Heroes

I recently watched the first in a series of television programmes called Faulks on Fiction which discusses the world of the British novel.

The first episode was titled 'Hero' and discussed the development of the hero role through several classic novels. His heroes were:

• Robinson Crusoe from the novel of that name
• Tom Jones from The History of Tom Jones a Foundling
• Becky Sharp from Vanity Fair
• Sherlock Holmes from the many novels about him
• Stephen Wraysford from Faulks' own novel Birdsong
• Winston Smith from 1984
• Jim Dixon in Lucky Jim
• John Self in Money

Faulks believes that the hero can now only be found in films, children's fiction and crime novels. He finishes with these words, "For literary novels, it's over. The hero is dead. End of story". Do you agree?

Thinking of my own list of heroes from British novels, I find:

• Walter Hartwright in Wilkie Collins' The Woman In White
• Calhoun Mooney in Clive Barker's Weaveworld
• Jonny Hooker in Robert Rankin's The Da Da De Da Da Code
• Frodo Baggins in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings
• Gabriel Oak from Hardie's Far From the Madding Crowd

Who are your literary heroes?