I was just poking around to see if I could find any articles that linked Lisbeth Salander and Pippi Longstocking, and came across a couple of short, interesting pieces.
Pat Ryan in the New York Times pointed out that both characters share "singular beginnings, odd looks, and awesome skills".
I also came across a blog entry by Dorte Jakobsen, an English teacher in Denmark who reviews crime fiction and observed some
Longstocking/Salander parallels:
Just like Mikael Blomkvist, Salander thoroughly dislikes being compared to a hero from a children´s book. "He [Mikael Blomkvist] hates the nickname as anyone can understand. Someone would get a black eye if I were called Pippi Longstocking on a contents bill." (Mikael Blomkvist is teased with the nickname Kalle Blomkvist. It turns out Kalle Blomkvist is a boy detective character in three books by Astrid Lindgren, the creator of Pippi Longstocking.)
Lisbeth Salander... could easily pass for a teenage girl. Perhaps not quite like Pippi with her overlarge boots and red plaits sticking out at right angles, but certainly a conspicuous person.
...
Pippi lives on her own in a huge, ramshackle house together with her monkey, Mr Nilsson, and her horse, called Horse. We do not hear of Lisbeth Salander´s father in the first volume either, and her mother lives in a nursing home, so for all practical purposes she is also quite alone in the world.
Another essential point is their attitude to authorities.
Larsson told his publisher “My point of departure was what Pippi Longstocking would be like as an adult. Would she be called a sociopath because she looked upon society in a different way and has no social competence?” It fascinates me that a children's book character had such a hold on an adult, childless man that he modelled his own creation on her.
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