{"id":309221,"date":"2026-04-06T07:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T11:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/electricliterature.com\/?p=309221"},"modified":"2026-04-21T09:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T13:07:14","slug":"announcing-the-winner-of-march-cadness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/electricliterature.com\/announcing-the-winner-of-march-cadness\/","title":{"rendered":"Announcing the Winner of March Cadness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After an exciting week of voting, March Cadness has officially come to a close. There were some truly despicable contenders in this year\u2019s bracket, but only one cad could take the crown. Before we announce the winner, let\u2019s take a look at how things played out:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s Final Four all featured cads in novels from the nineteenth century, which, in hindsight, may not be a coincidence. After all, cad<\/em> is itself a nineteenth-century term that comes with a loaded set of social anxieties, gender norms, and moral codes of that era. In trying to be clever and, of course, punny<\/em>, did we unintentionally bias the bracket from the start? It\u2019s possible. Or <\/em>these characters have endured precisely because they defined the archetype and gave rise to the cads that followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way, the Final Four ultimately brought us back to four defining figures of nineteenth-century cad lit: Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights<\/a><\/em> by Emily Bront\u00eb, George Wickham from Pride and Prejudice<\/a><\/em> by Jane Austen, Dorian Gray from The Picture of Dorian Gray<\/a><\/em> by Oscar Wilde, and Edward Rochester from Jane Eyre<\/a><\/em> by Charlotte Bront\u00eb. Along the way, there were a few close calls. Dorian Gray eked by Lestat de Lioncourt from Interview with the Vampire<\/a><\/em> by Anne Rice by just 10 votes, and Edward Rochester managed to dispatch early favorite Nino Sarratore from Elena Ferrante\u2019s Neapolitan<\/a> <\/a><\/em>Novels<\/a> by 14 votes.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the semifinals, Heathcliff and Edward Rochester were eliminated, depriving us of any Bront\u00eb sisters in the final round and leaving a championship matchup between Dorian Gray and George Wickham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And who won? In a close battle, with just 12 votes separating the two, the title of best (worst?) cad of them all goes to: George Wickham. Congratulations! And shame on you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See below how the full bracket played out:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Thanks to everyone who joined in! We\u2019re already looking forward to doing it again next year with another pun-based bracket.<\/p>\n\n\n