Top 5 Wednesday: Protagonists You Hate to Like

Richard Grenville

Richard is unapologetically masculine, while also being weak. But Honor Harris fell in love with him and so did I. I cried a few times reading this book. It remains my favorite by Daphne Du Maurier–even more so than the older man -younger woman Rebecca.

 

Dexter Mayhew

I know, I know! I shouldn’t like him. He trampled all over Emma! It’s disloyalty to a sister to say that maybe Emma asked for some of it. Not like she tried very hard to get a life, is it?  So, yeah. I kind of liked Dexter. Kind of. Not in a “let’s spend a lifetime together” way. Just kinda. Sure he’s a jerk, but let’s face it, he was an appealing jerk!

 

Sir Richard Carlisle (aka Jorah)

Let’s be honest here. As dwerpy/sweet as Matthew was, he’d never have kept Mary happy. Mary would have raged with boredom after 22 more years at Downton Abbey. Being stuck riding to the hounds and in Point-to-Points would have have made her crazy. And don’t even mention umpteen nights of bridge with Edith and Aunt Rosamund!

Sir Richard was the very bad side of Mary–the ruthless, cut-throat side. He offered her a canvas large enough for her ego and large enough to ruin every man who didn’t have the brains (well, er… um…, balls) to ask her to dance over the years. There is a heat to Iain Glen that was in Sir Richard, too. Mary needed that. Sweet only goes so far. Heat keeps you warm at those house parties at Cliveden and shoots at Sandringham.

Plus, Mary was smart. She needed way more to occupy her time. Building a political career and grabbing a cabinet post for Richard would have kept her buys. And maybe, just maybe, she could get the explanation for how a working-class boy from Edinburgh got a Knighthood or a Baronetcy? But, it couldn’t happen….he had to do Game of Thrones one of the few t.v. shows more popular than Downton Abbey.

 

Lucius Malfoy of Harry Potter

Guilty secret time: I’ve always found Lucius Malfoy HOT. Very hot. And I don’t really like long hair. He is an arrogant, unrepentant aristocrat who believe he deserves all his rank and privileges. So be it. I can’t explain how nearly obnoxious can translate into hot, but it does.

 

Lord Sebastian Flyte of Brideshead Revisited

 

Never mind that he isn’t into women, or that for a few years he still drags around his teddy bear. He has the good taste to select Jeremy Irons as his best friend…well, Charles Ryder–played by Jeremy Irons in the original (and BEST) t.v. version. Sebastian is what happens when parents go to war with each other. Unlike the heir to the Marquess of Marchmain title, Lord Bridehead (his older brother), Lord Sebastian has been educated at Eton, not Catholic Ampleforth–his father’s ‘take that” to his estranged wife, the oh-so-Catholic-Marchioness.

Sebastian is a younger version of his father. But while his father chases unsuitable skirts, Sebastian has a penchant for obnoxious men like Anthony Blanche and his down-and-out German boyfriend. He is master aristocrat–effortlessly elegant, charming as all get out when he wants to be, perfect manners unless the family is involved, and very handsome. He’s a spoiled little boy in a man’s body. So, I shouldn’t like him. But I do.

I feel sorry for him. Bridey (his brother) gets Castle Howard (well, actually it just  played  Brdeshead in the t.v. version) and Marchmain House and a homes in Italy and probably others as well. And Mummy is so very …well…Mummy-ish. Thank heaven Nanny is there to dote on him, but let’s be honest–Nanny’s no fool. She knows who butters her bread and always has a good word for old Bridey. Sebastian–dear Sebastian. And poor Lady Marchmain. No heirs from her boys. Some 3rd cousin Matthew Crawley-type will inherit the whole lot in due course.