Literary Models [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.

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from paul:
Answers I wish I had given: Milady, Margarita, Eponine, Grimm.

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Yeah, Margarita was a good one! She is probably better than A.K.

Also, every single American heroine anyone mentioned was on my shortlist, except for Daisy. For some reason I had a different Fitzgerald heroine, the one who likes tomato sandwiches. Then I added "Harriet the Spy" to the list.

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PS: Cantabile isn't the name of the lady in Moderato Cantabile. Her name is Anne Desbaresdes. I had to look it up!

No love for Roxane of Cyrano de Bergerac? She's possibly my favorite heroine in anything.

American Literature: Jo March is on everyone's mind, I see, and mine too, but Scarlett O'Hara is terribly entertaining. Not a very good moral role model, though, just fun to read. Oh, there's also Eliza from Uncle Tom's Cabin, who is very badass, but kind of two-dimensional because Stowe was making a point. This is tough, because when I say to myself, "Hmm, what are American classics?", my mind goes blank.

French: Roxane, hands down, but I also like Eponine.

Russian literature: Gah, the only Russian literature I'm familiar with is The Three Sisters, and I can't stand a single female in it.

Canadian: Sure, Anne of Green Gables. Only in the first book, though. What other Canadian books are there?

Book in German: The Diary of Anne Frank was probably initially in German, right? Or Night. At least one of those.

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Laura Occasionally Blogs

Literary Models

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January