Characters in the Next Book

I was just wondering what previously published book characters other readers would like to see in the next Thursday Next book. Also, should Thursday book cross ever again, what book (poem, etc.) would you like her to enter? Remember, the year will be 2002, so the book/character has to have been published by or before then.

I think we can easily predict the presence of Elizabeth from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. I'm glad, since she's a favorite character of mine.

I think her sister Mary is deserving of a part in the next Thursday Next book. She seemed so droopy and lonely at times in P&P.

At some point, I would like to see Montag of Ray Bradbury's Fahreheit 451 in a Jasper Fforde book.

Montag would be good, but Bradbury? It's a bit blunt for Fforde's usual characters. I like it, however.

I could see this thread easily becoming a "I think it should be this character because it's my favorite book" kind of thread.

In that vein; I would like to see Thursday meet up with Harry Potter. Only kidding . . . had you, eh?

Since I've started reading these books I've always thought it would be fun if Fforde could tease a plot line out of Sherlock Holmes a bit more (more than Mycroft's antics, anyhow). It seems so rife for the picking what with all his "miraculous" deductions. It would be ammusing to see someone outside the book feeding him his deductions.

I am excited to hear other's idears.

I must admit that I had thought of Harry Potter. This was before any word was mentioned on Jasper Fforde's newest addition to his Thursday Next series. I reasoned that he wouldn't use Harry Potter because of the time in which the series (for the most part) takes place in. We now know that his next book may take place late enough that I believe he could use Harry. However, I don't think he will. :(

One thing I really enjoyed was the incongruity of Miss Havisham's character, with the auto racing and such. My first thought was to suggest another staid character who has some similarly surprising obsession, but that would be kind of repetitive. So I thought about other reversals or surprises:

Elwin Ransom as a secret cross-dresser
Arwen Undomiel as a fan of pro wrestling
Allan Quartermain as a lover of bunnies and chicks
Lancelot as a devotee of "All My Children"

... and so on

Funny that you should mention Arwen. I've been thinking that it's high time one of the characters from LotR shows up. Maybe even joins Jurisfiction. (Will we see Thursday training, say, Eowyn?)

Unfortunately, because of copyright issues most of the characters have to be public domain. It would be fun to see Gandalf and Dumbledore comparing notes with Merlin, maybe complaining about the upkeep that beards demand, etc.

I would like to see Thursday meet Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables. I can hear Anne giving all the landmarks in Swindon romantic sounding names and petitioning the Council of Genres to let her change her name to Cordelia.

I love the idea of Arwen being a fan of pro wrestling!

These are great! :)