It’s nearly Halloween, which means that fictional bad guys will be out in the streets in full force from now until Monday (and likely even longer). If you’re not sure who’s who among the villainous greats, we’ve got you covered: Kim Newman, whose newest novel Professor Moriarty: Hound of the D’Ubervilles hit stands this month, is pretty much the authority on literary villains. As Newman explains, “To be a great villain, it’s not enough just to be thoroughly evil – you have to be entertaining with it. A certain panache helps, especially for villains who fall into the category of arch-nemesis and have to prove themselves almost the equal of a flamboyantly brilliant hero. Colossal schemes are also useful, to differentiate them from low-rent thugs like Fagin and Bill Sikes, and an unusual physical appearance, fondness for novelty pets, an impressive lair and sheer persistence do help. Unusual psychological conditions are also recommended, but they need to be wedded to real malevolence for the proper chill.”
“I include one vampire – how could you leave Dracula off the list? – but have confined myself to roughly human beings, so Wells’ Martians or Lovecraft’s Cthulhu don’t get in.” Well, you have to draw the line somewhere. Click through to see Newman’s list of the best villains in literature, and then be sure to check out Professor Moriarty for more delightful, smoldering evil.
Count Dracula (Bram Stoker’s Dracula)
He gets romanticized in the movies – which make him a snappy dresser and a lounge lizard – but, really, Dracula is everything Bad. Especially from Bram Stoker’s point of view – he’s a brutal, smelly, scheming, foreign, abusive, wife-stealing, wife-beating, arrogant, bigamous, presumptive, bigoted, thieving, monomaniacal invader of decent British homes (and women). Even his monster brides accuse him of not loving them. His idea of pacifying the creatures is to feed them a baby.
Comments (13)
My personal favorite villain is Judge Holden from ‘Blood Meridian’. Purported to have existed, McCarthy portrays him as the embodiment of evil. He is as intelligent as he is monstrously violent with an almost inhuman appearance. Essentially the devil incarnate. Also The Song Of Ice and Fire saga by George R.R. Martin has an amazing array of characters all of whom are complicit in the bloodshed and villainy that unfolds within its pages.
Eeek! I love Stephen King, but Misery was too much for me. I think I made it to chapter three and then I had to quit. Shudder!
Patrick Bateman (American Psycho)
Randall Flagg (The Stand and others)
My new favorite “literary character you love to hate” is Ras Ballenger from “The Homecoming of Samuel Lake” (by Jenny Wingfield.) He’s a sadistic abuser of women, children and animals—sort of a combination of August Rosenbluth from “Water for Elephants,” T. Ray Owens from ”The Secret Life of Bees” and Bob Ewell from “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
I think I am most fascinated with villains who double as the main characters. Ahab, obviously, but also Oscar from the Tin Drum and Sebastian Dangerfield from The Gingerman. But in terms of true evil adversaries to a story’s protagonist, Ozymandias / Adrian Veidt from the Watchmen, Gletkin from Darkness at Noon, and “Professor” Woland from Master and Margarita spring easily to mind.
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Lex Luthor. Mad scientist, crazy billionaire, certainly. But in his own mind, he’s the prime example of the cream of humanity and he’s wildly resentful that an alien has usurped his place.
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[...] with caution: Kim Newman’s list of the ten best villains in literature is bound to start some nasty fights. Granted, Dracula is a pretty non-controversial choice for the [...]
Count Fosco from Wilkie Collin’s The Woman in White. The Einstein of villains. Not only cleverer than everyone else, but cleverer than they can imagine.
The real moral monster in The Maltese Falcon isn’t Gutman, it’s Brigid O’Shaughnessy.
As for Moriarty, he barely exists, except as a foil for Holmes.
You want a great villain? Iago.
Where is Judge Holden from Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian? He rapes little girls, kills babies, but at the same time, is the smartest, most well spoken of all the characters in the book.AND when you add in the fact he was a real person, and those things he did might have actually been done? I’d say he is the number one villain ever.
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