Favourite villains in literature?

ionapaul

What characters have you hated more than any other encountered in your literary experience? For me, two that immediately spring to mind are Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (Ken Kesey) and Steerpike from the Gormenghast series (Mervyn Peake). Even now my hatred of them runs deep! So who springs to mind for you?

Red Hand

There seem to be two questions here, 1) a character you despise and 2) your favourite villian

For me, 1) O Brian from 1984. Ooooooh, I hate him!:)

2) I guess my favourite villian would be Hannibal Lector from Silence of the Lambs.

Dades

Most despised - Holden Caulfield.

Though not exactly a villian...

Valmont

Patrick Bateman in American psycho and a close second Kurtz from Heart of Darkness. I dont hate just think they were great characters. Also the detective in Crime and Punishment is worth a mention even though he was the good guy, he was bad from the protagonists point of view.

redcrew

The guy from Lolita...I read that book and was scared by how sick and demented he was. It all made perfect sense in his head. Even Hanaibal Lecter was aware that what he did was wrong. He knew he was mental and went along hell for leather for the ride but the Lolita guy was seriously disturbed. But because it seemed normal to him it almost seemed normal to you. Brilliantly written but scary.

Peyton Manning

Mick McCarthy, in Keano.

BossArky

The Mechanical Hound - in Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451".

Wouldn't want that dog chasing me :eek:

brianthebard

The Atheist wrote:

Most despised - Holden Caulfield.

Though not exactly a villian...

Agree with that....
Also, the french in Sir Nigel...:D fucking French....lolz.

valor

Archimedes wrote:

Mick McCarthy, in Keano.

LOL

I am also a big fan of Hannibal Lector

simu

redcrew wrote:

The guy from Lolita....

Agreed. I loved his sense of humour although he was a creep!

Tar.Aldarion

Mance Rayder
Jaqen H'ghar
Jaime Lannister
Tywin Lannister
Bronn

Morgoth

keeffe2001

the Euell father in to kill a mockingbird, even though i feel kind of sorry for him

or Randall Flagg in Stephen Kings Dark Tower series, he pops up in various guises in other King books too. He is a great villian, kind of a fan really

Tar.Aldarion

I'm just about to start that series, any good?
Bought the first two.

keeffe2001

I think its excellent, along with most king fans. I almost stopped reading after the first one though, its not a patch on the later books, I think its because he was so young when he started writing it. Get through the first two, its starts getting good in the second and from the third book on its genius.

uncle ernie

Francis Begbie
Pennywise the clown

Star Lord

Flagg
Pennywise
Heathcliff (Wuthering heights)
The shark from The old man and the sea
Carcer Dunn and Mr. Teatime (pronounced Te-ah-tim-eh) from the Discworld books

Backtoblack

Valmont wrote:

Patrick Bateman in American psycho and a close second Kurtz from Heart of Darkness. I dont hate just think they were great characters. Also the detective in Crime and Punishment is worth a mention even though he was the good guy, he was bad from the protagonists point of view.

I love Patrick Bateman! .. well no, I love some of the quotes! so funny!
I bought the book, i've yet to read it, but i've seen the film a number of times. I heard that book is a lot more gruesome.. should be interesting!

Llei

Uriah Heep. *shudders*

Most of Dickens' villains are quite... pantomimish, but Uriah actually makes my skin crawl everytime I read David Copperfield.

Mrs. MacGyver

Iago & Shylock (shakespeare's Othello & Merchant of Venice)
Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights (but i still have a soft spot for him...)
Verruca Salt (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl... what a manipulative cow!)

and last but not least...

Dudley Dursley and Voldemort (he who must not be named, Harry Potter Books)