Top 5 English Eccentrics in Books

Published on by theorangutanlibrarian

Hello all! So after my post yesterday I started thinking very tangentially about the best of British things… and I came up with the English Eccentric, because one of the best thing about this country is the infamous English Eccentrics (yes other countries have interesting animals roaming about in the wild… we have peculiar and unusual people wandering about in wellies) And while I was musing about this over my cup of tea, I decided this would be a great chance to show the WORLD the kind of book characters that are Oh-So-English.

Without further ado- here are my top five favourite English Eccentrics in books:

mr bennet.gif

Mr Bennet– eccentrics are supposedly a little irregular and don’t bow to conventions- this suits Mr Bennet to a T. With his subtle humour and frequently disappearing off to his library, he doesn’t necessarily always act as he should. Still, he’s one of the most loveable father figures in literature and definitely has his family’s interests at heart.

dumbledore.gif

Dumbledore!!– Not-quite-a-doddery-old-fool, Dumbledore is one helluva wizard, with rather a particular taste in sweets. He probably should have told Harry what was up earlier in the story, yet I think that’s part of his charm (no pun intended)

Arkham cover D final

Lord Henry– outrageous, witty and totally outside the box, Henry steals the show as the voice for Wilde in Picture of Dorian Gray. And yes, his humour tends towards the more mischievous side, but we love him for it. (BTW the ’09 film portrayal *is not* the same character, so I didn’t use that picture)

aunt betsey david copperfield2

Aunt Betsey– from David Copperfield I reckon there are *loads* of Dickensian characters that could fill this slot, I just happen to find her exceptionally wacky.

mort nice edition

DEATH– and not just any Death, Pratchett’s Death. I think all of Pratchett’s works are the blueprint for the eccentricities of his soul, so I can’t really put my finger on why this character calls to me as the best example. I just think that the little oddities of Death’s behaviour in the Discworld really takes the biscuit… or the curry (he’s a fan 😉 )

This is by no means an exhaustive list- who do you think is a great eccentric (English) character? Let me know in the comments!

65 thoughts on “Top 5 English Eccentrics in Books”

  2. Great list and I love that you came up with it while drinking tea. One of my favourite authors Jodi Taylor is brilliant at writing eccentric English characters. I love her St Mary’s series about time travelling historians who seem mostly interested in tea and have a general disregard for health and safety.

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      1. It’s so good and just so English as far as the humor goes. She also has another book The Nothing Girl which is more normal (other than the imaginary talking horse/guardian) and has lots of English eccentrics too.

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  3. Hello 🙂
    I love English characters in general, though I can’t think of my favourite English eccentric off the top of my head! My fellow Canadian friends and I agree that anything spoken in a British accent sounds automatically intelligent.
    I’ve heard great things about Terry Pratchet’s books, though I haven’t read anything by this author yet. I will have to look him up 🙂

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    1. Really, you should! Good starting points would be the standalone ones such as Hogfather or Soul Music. My favourite of all is probably Guards Guards which is the first of a sequence so also a good starting point. For YA you can’t beat the Tiffany Aching sequence starting with Wee Free Men

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    2. Yay! I’m glad to hear that!! 😀 hahaha well I love that people think that 😉
      Oh yes- definitely do- I always recommend starting with Mort, because that’s where I was recommended to start and it made me fall in love with the series, but there are plenty of other books that start off different storylines, which are equally awesome, like Guards Guards 😀

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  4. Oh this is a great list, I’ve only really read Harry Potter but Dumbledore is definitely a perfect addition to this list. He was one of those characters you could never truly know everything about because there was so much he never revealed until after the fact in the series, like everything he should have revealed to Harry way before he did.
    Also I haven’t read everything by Terry Pratchett, but his Death character is one of my favourites. Not just from his Discworld series but my list of favourite characters in general! 😀
    Great post. 🙂

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    1. Thank you so much!! I know right- he’s awesome- and so complex. I think the fact that I always have mixed feelings about him is testament to how real he feels. He’s definitely one of the best characters in the series.
      Oh I haven’t read everything either, but he’s one of my favourites too 😀 And yes!!!
      Thank you so much!!

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  7. I’ve watched that silly video with the song … Okay you probably can’t see what I mean with so little info, let me give you a snippet “Severus Snape!, Severus Snape! Dumbledore! Severus Snape, Severus Snape! Dumbledore! Ron Ron Ron” damn muppet vid, now your post got me singing it again! mouhahaha!

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  9. One of the things I loved about living in England was that most of the time I didn’t stick out like a sore thumb for being “different.” And I relate to Death SO MUCH, because in some ways he’ll just never understand humanity, yet he wants to feel like he can belong somehow…

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  11. You’ve got to love the eccentrics. You’re right; Dickens does so many well. Personally Miss Havisham from Great Expectations is a stand out, but that’s just me. I might also put Sherlock Holmes on my list.

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    1. hehe thanks 😉
      hehehe well I gotta admit I didn’t think about it until I got much older or took my wacky habits abroad 😉 I think that when you’re a child it’s totally normal to have relatives that sing at the top of their lungs in fake Japanese… then you grow up and realise not so much 😉

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  15. Haha great post! Some of these characters I’m not familiar with, so it’s nice to learn a few new things here 😀 Erm, I don’t know if this one falls into this category, but I have always thought of mr. Bean as quite eccentric as well (that and he is completely nuts 😂😂).

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  18. haha I love this post and it hits the nail on the head! I’ll admit, I’m not familiar with some of these characters, but I’ve heard a lot of praise for Discworld so maybe I should finally read a Pratchett book.

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    1. Thank you!! Oh definitely do- I always recommend starting with Mort because it’s the one I read first (and made me fall in love with it) but Guards Guards (the second one I read) is also a good shout. Both of them are the start of two different storylines.

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  20. Pratchett’s Death really sounds awesome, and it’s not the first time you vouched for his awesomeness too! I haven’t read anything by Pratchett yet, would you recommend newcomers to jump into that book without any other knowledge or should we start from scratch (book 1 of the whole universe)? 😀

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    1. Ahh he is awesome!! Oh I think you can start at lots of different points- the two I always recommend are actually not book 1, but Mort (which was the one I started with and the first of the Death storyline) and Guards Guards (the start of the City watch books) I hope that helps and that you really enjoy it if/when you pick them up 😀

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  21. Dumbledore is such a perfect fit for this list! I actually don’t have that many favorite English characters… I would have to read more English classics to get a larger pool of characters I could choose from for a list like this. 😋

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  24. Interesting post with even more interesting characters 🙂 Great idea to show off some national treasures 😉
    I am ashamed to say I have yet to read any of Pratchett’s works… I remember trying one of his books about 10 odd years ago because I was curious what made my roommate laugh so hard but I gave up about 3-4 pages in..can’t even remember which book I tried.But, Mort has been recommended to be a few times by different people so I will for sure have a go again 🙂

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