Top ten eccentrics in literature

For the Guardian, David McKie, author of Bright Particular Stars: A Gallery of Glorious British Eccentrics, named a top ten list of eccentrics in literature.

One character on his list:

Sairey Gamp, in Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens

In the novels of Dickens it's the non-eccentrics who are in the minority, but Mrs Gamp is one of the richest among the majority with her unquenchable flow of proverbs, her inventive relationship with her friend Mrs Harris, and the fragrance she carries with her, as her creator says, "borne upon the breeze, as if a passing fairy had hiccoughed and had previously been to a wine-vault."

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue