As a confirmed bookworm, I have my share of literary heroes whom I swoon over. There’s just something about a well-written man who can leap right off the page and lodge himself right in my loins my heart, you know?

The subtly sensual Mr. John Thornton of Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South, the totally-inappropriate-but-oh-so-swoonworthy Chairman Iwamura Ken of Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha…omo, and I’m just going to throw in Benedick of Much Ado About Nothing, too, because a man who “cannot woo in festival terms”, but trusts his lady love implicitly, enough to challenge a friend to the death? Yeah, hot.

Of course, my list would definitely be incomplete without one of the most beloved of all literary leading men: Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, who was the “pride” to Elizabeth Bennet’s “prejudice”—or was it the other way around? Anyhow, hot.

Now, a lot of actors have attempted to bring this most smokin’ of romantic leads to life.

Sir Laurence Olivier

Colin Firth

Matthew Macfayden

And while everyone brought their own charm and level of heat to it, I’m just going to be that nerd who whines, “The book was better!” Because no matter how hard any actor tries, he will never be able to approach the impossible standards set within the reader’s mind. The elements that make up Mr. Darcy, the very elements that make