Ranking Jane Austen's Heroes

[@heatheralice89]

Yes! I have quite often thought that Elinor and Colonel Brandon seem fairly compatible personality wise.

[@gbuireh6497]

My least favourite is Edmund Bertram, my favourite Mr. Darcy (though Captain Wentworth is a very close second). What I love about mr. Knightley is that he is the only one who tells Emma the truth and doesn't excuse her behavior. In that way they make a good pair.

[@YueshiYang]

aha I've got the exact same mug!!!! Btw my favourite hero is Henry Tilney!!!

[@ElliesCozyChronicles]

🙂🙌 I love Henry Tilney!

[@katiejlumsden]

It's a good mug :)

[@ElliesCozyChronicles]

@@katiejlumsden 🤗

[@meghanthestorygirl4581]

Loved hearing your reasoning behind each ranking. Yes, we need more character development for Edward!

[@YueshiYang]

OMG i love the Anne Elliot and Colonel Brandon pairing! I definitely see it :)

[@LuminousLibro]

We have the same top two heroes! George Knightley is my favorite forever!

[@patriciatolliver4057]

Patty- I love the idea of Elinor and Col Brandon or Col Brandon and Anne Eliot.

[@Miriam-li6vz]

just until 40 seconds in the video I still thought that this was gonna be about Jane Austen's personal heroes, as in writers she admires or something :D I haven't read all of them yet, but so far Mr. Darcy and Captain Wentworth are my favourites!

[@novellenovels]

Oh mr knightly Is definitely the best hero of her books and probably is one of my favourite hero’s in all classics

[@katylc9716]

I love your videos, greetings from Mexico :)

[@mandys1954]

Haven't read Lady Susan yet (am about to) but otherwise this pretty much mirrors my favourites. Top 3 definitely the same. I just adore Mr Knightley!

[@cakecogito]

Excellent review!😌

[@noemitamas4066]

Mr. Knightley as number one is the only correct answer! :) I think I would have a fairly similar ranking although I'm not sure where I would put the men from Sense and Sensibility. It's been a while since I have read the book and I feel that my positive impressions of Edward are influenced more by the way he appeared in some of the film/tv adaptations I saw instead of the novel.

[@conversationswithfriends8746]

it's a stiff competition b/w Mr Knightley and Mr Darcy for me... when i am "sensible" i prefer Mr Knighley but when i am full of passion i prefer Darcy cuz i love to hate him and hate how much i fancy him 😂

[@MothGirl007]

I totally agree that Mr. Knightley is the best Jane Austen hero, and also that he is too good for Emma.

[@angelaluz405]

I must be pretty basic, because you named my choices right in the video. Henry Tilney is my favorite and Edmund is my least. So be it. I like what I like.

[@asdabir]

I love Tilney and Catherine!

[@katiejlumsden]

Haha they are fair choices too.

[@no-longer-human007]

i have the same top 3 they're interchangeable depending on my mood

[@thiadesg]

My ranking would be Wentworth, Knightley, Darcy, Tilney, Brandon, Ferrars and Bertram. I don't remember much about the love interest in Lady Susan to rank him.

[@maroaalkatheri3373]

Man I watch your videos so much, that whenever I am reading a story located in UK I hear and read in your voice. Is that bezzar?

[@katiejlumsden]

Haha that is quite funny!

[@lululatsch]

Really like your videos and your sundshine-personality! 😃 I would love to see you rank sort of secondary characters, that are neither the main heroes nor villians (even though some might be minor love interests). Say, Mr Knightleys brother, Frank Churchill, Mr Bingley (my personal favourite 😁), Sir William Lucas, Col Fitzwilliam, Captain Harvill and so on. Thanks for all your hard work 😃

[@katiejlumsden]

A video for next year, I think :)

[@theresas709]

I think Captain Wentworth is my favorite but I haven't read Emma yet.

[@christysmith1058]

Mr. Knightley is my favorite too. I vacillate between Edmund and Edward as my least favorites. Love the idea of Anne and Col. Brandon as a couple.

[@CoynieReads]

I agree with so much of this- Mr Knightley followed by Mr Darcy would be my top spots too and I totally agree about the S&S men! Main divergences between our rankings is that I love Henry Tilney as a character and I’m not really on the Captain Wentworth train- blasphemous as it is to admit haha! 😂

[@katiejlumsden]

:o Shocking indeed

[@bouquinsbooks]

We have the same top three, except in reverse order. 😄

[@kevinrussell1144]

BAT: This was VERY good content. Since you (and I) are talking here about the NOVEL heroes, not what we see in the adaptations, I mostly agree with you. I go round and round as to which novels I like best (I've read P&P the most times, and Persuasion and Emma only once), but most days I say "Persuasion" because it is her most mature work and has an "elderly" heroine. I like Wentworth a lot, and consider him well conceived and believable as a successful frigate captain. I also like Mr. Knightly and if I were a girl, I think his personality and person would be most attractive. Darcy often appears TOO perfect, despite being snobbish at the beginning. I think he's too good for Lizzie, but Lizzie IS attractive, especially in the book. They seem very well suited. I think Emma is JA's best, most complete work. S&S seems a little under-powered and wordy at times. The last time I read it I was underwhelmed by Edward. I agree with you; Brandon was a more completely realized character. Mansfield Park is, to me, just boring. I've only read it once, but not a single character really grabbed me. I'll have to try it again. Northanger I just read, and it seems light and simple. Henry Tilney (the book version) strikes me as odd, but the guy who plays him in the 2007 adaptation is wonderful. In fact, I was very much taken by that production. Carey Mulligan as Isabella Thorpe was the bee's knees. The scenery was spectacular. Anyway, thanks for your intelligent and thoughtful posts.

