Laura Occasionally Blogs

Melanie just came into my cube and informed me that a Harvard educated Top Model contestant was given a tongue-lashing by Tyra Banks for her inability to answer the question "Who is your favorite heroine from British literature?" because she didn't know any. I sympathized. Having read an inordinate number of British books, I'm remarkably well-equipped to answer that particular question, but I would have been just as lost if Tyra had named any other nationality.

Who is your favorite heroine from American literature?

Laura: Jo March. Paul is reading Little Women.
Anna: Antonia from My Antonia, even though I hate her. But I could defend the answer.
Paul: Other than Jo from Little Women? All I can think of Daisy from The Great Gatsby! She is not my favorite!
Melanie: Is Sylvia Plath American? I guess that girl from The Bell Jar.
Caolan: That is tough! Maybe someone from children's literature, like Jo March. I'm thinking Isabel Archer, but maybe that's because I just finished Portrait of a Lady. I'm thinking about it. I'm making a shortlist.

Who is your favorite heroine from French literature?

Paul: Marguerite de Valois.
Melanie: I like Hunchback of Notre Dame. Esmerelda.
Caolan: Not Madame Bovary. No Nana. I don't like those ladies. Maybe the lady from Indiana, Indiana. Maybe Eponine. Or Cantabile. It's a hard question, because you have to think about what you really value in a heroine.
Laura: ...Milady?

Who is your favorite heroine from Russian literature?

Anna: Margarita, from Master and Margarita.
Caolan: Anna Karenina.
Laura: Natasha Rostova. Even though I have only seen the movie.
Paul: My favorite hero the saintly one from Karamazov. Aloyshe wearing a dress.

Who is your favorite heroine from Canadian literature?

Laura: Anne of Green Gables.
Paul: Anne of Green Gables.
Melanie: Robin Sparkles. From... The Autobiography of Robin Sparkles.
Caolan: Anne of Green Gables. Or Emily.

Name a book in German.

Melanie: Grimm's Fairy Tales.
Laura: Faust, maybe?
Anna: Is Kant German?
Paul: Faust? All Quiet on the Western Front? That book by Hitler? At least one of those.