Steerpike from Titus Groan and Gormenghast is a contender in my opinion. Also Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights (I know there are going to be some people out there itching to defend him but really he is the villain of the book).
Steerpike from Titus Groan and Gormenghast is a contender in my opinion. Also Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights (I know there are going to be some people out there itching to defend him but really he is the villain of the book).
Steerpike's a good one, because he's as much antihero as villain. The reason those books are great is because there aren't really ANY particularly LIKEABLE characters, but they're all endlessly fascinating and, for the most part, reasonably sympathetic.
I'm going to say Professor Snape as he was portrayed as a baddie until his death when we found out the truth about him. I also like Bellatrix as she is unhinged and just bonkers.
Patrick Bateman, the protagonist and narrator in Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho, is either a wicked serial killer or a sick fantasist. Either way not nice.
T-Rex in Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park. Kept trying to eat everyone!!
Patrick Bateman, the protagonist and narrator in Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho, is either a wicked serial killer or a sick fantasist. Either way not nice.
What we do know for sure is that he really, really likes Phil Collins and Whitney Houston. And that, for me, is by far the worst of his crimes.
I'm going to say Professor Snape as he was portrayed as a baddie until his death when we found out the truth about him. I also like Bellatrix as she is unhinged and just bonkers.
Yeah even though he was a hero I still think he was a nasty person though.
Patrick Bateman, the protagonist and narrator in Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho, is either a wicked serial killer or a sick fantasist. Either way not nice.
George in Martina Coles `Ladykiller`. A book she wrote years ago about a serial killer who pottered about in his shed, sucked his false teeth all the time, and could have been your next door neighbour. All my family have read it and said they couldn`t put it down and now it`s falling apart and most of the pages are taped together.
George in Martina Coles `Ladykiller`. A book she wrote years ago about a serial killer who pottered about in his shed, sucked his false teeth all the time, and could have been your next door neighbour. All my family have read it and said they couldn`t put it down and now it`s falling apart and most of the pages are taped together.
The minute I saw this thread, I was going to say George from The Ladykiller. I LOVED this booked and was fascinated by the character of George. There were moments when we flashed back to his childhood that I felt sorry for him and then we'd back to his present day actions and I was repulsed by him again. I wish Martina Cole still wrote books like this one. xx
Surely, the ultimate baddy is Satan in Paradise Lost ?
I also kinda like The Master (in "The Master"):
"The Master: 157 years old, he communicates by telepathy, which he can also use to control people's minds. He has invented a kind of vibrator-ray to take over the world."
"A master criminal, Fu Manchu's murderous plots are marked by the extensive use of arcane methods; he disdains guns or explosives, preferring dacoits, Thuggee, and members of other secret societies as his agents armed with knives, or using "pythons and hamadryads... fungi and my tiny allies, the bacilli... my black spiders" and other peculiar animals or natural chemical weapons"
Maybe Dr Martine in Limbo? He 1st amputates all the limbs of thousands of people, then retreats to a remote island where he lobotomises everyone .........
Possibly Felix Hoenikker, in Cat's Cradle. He Invents Ice Nine, which once poured into the oceans, effectively ends all life on earth ..........
I highly recommend Cat's cradle. Great Read. Particularly for the highly comical Bokononism, a pseudo-state-religion, not too dissimilar to N Korea at the moment .............
Pennywise the Dancing Clown, a.k.a. Mr Bob Gray, from It by Stephen King.
A murderous clown. Who eats children. Who can also turn into your worst nightmare. And is really just one form of a giant Lovecraftian spider-thing from outer space. Which drives you insane and then sort of absorbs your soul, so you float around inside of it for eternity.
Frank Herbert created two memorable villains - grotesque aristocrat Baron Harkonnen from "Dune", and psychopathic millionairess Mliss Abnethe from "Whipping Star".
Ralph Nickleby in Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby is one of my favourite fictional bad guys. He's astonishingly vindictive and selfish, but he has just enough regard for his niece and the child he fathered many years before the setting of the story to be human and not one-dimensional. The passage in which he jeers over the news that Nicholas Nickleby's young friend, Smike has died- because he knows this will grieve his hated nephew-only to end up staggering home in a daze of grief and remorse after learning Smike was his own long lost son, before hanging himself in the dead of night, is about the most poignant passage of fiction I have ever read.
Comments
Steerpike's a good one, because he's as much antihero as villain. The reason those books are great is because there aren't really ANY particularly LIKEABLE characters, but they're all endlessly fascinating and, for the most part, reasonably sympathetic.
Angel Claire and Alec D'Urbeville from Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbevilles.
Hannibal Lecter (Red Dragon / Silence of the Lambs)
Randal Flagg (The Stand)
The Duke and the King (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)
T-Rex in Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park. Kept trying to eat everyone!!
What we do know for sure is that he really, really likes Phil Collins and Whitney Houston. And that, for me, is by far the worst of his crimes.
Yeah even though he was a hero I still think he was a nasty person though.
The minute I saw this thread, I was going to say George from The Ladykiller. I LOVED this booked and was fascinated by the character of George. There were moments when we flashed back to his childhood that I felt sorry for him and then we'd back to his present day actions and I was repulsed by him again. I wish Martina Cole still wrote books like this one. xx
I also kinda like The Master (in "The Master"):
"The Master: 157 years old, he communicates by telepathy, which he can also use to control people's minds. He has invented a kind of vibrator-ray to take over the world."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master:_An_Adventure_Story
Fu Manchu, he was fairly fiendish ........
"A master criminal, Fu Manchu's murderous plots are marked by the extensive use of arcane methods; he disdains guns or explosives, preferring dacoits, Thuggee, and members of other secret societies as his agents armed with knives, or using "pythons and hamadryads... fungi and my tiny allies, the bacilli... my black spiders" and other peculiar animals or natural chemical weapons"
.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu_Manchu
Maybe Dr Martine in Limbo? He 1st amputates all the limbs of thousands of people, then retreats to a remote island where he lobotomises everyone .........
http://www.amazon.com/review/R3ML30OZOZ43K8/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=088184327X&nodeID=&tag=&linkCode=
I highly recommend Cat's cradle. Great Read. Particularly for the highly comical Bokononism, a pseudo-state-religion, not too dissimilar to N Korea at the moment .............
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice-nine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokononism
A murderous clown. Who eats children. Who can also turn into your worst nightmare. And is really just one form of a giant Lovecraftian spider-thing from outer space. Which drives you insane and then sort of absorbs your soul, so you float around inside of it for eternity.
Best villain ever.
Dude, he's the GOOD GUY!!!