[@katiejlumsden]

Yes, I probably prefer Henry Tilney in the 2007 adaptation, too - it's a great film.

[@kevinrussell1144]

@@katiejlumsden Thanks. And for what it's worth, you pack the most information and enthusiasm into your videos of anyone I watch on KZbin. Your sell job even encouraged me to pick up David Copperfield from the shelf, and I just might make it through this time. I also think Diggory Venn is a FANTASTIC character. I have NOT read Well Beloved and probably will not. Your fans do listen to what you relate.

[@viviennehayes2856]

Northanger Abbey is my least favourite JA book too. It never occurred to me that Edmund Bertram was not a very good hero - he is SO KIND to Fanny from the time she first arrived at their home. I think that it is natural that he would be enamored with Mary Crawford because he was young and inexperienced in romance and life. He just had some growing up to do!

[@ElliesCozyChronicles]

My favorite hero is Mr. Darcy and the least favorite Edmund.

[@ChautonaHavig]

I think Austen did Edmund Bertram a disservice. I really feel like his character is on par with Roger Hamley in Wives and Daughters (adaptation). Both men saw all young women through the lens of one they highly respected (Fanny/Molly). Not until they realize that this other person is nothing like and inferior to the "original" do they open their eyes and see both women as they really are. I just think Gaskell did that story idea much better than Austen. I want to write a retelling of Mansfield Park from Edmund's perspective much as Barbara Cornthwaite did Emma through Knightley. I finally understood what Knightley saw in Emma in that book and I think it would help me see what Fanny saw in Edmund and who he was if I did.

[@katiejlumsden]

Yes, I can see that - I like Edmund sometimes, but we see less of him and less of how his feelings change. I'd recommend the webseries From Mansfield With Love if you haven't seen it; they do Edmund well.

[@ChautonaHavig]

@@katiejlumsden I haven't heard of that. Off to research. EEEP! Thanks!

[@francesbernard2445]

All this leaves me wondering how many novels Jane Austin wrote. Was it 7 by any chance?

[@katiejlumsden]

6 full-length novels, plus the novella Lady Susan.

[@stephanierenee7655]

Edward it my least favorite Austen hero as all. I've read Sense & Sensibility three times and I always find him to be extremely boring. Darcy is my favorite, though I also really love Knightly & Wentworth.

[@buchdrache1409]

My least favourite hero and heroine are Edmund and Fanny. It feels more like he settles for Fanny, which also makes sense since Fanny seems rather dull to me. She is a character with very little agency. And her relationship with Edmund feels weird to me. It's almost as if he makes her into this mini-Edmund, with all of his own likes, dislikes, morality, etc. poured into her since she was 10 years old. Of course he gets along with her! The Crawford siblings are far more interesting in my opinion as characters.

[@EmoBearRights]

I was surprised and disappointed that Edmund Bertram wasn't bottom. Also rating him above Henry Tilney isn't contraversional to me it's sacrilege. Edmund is dull, he's hypocritical, he's a terrible judge of character, he's led by the dumb stick and yet blames a woman for misleading him about her character when she was always honest about who she was and what she was after and her London friends for corrupting her when I think it her awful guardians who formed her character and opinions in childhood. Like Darcy he has good principles but he has a bad attitude when applying them when the dumb stick means that he doesn't compromise them unlike Darcy being rejected doesn't cause him to reflect and reform. He isn't a bad or stupid man but he's nowhere near as good or wise as he thinks he is and that frustrates the reader as much as it does the heroine.

[@jonathanparks207]

I would disagree that Edward Ferrars is an honorable man. You are talking about somebody who flirts with one girl while secretly engaged with another (Which is itself an issue. Why are you engaged if you are not going to openly declare it?). There is nothing honorable in that. Also you are confusing Mr. Darcy with his sister. She is shy, he is merely an introvert. Introverts are very uncomfortable engaging in small talk which makes them not ones being comfortable putting themselves forward to strangers. Elizabeth teasing him about it during a rare moment of frankness on his part comes off to me as not one of her finer moments.

[@katiejlumsden]

I think, by the standards of his day, Edward is honourable. I read a modern retelling a while back which transported the story and situation into the modern day and Edward became very spineless, but there are cultural, social and economic reasons why secret engagements did occur at this point in time.