One of the brilliant things about writers is the way many of them have tapped into the sentiments or imaginations not just of their own generation but of all generations since they were writing, and we may suppose for many generations to come. Every country can boast its favourite cartoon, its greatest villain its fondest form of heroic saga.
In the UK Charles Dickens has given us a score of remembered characters we all need to see again and again on the TV and film; readers still love Lewis Carroll and Oscar Wilde though he was probably more loved than any of his characters apart from the The Happy Prince. Hobbits are now considered to be part of England and many bears are called Winnie or Paddington.
Of course many of these characters have few dimensions and that is probably their attraction – they are the impossible but so recognizable. Conan Doyle did try to kill Holmes he got so fed up with the public’s love of the sleuth and found he had to bring him back to life. And although he tried to flesh out the character the overriding brilliance of his deductive reasoning is his attraction. Many of these creations become part of the dictionary.
It is a tribute to readers that we can also love the occasional loser and coward.