If you have read any of the books in this sample, please tell me about the detectives and victims.

Would Mary Bennet have found more fulfillment as a statistician? Here’s my list of four characters in Jane Austen’s novels who might have opted for a quantitative career (and might have been happier for it).

Operas feature princes and princesses, priests and priestesses, artists, courtesans, and even a mechanical doll. Few statisticians are listed among the dramatis personae. Here’s my list of five opera characters who might have opted for a quantitative career (and might have been happier for it).