My List

The title sounds a bit like Microsoft!:)
It is a tough task to narrow things down to 10. Let me try.
A few observations first.
1.Of all the Rasas Karuna is the one that is felt more easily and is the one that comes out quicker than other emotions. (It is rooted in the fact that empathy is a group response and all animals find survival is better in a group. Only predators go about separately.)That is why tragedies and sacrifices make lasting impressions-be it movies, novels, epics or real life.
2.Literature (and literary characters)also follow the same rule and Literature should give us a better understanding of the people around us and the society as a whole. So, more tragic heroes and fewer comical ones. Still eternal optimists, those that never give up, idealists also should form an important part. Alistair Maclean or Sydney Sheldon and the rest of that ilk are interesting to read but will not form a lasting impression on the mind.

So here goes-- as Krupa says. in no particular order.

1. Sydney Carton -- A tale of Two Cities
He goes to his death cheerfully to save the husband of the woman whom he loved. A woman, who goes to the tumbril with him, recognises that he is not Darnay and asks him why he is losing his life like that. His sacrifice gives her courage and she goes to her death with the head held high. That is the value of a sacrifice--that it inspires the others.

2. At the risk of blasphemy--Lucifer. Don't you think there is logic in his arguments?

3.Hamlet--the confused man and Macbeth the victim of his own and wife's greed.

4.The Man in Black--see Gouri's explanation.

5. And Yes!!! Lord Emsworth, the dotty peer.

6. Hank Rearden, who knows his strengths and yet is willing to be exploited by sentiment--you see this in several elder members of the families. Youngsters have all the rights and no responsibilities. I feel John Galt is a bit too practical.

7. For pure horror--Dracula

8. for pure deductive reasoning--which is essential in any field of constructive action--Who else--It is Sherlock Holmes.

9.For applying Psychology--not Jeeves but Miss Marple who studies the village life and from it deduces human nature and the culprits. Yet she is human. In one book she rushes for a sale to buy bedspreads and manages to buy things in the (c)rush.

10. As a doctor I have seen it happen to several greats and I always feel " but for the grace of God, there go I" and hence we always run to keep up with the latest trends--- Dr. Joseph Pearson in Final Diagnosis.