As a follow-up from last week’s list of favourite female characters, I’m listing my favourite male characters this week. I may have a crush on a couple of them, but not all of them. Some of them just have me completely intrigued fully about them and make me want to know more and more.

1. Lieutenant William Bush. From C.S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower series. Originally appeared (publication order) in The Happy Return, originally published 1937. There are so many reasons why I love Bush, but I think the main one would be his loyalty. He would do pretty much anything for both his King & Country and for Hornblower himself, and is the kind of man I would love to have on my side if I were ever in a naval battle.
2. Howl. From Diana Wynne Jones’s Howl’s Moving Castle. Originally published 1986. Howl is brilliantly hilarious! He is SO over-dramatic about everything that it’s hard NOT to find him enjoyable.
3. Horatio Lyle. From Catherine Webb’s Horatio Lyle series. Originally appeared in The Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle, originally published 2006. It’s like this. He is brilliant. He’s like a cross between Sherlock Holmes and The Doctor. He doesn’t believe in magic, but is thrust into a world where science cannot explain everything. He carries things that go “explody!” in his pockets. He took in the girl who tried to break into his house. And his love for the children, oh! His love for the children!
4. Severus Snape. From J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Originally appeared in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, originally published 1997. What I love best about Snape is that he was so complex and there was always the shadow of a doubt that he wasn’t what I wanted him to be. There was so much to explore – the hate for Harry, his past with the Death Eaters, the relationship with Dumbledore, ah! So many things to explore!!
5. Edmund Pevensie. From C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia. Originally appeared in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, originally published 1950. Edmund starts as SUCH a brat, oooh! But going through all the sorts of stuff that he goes through teaches him so much and he becomes such a wonderful character.
6. Dragonstar Sunsoar. From Sara Douglass’ Wayfarer Redemption series. Originally appeared in Starman, originally published 1996. This is another example of a not-so-nice character turning into something wonderful. As a baby, he was manipulated by the big bad guy of the Axis trilogy, and so was stripped of all magical powers. In the three last novels of the Wayfarer Redemption, he grows from a resentful character into (yet another) savior of their world (just like his dad, aww!)
7. Detective William Murdoch. From Maureen Jennings’ Detective Murdoch series. Originally appeared in Except the Dying, originally published 1997. I love Murdoch! He is brilliantly wonderful and a complete gentleman and so smart! I love that he is into detective-y things that aren’t used popularly yet.
8. Odysseus. From Greek Mythology. Odysseus is one of my favourite greek heroes. I have had the biggest crush on him for years and years. He is extremely adventurous and clever and travels to the underworld and yay such fun!
9. Reginald Jeeves. From P. G. Wodehouse’s The Jeeves books. Originally appeared in The Man With Two Left Feet, originally published 1917. He’s snarky! He’s cunning! He’s smart and can get Bertie Wooster (and his friends) out of any jam!
10. Rhett Butler. From Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind. Originally published 1936. I will admit that most of my love for Rhett Butler comes from the movie – goodness, Clark Gable! But even the fictional character is, as one of my guy friends told me, “the man every woman wants to be loved by, and the man that every man wants to be.” He understands people, and is a VERY smart man. He’s very much a charming rogue.

There are so many more that I wanted to include here, and just keeping it to ten was so hard! Goodness!!

Which ones are your favourite male characters?