Category Famous Characters from World Literature

War and Peace stood the test of time and still remains a classic; Tolstoy wrote the novel over the course of six years. It is regarded as one of Tolstoy’s finest literary achievements. What is so special about this novel? Let us see.

War and Peace is about the French invasion of Russia and the impact of the Napoleonic era on the Tsarist society. The novel is told through five aristocratic Russian families. Natasha Rostova, the daughter of Ilya Rostov, is an acclaimed singer and dancer. Raised in Moscow with all the love of a close family, she is a fresh breath of life and laughter. As she grows up, she yearns for experiencing romantic love.

Tolstoy wrote War and Peace at a time when depression was not defined. But Natasha shows the symptoms of depression; these symptoms were referred to as ‘melancholy’ back then.

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‘Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way’. This is how Leo Tolstoy begins Anna Karenina, one of the most celebrated novels in world literature. Anna Karenina is perhaps one of the bravest women Tolstoy ever created. She rebels with her class and fights for love while searching for the meaning of her life. A woman like Anna was way ahead of her times.

Anna belongs to the highest circle of St. Petersburg. She is married to Karenin and has a son. She also possesses a great deal of passion and refuses to live her life without contradictions. This is what causes Anna’s downfall.

Anna Karenina is the story of the relationship between Anna and Count Vronsky that scandalizes the social circles of St. Petersburg. This forces the young lovers to flee to Italy in search of happiness, only to come back to Russia later. Anna’s passion drives her life, something that makes her choose Vronsky over her son. The novel also has many other famous characters including Kitty and Levin.

The novel was first published in the format of a book in 1877. It was initially released in instalments from 1873 to 1877 in the periodical The Russian Messenger. Anna Karenina is celebrated as one of the greatest novels ever written; Tolstoy himself considers this work as his first true novel.

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Tom Sawyer needs no elaborate introduction. Everyone knows him; a boy full of mischief, yet pure at heart. He is perhaps best remembered for brainwashing a number of other boys to whitewash Aunt Polly’s fence by making the work seem to be extremely absorbing, only because he finds the task unpleasant. He is considered to be the epitome of American boyhood.

Tom Sawyer first appears in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The name of the character was based on Tom Sawyer, a jolly and flamboyant local hero whom Twain met in San Francisco.

Tom appears in many other works of Twain including Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, Detective, Tom Sawyer Abroad, and Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer Among the Indians.

Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer Among the Indians was abandoned by Twain after finishing the first few chapters and do not have a complete plot.

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Let us now turn our focus to Tom’s best friend and companion Huckleberry Finn, fondly known as Huck. Nobody knows Huck’s exact age; he is perhaps ‘thirteen or fourteen or along there’ as Twain puts it.

Huck leads the life of a destitute vagabond. He is the son of the town’s vagrant drunkard ‘Pap’ Finn, who beats up Huck as he pleases. He wears the clothes of full-grown men which he probably received as charity and lived on what others gave him. Huck lives a carefree life free from societal norms or rules, stealing watermelons and chickens, boats and cigars. But clever Huck calls his actions borrowing.

Huck is adopted by Widow Douglas after he finds a treasure. The story does not end there. In a turn of events, Pap kidnaps Huck, Huck escapes, fakes his death and camps alongside the Mississippi River with a runaway slave named Jim.

Huck and Jim share days of adventures, trying to escape two search parties looking for them. In the end, Jim is set free; Huck refuses to be adopted and goes to the West.

As we all know, the story of Huck is chronicled in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The book is noted for its colourful description of people and places along the Mississippi River. It was adapted for television and films several times.

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All the members of the Chuzzlewit family have something in common; they are all selfish. Dickens talks about the Chuzzlewit family in a satirical fashion in his novel The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit.

Old Martin Chuzzlewit, the wealthy patriarch of the Chuzzlewit family, lives in constant suspicion of the financial designs of his extended family. Young Martin Chuzzlewit is the grandson of old Martin and his closest relative. Along with money, he has also inherited much of the stubbornness and selfishness of the old man. Young Martin’s engagement to Mary causes a rift between the grandfather and grandson. Towards the end of the novel, Martin becomes a changed man; he ends up repenting for his past actions born out of selfishness.

The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit was first published by Chapman & Hall in installments between 1842 and 1844. The novel is also notable for two of Dickens’s notorious villains, Seth Pecksniff and Jonas Chuzzlewit.

Let us now talk about Nicholas Nickleby, a novel about the life and adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, a young man with whom rests the responsibility of providing for his mother and sister after his father dies.

After his father’s death, Nicholas is forced to leave a comfortable life at Devonshire and travel to London to seek aid from his uncle Ralph Nickleby. He has to take his mother and sister along with him. Ralph is a cold and ruthless businessman who has no desire to help his destitute relations. He hates Nicholas as he reminds him of his dead brother.

In the beginning of the novel, Nicholas is shown as an honest and steadfast young lad. But as the story progresses, his youth and inexperience of the world make him violent and emotional.

There is another interesting fact about the novel. Dickens began writing Nicholas Nickleby while still working on Oliver Twist. It was originally published in twenty monthly installments.