1910, Mexico. As the country’s revolution spreads, Dolores, the daughter of a wealthy banker, must flee her comfortable life in Durango or risk death. Her family settles in Mexico City, where, at sixteen, she marries the worldly Jaime del Río. But in a twist of fate, at a party she meets an influential American director who recognizes in her a natural performer. He invites her to Hollywood, and practically overnight, the famous Miss del Río is born. The ultimate goal is for a character to be believable. Wondering about the believability of a character, however, can open an entire can of worms: all of society’s prejudices and accepted stereotypes come to light as soon as a character doesn’t behave in ways that readers themselves have decided, or been taught to believe, are realistic. As a result, we often have characters who are lambasted for being unrealistic when, in fact, real people did, do, and will behave similarly. There is a reason why “life is stranger than fiction” is such a popular saying. All eight characters in the books listed below would be criticized for being unrealistic, if not for the tiny fact that they were, as a matter of fact, real people who existed. Granted, these are novels, which means that their actions, thoughts, and dialogues are largely fictional (as far as I know, the Brontës didn’t run around solving crimes), but their larger-than-life personalities? Those are entirely real. And they make for captivating main characters. Don’t believe me? Read on. If you like your historical figures better in nonfiction, try these biographies.
