# Reading > General Literature >  Literary Dinner Party

## Dark Muse

I got this idea from another forum but I thought it was an interesting concept. 

What would be your top 5 literary characters, you would want to have over for dinner? 

For my own, I am going to have to mull it over, and get back to you.

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## NickAdams

All but one are from Beckett: Valdimir, Estragon, Molloy, Belacqua and the Mad Hatter.

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## SirRaustusBear

Great question! It was hard to narrow it down to 5 but here are mine

Sal Paradise from On the Road
Ivan Karamazov from The Brothers Karamazov
The Narrator from Cask of Amontillado (sure he's insane but in an interesting way. I'd just have to be careful not to insult him.)
Bokonon from Cat's Cradle
Guildenstern from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

Runners-up include Pechorin from A Hero of Our Time, Siggy from Setting Free the Bears, Meg from The Company She Keeps, Helmholtz from Brave New World, Randall McMurphy from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and the narrator of The Fall.

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## Charles Darnay

1. Stephen Dedalus - Ulysses
2. Leo Grutsky(sp?) - History of Love
3. Dorian Gray - Picture of Dorian Gray
4. Prufrock - Love song for Alfred J Prufrock
5. Sidney Carton - A Tale of Two Cities


Wow.....this would be the most interesting and depressing dinner imaginable.

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## aeroport

> All but one are from Beckett: Valdimir, Estragon, Molloy, Belacqua and the Mad Hatter.


What is 'the Mad Hatter' from?

Raskolnikov from _Crime and Punishment_
John Marcher from _The Beast in the Jungle_
Alexander Portnoy from _Portnoy's Complaint_
Ishmael from _Moby-Dick_
The Wife of Bath from _Canterbury Tales_

That should make for an interesting evening.
Runners-up - Any of Beckett's folks, especially Molloy and Krapp.
Stephen Dedalus
Hamlet
Whitman's 'I'
Jack Chase from _White-Jacket_

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## Dark Muse

Mad Hatter is in Alison in Wonderland

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## aeroport

> All *but one* are from Beckett...





> Mad Hatter is in Alison in Wonderland


Right, got it. Was still in Beckett-mode. Thanks.  :Smile:

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## Dark Muse

Ok I think I have mine figured out.

1. Maurice Conchis ~ The Magus 
2. Holden ~ Catcher in the Rye
3. Marius ~ From Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles 
4. Howard Roark ~ The Fountainhead 
5. Nightfall ~ The Legend of Nightfall

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## soumyakans

Here are my choices:

1. Sydney Carton from "A tale of Two Cities"
2. Larry Collins from "A Razor's Edge"
3. Jude from "Jude the Obscure"
4. Father Stephen Kowolski from "City of Joy"
5. Gulliver from "Gulliver's Travels"


But 5 is too less a number  :Frown:

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## novelsryou

1) the Creature
2) Moby-Dick
3) Hannibal Lecter
4) Jay Gatsby - he'll bring the booze
5) Atticus Finch - he'll keep order

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## bazarov

Bazarov
Raskolnikov
Ivan Karamazov
Don Quijote
Claude Frolo or Man from the Underground

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## Pensive

Sydney Carton (from A Tale of Two Cities)
Ann Shirley, but preferably she should come as a child, later she got a bit boring  :Tongue:  (or shall I say Anne from Ann of Green Gables series)
Kanta (from Roots)
Bazarov (from Fathers and Sons)
Some Tolkien's characters such as Bilbo Baggins, Gollum (or Smaegol), Gandalf, Galadriel, Arwen and Tinuviel (please take these all as one  :Tongue: )

I might change my opinion later.

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## huntress4eva

Severus Snape (potter series)
Mr Darcy (Pride and Predjuice)
Louisa Gradgrind (Hard Times)
Zoe nightshade (percy jackson series)
Artemis (percy jackson series)

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## NickAdams

> ... Whitman's 'I' ...


Interesting.





> Right, got it. Was still in Beckett-mode. Thanks.


He's refered to as Hatter in the book, and not Mad Hatter, so that's my mistake. But he could have easily came from Beckett.




> 1) the Creature
> 2) Moby-Dick
> 3) Hannibal Lecter
> 4) Jay Gatsby - he'll bring the booze
> 5) Atticus Finch - he'll keep order


I think Finch will be the witness to bizarre deaths. 




> ... Claude Frolo or Man from the Underground


I forgot about him. :Frown:

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## Sir Bartholomew

hmm...

geoffrey firmin (from under the volcano)
jake barnes (from the sun also rises)
sebastian dangerfield (from the ginger man)
sebastian flyte (from brideshead revisited)
daisy buchanan (from the great gatsby)

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## Dark Muse

> 1) the Creature
> 2) Moby-Dick
> 3) Hannibal Lecter
> 4) Jay Gatsby - he'll bring the booze
> 5) Atticus Finch - he'll keep order


Hannibal Lecter would be an interesting one. 

I considered Gastby for a moment. 

Where is The Creature from?

