I’m back to the Penguin list of 100 Best Classics in twenty categories. Today, we choose the Best Minxes.
minx: an impudent, cunning, or boldly flirtacious girl or young woman.
THE BEST MINXES (according to the Penguin List)
Vanity Fair
William Makepeace Thackeray. Yes, Becky Tharp is a minx if there ever was one.
Lolita
Vladimir Nabokov. I haven’t read anything by Nabakov.
Baby Doll
Tennessee Williams. I’m not familiar with this play (?) either.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Truman Capote. Miss Holly Golightly is a sort of a minx, but I am philosophically opposed to including Capote on a list of best anything. And I’ve not read the book, only seen the movie.
Emma
Jane Austen. Emma isn’t really a minx, just a bad matchmaker.
Best Minxes (according to Semicolon)
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. Now Marianne is a minx, until she learns to be more sensible.
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray.
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. Scarlett, the minx of all minxes. I read that Ms. Mitchell was highly influenced by Thackeray’s Vanity Fair.
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. Lilly isn’t very good at being a minx. She either goes too far or not far enough, which is the point of the book.
Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy. Bathsheba Everdene is a bold minx, juggling three men and keeping them and her readers guessing.
Whom do you nominate for Best Minx in Literature?
Now I would have to disagree. Lucy Steele is much more of a minx than Marianne, don’t ya think?
You have a point. Marianne is a bit clueless whereas Lucy is a designing woman–who gets what she deserves.
I agree with that, Lucy is definitely the minx in Sense and Sensibility.
How are we defining minx? Lolita???? She was a young girl abused by a pedophile. I don’t think that qualifies as a minx! I agree with the Lucy Steele comment. Marianne was above minxdom – she revered passion not silliness and manipulation. How about Lydia in P&P, since we are doing Austen. Or even Louisa Musgrove setting her cap at Captain Wentworth but then switching to Bennick in Persuasion. And I think Isabelle Thorpe was a definite minx in Northanger Abbey. Capote is an excellent writer I think. But I have never read In Cold Blood because the idea terrified me. But poor Holly could qualify. How about Rosamund in Middlemarch? Or whatsherface in Great Expecatations. Okay, now you’ve got me going. I have to go mull over this some more!
I think Lydia was too stupid to be a true minx…but Bingley’s sister – she might qualify! And Louisa Musgrove was just a romantic girl – not a mean or conniving bone in her body.
But yes, Isabella Thorpe – definitely a minx!