Mr. Darcy beats Heathcliff and Rochester

The Telegraph reports a poll carried out by the Woman & Home magazine among 1,500 working women between 35 to 59 years of age which found that the majority would rather read a good book than have sex, shop, or sleep.

Nearly half finished a book in less than a week, 48 per cent read more than one book at a time and, in the last year, one in five had spent £100 or more on novels.
The women surveyed said their favourite types of fiction were thrillers (47 per cent), contemporary fiction (46 per cent) and crime (45 per cent) with science fiction and romance their least favourite. (...)

Today's survey by Woman & Home magazine found that if women could pick one "desert island" book it would be the romantic classic Pride and Prejudice.
Mr Darcy was also regarded as the sexiest fictional man, beating Heathcliffe (sic) (Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights), Rhett Butler (Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell) and Mr Rochester (Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë). (...)

Only four in 10 liked books with a happy ending and many said they had felt inspired to do something after finishing a book - travel, change jobs, go back to college, leave their partners or try to write themselves.

This deeply contrasts with this previous post of ours.

The other half of BrontëBlog who is re-reading Jane Eyre right now spends her days drooling over mr Rochester. Her choice is clear, but she says she wouldn't say no to Darcy either :P. Apparently she prefers "civilised" unHeathcliffish men.

EDIT: The article is also commented on Austenblog.

Categories: In_the_News, Jane_Eyre, Wuthering_Heights