Lazarus Long aka Woodrow Wilson Smith from the Heinlein books
Honor Harrington from the Honorverse series by David Weber

There are others but those bookend my life, the first was from my teens/20s when I read everything I could get from Robert Heinlein. The second I found once I started using a Kindle a couple of years ago and I have read the all of the Harrington books three times over.

Yes! I wrote Sam Vimes because he was the first that came to mind but honestly, the witches and the watch characters are all awesome as far as I am concerned.

Nothing from the Arabian Nights?

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

I'm ashamed to admit that I never made it to the end of that one... It's probably been a decade since I last gave it a go, maybe I should try it again.

Jake Brigance from A Time to Kill

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

You need to change your screen name until you do, then you can change it back

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Many of those already listed but a few more I haven't seen:
Isabelle -The Nightingale
Don Quixote - self titled
Aragorn, son of Arathorn, the Ellesar, the Elfstone, Dunadan - LOTR

Thank you.

Also, Raoul Duke

What about his other brother Darrell?

X2 on Smiley. I don't care much for Clancy anymore--too pedantic.

Holden Caufield

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DISH is how we do it.

Very well aware. I think this was the first "adult" novel I read.....I remember continually running to my Dad's office giggling at all the swear words in it. I was definitely <10 y.o. when I first read it. It has held up well.

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"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs." John Rogers

The Underground Man, from Notes from Underground. I don't think there's an author who developed and understood characters the way Dostoyevski did. I could pick numerous characters from most of his works, but in my opinion, The Underground Man captures his essence the best.

Others have mentioned him, but Holden Caulfield, probably for the reasons everyone else has.

Mersault from The Stranger. I don't think it's a particularly well developed character, but it's one that I personally related to. You can analyze that however you want.

Louis Wu from Niven's Ringworld series

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Jim

**Note above poster works for a retailer selling bikes and related gear*

We got to read the original text in Honors French

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

 Not even a central character....just a guy that stuck with me for some reason. Edwin "Eddie" Willers - From Atlas Shrugged. Not a hero, just a regular, yet loyal, guy trying to do his job working for people with outsized personalities and abilities. He was loyal, but he didn't have the same skills as those around him.