Literary Villains

Yesterday’s blog entry about real-life villains who have had literary pretensions got me thinking about villains in fiction.

Shakespeare excelled at portraying villains:  Iago in Othello; Lady Macbeth in Macbeth; Edmund from King Lear; Claudius in Hamlet; and Aaron the Moor in Titus Andronicus.  But other writers have also included some dastardly villains.

Various publications at various times have compiled lists of literary villains:

The Telegraph:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3560987/50-greatest-villains-in-literature.html ); this list prepared by the British newspaper is the most extensive and though it is from 9 years ago, it is still useful if you are interested in meeting some evil guys or gals in your next book.    

For other suggestions about memorable “bad guys,” see these lists:

The Washington Post:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-greatest-villains-in-literature/2013/09/12/fa7dd6c6-0e74-11e3-85b6-d27422650fd5_story.html?utm_term=.675eb9290c77

Publishers Weekly:  https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/59073-11-most-evil-characters-in-books.html

And then take a look at the Norton Critical Edition Periodic Tale of Literary Villains:  https://the-digital-reader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Infographic-Periodic-Table-of-Literary-Villains-norton.jpg

There would be no great literature without great villains.