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## Seabird111

Hmmm... Well:

Yossarian from Catch 22
Clarice Starling from Hannibal and Silence of the Lambs
Oddyseus from The Oddyssey
Ted Brautigan from Hearts in Atlantis
Jurgis Rudkis from The Jungle

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## djy78usa

1. Zaphod Beeblebrox - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
2. Jay Gatsby - The Great Gatsby
3. The Cat - The Cat in The Hat
4. Dionysus - From Greek Mythology
5. Sonny Corleone - The Godfather

We might not accomplish much, but it would definitely put the "Party" in dinner party

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## djy78usa

> Hmmm... Well:
> 
> Yossarian from Catch 22
> Dennis Guilder from Christine
> Oddyseus from The Oddyssey
> 
> Hmm... who else... Ah, yes:
> 
> Winston Smith from 1984
> Jurgis Rudkis from The Jungle


Love the new avatar, Seabird. If Manbearpig was a character from literature, he would definitely make my list!

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## Seabird111

> 1. Zaphod Beeblebrox - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
> 2. Jay Gatsby - The Great Gatsby
> 3. The Cat - The Cat in The Hat
> 4. Dionysus - From Greek Mythology
> 5. Sonny Corleone - The Godfather
> 
> We might not accomplish much, but it would definitely put the "Party" in dinner party


You should invite me to that party, lol. That'd be one heck of a dinner party.




> Love the new avatar, Seabird. If Manbearpig was a character from literature, he would definitely make my list!



Rofl, thanks. I love South Park, but I wouldn't bring Manbearpig to my party for a lot of reasons. 
I'd definitely bring Butters and Kyle though.

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## mortalterror

1.)Falstaff from Shakespeare's Henry IV parts 1 and 2, as well as from The Merry Wives of Windsor
2.)Virgil from Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy
3.)The Monster from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (thought about Milton's Satan but that would be going a bit too far)
4)The Wife of Bath from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
5.)Scythrop Glowry from Thomas Love Peacock's Nightmare Abbey

However, I don't know how they'd mix. All of the characters are very intelligent, but I'm afraid I might have overloaded the table with a certain type of bawdy comedy. With Falstaff already on board the Wife of Bath could be redundant. Scythrop Glowry is funny, but in an altogether different vein from Falstaff. One is boisterous. The other is morose. I think that Virgil and the monster would have a lot to say to one another, and that Falstaff would be able to keep things lively.

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## NickAdams

> Love the new avatar, Seabird. If Manbearpig was a character from literature, he would definitely make my list!


A witness told me it was more of a pigmanbear. :Wink:  




> Rofl, thanks. I love South Park, but I wouldn't bring Manbearpig to my party for a lot of reasons. 
> I'd definitely bring Butters and Kyle though.


Butters! :Thumbs Up:

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## djy78usa

> A witness told me it was more of a pigmanbear.


You need to check your sources Nick. I have sworn statements from reliable sources that he is definitely 1/2 pig, 1/2 man-bear

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## kelby_lake

> 1) the Creature
> 2) Moby-Dick
> 3) Hannibal Lecter
> 4) Jay Gatsby - he'll bring the booze
> 5) Atticus Finch - he'll keep order


i kind of wonder how moby-dick will be arriving...

okay, i'd have:

1) Jay Gatsby
2) Sebastian Flyte (plus Aloysius)
3) Pinkie Brown
4) Sydney Carton
5) Guy Montag

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## aeroport

> Where is The Creature from?


_Frankenstein_?

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## Seabird111

> You need to check your sources Nick. I have sworn statements from reliable sources that he is definitely 1/2 pig, 1/2 man-bear


Or maybe it's half man, half bear-pig.

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## novelsryou

> _Frankenstein_?


Correct. 



Not to be confused with The Creature From The Black Lagoon.

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## Dark Muse

Ahh ok, he would be an intersting party guest.

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## kelby_lake

he might be a bit rowdy  :Wink:

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## PeterL

Every time I notice this topic, I enjoy the combinations that people dream up. I have thought of several twos and threes that would be interesting.

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## tractatus

> 2) Moby-Dick


Raven would be nice but we know all his answers!


For me Lolita herself, preferably in maturer ages may be interesting.

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## Dark Muse

> Raven would be nice but we know all his answers!.


Yes it would be cool to hang out with Raven even if he would not be much of a conversationlist. 




> For me Lolita herself, preferably in maturer ages may be interesting.


For shame  :Wink:

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## naomi moon

I would have:
Don José, Carmen by Prosper Mérimée.
Estella, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.
Sidney Carton, Tale of Two Cities.
Madame de Piennes, Arséne guillot by Prosper Mérimée.
Veronika, Veronika decides to die by Paulo Coelho.

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## tractatus

> For shame


Big art for Humbert to love, and shame for me for a dinner? Not fair.  :Smile:

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## djy78usa

> Correct.


