Jay Gatsby, the mythic social climber of F. Scott Fitzgerald's celebrated The Great Gatsby, has attained new status. A panel of writers, actors and critics named him the 20th century's greatest literary character.

Finishing second is Holden Caulfield, the quintessential whiner from J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, followed by Humbert Humbert, the licentious intellectual of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. Others in the top 10 include Leopold and Molly Bloom of James Joyce's Ulysses and Atticus Finch of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. The full list appears in the March/April edition of Book magazine.

The judges included Canadian author Michael Ondaatje as well as writer Michael Chabon and Andrea Barrett and actors Rod Steiger, Griffin Dunne and Dennis Farina.