Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Couples

This week at Top Ten Tuesday (brought to you by The Broke and the Bookish) the topic is your favorite couples in literature. I'm not all that hung up on romantic pairings. I've spent the better part of the day trying to come up with ten couples that just wow me. Can't do it. Here's what I have managed:

1. Harriet Vane and Lord Peter Wimsey: Dorothy L Sayers did her very best to produce an example of the perfect union. A marriage of the minds and spirits, as well as fiery romance (that comes late in the saga) where the couple are true partners. I love the interaction of Harriet and Peter.

2. Phryne Fisher and Lin Chung: Kerry Greenwood's 1920s free-spirit and private detective extraordinaire, Phryne is marvelous in her own right. But her enjoyment of her romantic interludes with her lover Lin Chung (as well as various others along the way in the series) is as delightful as it must be scandalous to the time period.

3. Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth: Persuasion is my favorite Austen novel and these are my favorite Austen characters. One wishes Anne had not been persuaded at the outset...but then, I suppose, there would be no novel.

4. Kate Fansler and Reed Amherst: Another marriage of equals...in a true partnership. There is much affection between the characters of the Amanda Cross mystery series, but no ties that constrict. The books are worth it for the quotes I gather from the conversations between Kate and Reed.

5. Pam and Jerry North: This mad-cap detective couple (who beat Nick and Nora Charles--even the film versions--hands-down) are wonderful together. I am always on the look-out for the Lockridge books that I don't yet own or have not read.

6. Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes: Laurie R King has done what many may have thought could not be done...found a woman to outshine the woman. Mary absolutely complements Holmes in every way and matches him wit for wit and deduction for deduction. A terrific series.

7. Miranda and Alan: from Miranda by Grace Livingston Hill. Once upon a time, I was in a huge romance novel phase. I devoured the Hill books as well as Victoria Holt and others. This couple stands out. Alan is the (much older) black sheep of the town. Only Miranda whose child's heart has loved him from the time he defended her at school is the only one who believes him innocent of all that has been claimed about him. A well-worn plot, but this was the first time I ever encountered it and I loved it.

8. Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester: a classic (and I just finished re-reading it, so it's fresh in my mind). I like Rochester's apparent brooding ways WAY more than Heathcliff's and I love how Jane shows in little ways that she's his equal in all but station until...but, reader, that would spoil the ending....

That's it can't come up with two more couples for anything. How about you? Who's on your list?