Well, I guess that rules out having bananas foster for desert :Wink:

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## Tournesol

I would have:

Hamlet from 'Hamlet' [Shakespeare]
Mr Darcy from 'Pride and Prejudice'
Aragorn from 'The Lord of the Rings'
Tess Duberville from 'Tess of the D'ubervilles'
Emily from 'Emily of New Moon' [by L.M. Montgomery]

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## *Classic*Charm*

I'd love to get King Lear, Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, and Shylock together in a room. I think it would be pretty interesting. Not much good conversation, but there would be some sweet arguments.

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## Tournesol

Classic, I totally forgot to ask Shylock and Othello! They would be great to have!

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## *Classic*Charm*

Now the question is: Do you have them pre- or post-madness?

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## djy78usa

> Now the question is: Do you have them pre- or post-madness?



You gotta go post. A little insanity makes everything more fun

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## Tournesol

I agree with djy8usa!

They'd be infinitely more interesting for conversation after the madness!

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## *Classic*Charm*

All of them mad though? They couldn't put full sentences together! Lear would wander off to who-knows-where sputtering nonsense, and Mac would be seeing things that aren't there. He may even try to kill someone with an invisible weapon...Shylock and Othello might really go at it though!

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## bounty

> I got this idea from another forum but I thought it was an interesting concept. 
> 
> What would be your top 5 literary characters, you would want to have over for dinner? 
> 
> For my own, I am going to have to mull it over, and get back to you.


dark muse---are we allowed to use cinematic/televison characters if they later showed up in literature? whaddya think? (this kinda reminds me of the movie, _the league of extraordinary gentlemen_. i also saw an innovative play once, called, _when shakespeare's ladies meet_.)

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## Dark Muse

Sure, we can be creative here a little bit I think

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## moose gurl

I saw Sydney Carton from A Tale of Two Cities a few times, and I was just wondering why? I guess he's just not my favorite character, but this seemed like an odd choice out of all the people from A Tale of Two Cities. So why Sydney? Very interesting. Anyone wanna share?

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## JBI

The whole last scene cast from Hamlet, just so I could watch them destroy each other in front of me.

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## 1n50mn14

I want these AUTHORS:

Oscar Wilde (He would reafirm my cynicism)

Christopher Moore (Lamb, The Gospel According to Biff)

Lord Byron (We would fawn over virgin Quaker girls and do psychadelics.)

Chaucer (This is probably pathetic, but I want him to due to scenes from a Knight's Tale. It was after that movie that I started reading Chaucer. And I've just always loved the character as portrayed in the movie, even if he was really nothing like that.)

Douglas Coupland (funny... funny... funny man.)

----

Characters:

The DYN from the Phantom Tollbooth

Othello. We would have so much fun.

Liddie, from The All True Travels and Adventures of Liddie Newton.

Edwin de Valu, from Generica by Will Ferguson

Ainsley, of the Edible Woman, by Margaret Atwood.

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## NickAdams

> The whole last scene cast from Hamlet, just so I could watch them destroy each other in front of me.


Good luck on the cleaning afterwards. :Wink:

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## bounty

> Sure, we can be creative here a little bit I think


if i can also have more than one dinner gathering? smiles...

mr spock, commander data, captain kirk, dr mccoy and captain picard. 

tarzan, natty bumppo, and almost any three major characters from zane grey. 

and if i can have a smaller gathering?

sherlock holmes and dr watson along with hercule poirot and colonel hastings.

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## amalia1985

1) Elizabeth Bennet from Jane Austen's _Pride And Prejudice_

2) Heathcliff from Emily Bronte's _Wuthering Heights_

3) Eric from Leroux's _The Phantom Of The Opera_

4) Lady Macbeth from William Shakespeare's _Macbeth_

5) Hamlet from William Shakespeare's _Hamlet_

...this is a havoc...

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## rachel_bookworm

I think I would have a mixture of characters and authors... is that allowed??

- Gandalf - _Lord of the Rings_

- Lord Byron - himself (or perhaps the character from _Imposture_)

- Shug - _The Color Purple_

- Lenny - _Of Mice and Men_ (although he may be slightly hard work hehe)

- Kathy - _Wuthering Heights_


A slightly random dinner party!!

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## Hank Stamper

Raoul Duke 
Dean Moriarty 
Hank Chinaski
The Narrator/Tyler Durden from Fight Club
Patrick Bateman

wrong on so many levels!

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## valleyjune

1. Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights
2. Eric from The Phantom Of The Opera
3. Mr Darcy from Pride and Prejudice
4. Caius Crispus from Sailing to Saratntion by Guy Gavriel Kay 
5. And above all, Santiago Fisterra from the Queen of the South by Arturo Perez-Reverte, my favourite male character of all ages  :Banana:

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## valleyjune

Is it ok they are all males?  :Angel:

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## kelby_lake

mine are all males too  :Smile:

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## valleyjune

> mine are all males too



We are two cunning foxy creatures, then  :Biggrin:  . Nice to meet you!

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## Charles Darnay

> The whole last scene cast from Hamlet, just so I could watch them destroy each other in front of me.


I was thinking of something alone those lines, but with the cast of Titus Andronochus.....but I haven't perfected the art of baking people into pies yet

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