting to read Christopher Moore's latest book -- Bite Me: A Love Story - but I'm so annoyed by the main character that I'm giving up. :( I loved his earlier books, but he has become so crude and misogynistic that I don't think I'll be reading any more by him.

Oh, Friedag, you've reminded me -- knew while I was writing up my post that there WAS SOMETHING bothering me a little; just didn't remember -- that situation w/Stephen and the wireless. I don't remember her being cruel, though; maybe, just a little indifferent?

As for your putting "I Capture the Castle" back in print -- 1999 was when I bought it! Also, maybe you're responsible for the movie version-- ha-ha! -- made in the early-2000s.

I admired Rose for breaking off her engagement to the wealthy Simon, and marrying the man she really loved -- and going to live her life on a ranch in California, something I couldn't see her caring for.

So Martin Z., what is it about Cassandra that annoys your daughter? I'm curious.

Hi, I'm Nancy and I participate in a few Garden Web groups. I just ordered a Kindle and someone in the Computer group suggested I look into Reader's Paradise.

I love to hate Pollyanna. I am a terrible pessimist and optimists can easily annoy me if they urge me to think positively. If I could meet Pollyanna I would tell her that overly enthusiastic optimists are, in my estimation, in denial.

Welcome Mudlady -

I never read Pollyanna, but got a chuckle out of your post.

BTW (by the way) -- Looks like you come from the same state I do -- NY

laura

Welcome, Mudlady, from another retiree. (I could not stay awake now until 4am reading, as you mentioned on another thread! Only once, many years ago did I do this when hooked on "The Godfather".)
I had to look up the definition of a Pollyanna person (what wonderful literary by-paths this site leads to!) and while I agree that such a character could annoy, so can, in real life, a complete 'misery-guts'. I know a few of these and they really can try to destroy a good day! I expect that there are a number of these examples in literature...

Eeyore comes to mind when thinking of someone who is always glum. I know I am pessimistic and I often keep my thoughts to myself. It is a nice surprise when the absolute worst outcome doesn't come true :-)
Nancy

Have you read Eeyore's Little Book of Gloom subtitled "read this - then you'll be sorry . . . "?

Join in with the link below. Can things get any worse?

Here is a link that might be useful: Life of Brian