We have all, at one point or another, fallen hard for a fictional character. We’ve flipped furiously through pages to find out if our hunky hero would end up escaping the lips of a lusty dragon. We’ve gasped as he kissed the wrong person, then quietly cheered as he kissed the right one, all the while knowing that the truest of true right ones was us, the reader, trembling at the other end.

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Unlike our IRL crushes, with our literary boos, we’re given the omniscient gift of perspective, which helps us swoon not only for their actions, but for their intimate thoughts as well. Even if they treat people poorly or make bad decisions, we know that in their heart of hearts, they’re good and if not wholly good, at least beautifully complicated.

That being said, we’re bringing you some of the dreamiest baes from classic literature. Our picks run the gamut from admirably loyal to passionately reckless to ruggedly handsome to charmingly witty and everything in between. They may not be perfect, but we can’t help but love ‘em all the same.

Atticus Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird

Atticus Finch is the wise, kind, caring, strong, handsome daddy of our dreams. He’d make an excellent anything (father, lawyer, neighbor, pal), but we can’t help but fantasize about what a wonderful and loving life partner he’d make. Especially if he promised to dish out meaningful and thought-provoking platitudes like this:

I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.

Jake Barnes, The Sun Also Rises

A character not so loosely inspired by his novel’s writer (Ernest Hemingway), Jake Barnes of The Sun Also Rises is a passionate, adventurous, but, ultimately, broken man. He’s the kind of lost soul that’s endlessly entrancing, but doesn’t necessarily make for the healthiest boo. Still, we’d make that hotline bling and dive into a wine-soaked evening with him any time.

Those who were aficionados could always get rooms even when the hotel was full. Montoya introduced me to some of them. They were always very polite at first, and it amused them very much that I should be American. Somehow it was taken for granted that an American could not have afición.

Mr. Darcy, Pride and Prejudice

The original bae, Mr. Darcy has it all: looks, money, social standing, coiffed hair. He’s the bachelor to end all bachelors, and though it is his uncouth and snobbish slight of our lovely heroine Elizabeth that sets much of the plot of Pride and Prejudice into action, he more than makes up for his bad behavior by the novel’s end:

I was taught what was right, but I was not taught to correct my temper. I was given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit. […] I was spoilt by my parents, who, though good themselves […] almost taught me to be selfish and overbearing; to care for none beyond my own family circle; to think meanly of all the rest of the world; to wish at least to think meanly of their sense and worth compared with my own.

George Emerson, A Room with a View

Sulky, broody and irresistibly sexy, George Emerson is the perfect example of the moody bad boy we love to hate to love. But what makes him a truly dreamy bae is the transformation he undergoes once he allows himself to fully love the novel’s heroine, Lucy. Suddenly, he is radiant and joyful, demonstrating the beauty that comes with being brave and mature enough to trust in one’s vulnerability.

About old Mr. Emerson—I hardly know. No, he is not tactful; yet, have you ever noticed that there are people who do things which are most indelicate, and yet at the same time—beautiful?

Tea Cake, Their Eyes Were Watching God

A colorful and lively soul, Tea Cake brings vibrancy into the life of Their Eyes Were Watching God’s heroine, Janie. The two meet when Janie is considerably older than Tea Cake, yet he teaches her a great deal about how to live her life openly and authentically. And though he meets a tragic end, his spirit continues to inspire Janie through the rest of her days.

All next day in the house and store she thought resisting thoughts about Tea Cake. She even ridiculed him in her mind and was a little ashamed of the association. But every hour or two the battle had to be fought all over again. She couldn’t make him look just like any other man to her. He looked like the love thoughts of women. He could be a bee to a blossom – a pear tree blossom in the spring. He seemed to be crushing scent out of the world with his footsteps. Crushing aromatic herbs with every step he took. Spices hung about him. He was a glance from God.

Florentino Ariza, Love in the Time of Cholera

For those old school romantics, there’s no better match than Love in the Time of Cholera’s Florentino Ariza. Though he’s a touch intense for us, his undying love and dedication to his childhood sweetheart, that persists over fifty-one years through her marriage to another man and her moving to a far off land, is certainly something to marvel at, even as it is at time utterly mad. But hey, the dude ruminates mighty prettily on his love:

To him she seemed so beautiful, so seductive, so different from ordinary people, that he could not understand why no one was as disturbed as he by the clicking of her heels on the paving stones, why no one else's heart was wild with the breeze stirred by the sighs of her veils, why everyone did not go mad with the movements of her braid, the flight of her hands, the gold of her laughter. He had not missed a single one of her gestures, not one of the indications of her character, but he did not dare approach her for fear of destroying the spell.

Benedick, Much Ado About Nothing

Benedick and Beatrice are one of the most engaging and playful couples in the Shakespeare canon. Their back and forth is fast-paced and hilarious; they spar with the grace of rivals so evenly-matched that the game tumbles quickly from disdain into affection into love. Though Benedick suffers from many of the shortcomings of Shakespeare’s men (over inflated sense of self, ignorance, pride), his love for Beatrice is his saving grace.

You must not, sir, mistake my niece. There is a kind of

merry war betwixt Signor Benedick and her. They never

meet but there’s a skirmish of wit between them.

Rhett Butler, Gone with the Wind

Well-educated, masculine, mysterious and equipped with a smooth southern drawl, Rhett Butler is one tall drink of water. He’s a man of conviction and a solid match for Scarlett, whose shoot-from-the-hip style leaves most men withered. But not Rhett, who finds himself increasingly attracted to Scarlett’s inner strength as the novel progresses.

I'm not asking you to forgive me. I'll never understand or forgive myself. And if a bullet gets me, so help me, I'll laugh at myself for being an idiot. There's one thing I do know... and that is that I love you, Scarlett. In spite of you and me and the whole silly world going to pieces around us, I love you. Because we're alike. Bad lots, both of us. Selfish and shrewd. But able to look things in the eyes as we call them by their right names.

Laurie Laurence, Little Women

Laurie Laurence is exactly the kind of man you want to bring home to mama. Gorgeous, sweet, caring, artistic and empathetic, he is every good archetype packaged into a tall frame with thick, swoopy hair. His abiding loyalty to the March family, through death, illness and loss, is nothing short of admirable and though we’re not sure if we’d rather pinch his cheeks or his cheeks, he’s nothing short of an absolute catch.

She liked the `Laurence boy' better than ever and took several good looks at him, so that she might describe him to the girls, for they had no brothers, very few male cousins, and boys were almost unknown creatures to them.

Curly black hair, brown skin, big black eyes, handsome nose, fine teeth, small hands and feet, taller than I am, very polite, for a boy, and altogether jolly.