Your Favorite Villain/s in Literature

Started by Jaakko Keskinen, December 18, 2018, 06:51:43 AM

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Ten thumbs

#40
January 10, 2019, 03:04:19 AM
Not forgetting Heathcliff surely.
Another of mine is Montoni in The Mysteries of Udolpho, a man full of wicked schemes.
A day may be a destiny; for life
Lives in but little—but that little teems
With some one chance, the balance of all time:
A look—a word—and we are wholly changed.

Jaakko Keskinen

#41
January 10, 2019, 07:07:54 AM
Since someone mentioned Count Fosco, I would mention from Wilkie Collins villains Captain Wragge and Godfrey Ablewhite.
"Javert, though frightful, had nothing ignoble about him. Probity, sincerity, candor, conviction, the sense of duty, are things which may become hideous when wrongly directed; but which, even when hideous, remain grand."

- Victor Hugo

Ten thumbs

#42
January 10, 2019, 08:05:06 AM
And whilst thinking of Radcliffe, not forgetting the monk Schedoni.
As quoted on the back cover of the Oxford World Classic edition of The Italian:

'His figure was striking, but not so from grace. . . and as he stalked along, wrapt in the black garments of his order, there was something terrible in its air; something almost super-human.'
A day may be a destiny; for life
Lives in but little—but that little teems
With some one chance, the balance of all time:
A look—a word—and we are wholly changed.

Rosalba

#43
January 14, 2019, 06:36:26 AM
Richard III in the Shakespeare Play - I like his style. Mostly, he's your typical Machiavel, but his successful courtship of Lady Anne shows how evil can be tremendously attractive - well-illustrated in Olivier's film. 

Jaakko Keskinen

#44
January 22, 2019, 06:16:56 AM
Balzac's Vautrin - he's already in my eyes one of the greatest villains of all time and I haven't even read Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes halfway through yet. Plus he appears in other novels by Balzac as well, which I haven't yet even touched.
"Javert, though frightful, had nothing ignoble about him. Probity, sincerity, candor, conviction, the sense of duty, are things which may become hideous when wrongly directed; but which, even when hideous, remain grand."

- Victor Hugo

Florestan

#45
January 22, 2019, 11:10:37 AM
Three Russians

Raskolnikov

Prince Valkovsky

Marmeladov

and an Englishman

Adolf Verloc

Si un hombre nunca se contradice será porque nunca dice nada. —Miguel de Unamuno

Jaakko Keskinen

#46
March 13, 2019, 11:05:53 AM
Adding another character from The Great Gatsby, Meyer Wolfsheim. He's such a brilliant character.
"Javert, though frightful, had nothing ignoble about him. Probity, sincerity, candor, conviction, the sense of duty, are things which may become hideous when wrongly directed; but which, even when hideous, remain grand."

- Victor Hugo

NikF4

#47
March 13, 2019, 11:18:15 AM
Quote from: Florestan on January 22, 2019, 11:10:37 AM
Three Russians

Raskolnikov

Prince Valkovsky

Marmeladov

and an Englishman

Adolf Verloc

Florestan, if you have the time and inclination, what are your thoughts on Pechorin from A Hero of our Time hy Lermontov?

Florestan

#48
March 13, 2019, 11:49:08 AM
Quote from: NikF4 on March 13, 2019, 11:18:15 AM
Florestan, if you have the time and inclination, what are your thoughts on Pechorin from A Hero of our Time hy Lermontov?

I will have to read it first.  :D
Si un hombre nunca se contradice será porque nunca dice nada. —Miguel de Unamuno

NikF4

#49
March 13, 2019, 11:52:43 AM
Quote from: Florestan on March 13, 2019, 11:49:08 AM
I will have to read it first.  :D

Don't shatter my illusions!  :o

Nah, if/when you get around to reading it, do let me know your thoughts - because you're clearly not afraid to state them.  8)

Florestan

#50
March 13, 2019, 12:04:02 PM
Quote from: NikF4 on March 13, 2019, 11:52:43 AM
Don't shatter my illusions!  :o

Nah, if/when you get around to reading it, do let me know your thoughts - because you're clearly not afraid to state them.  8)

Will do.
Si un hombre nunca se contradice será porque nunca dice nada. —Miguel de Unamuno

Jo498

#51
March 13, 2019, 12:22:17 PM
Marmeladov is not villain, is he? The second villain in Crime and Punishment is Svidrigailov, I'd say.
Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal

BasilValentine

#52
March 13, 2019, 01:27:01 PM
Quote from: Jo498 on March 13, 2019, 12:22:17 PM
Marmeladov is not villain, is he? The second villain in Crime and Punishment is Svidrigailov, I'd say.

Marmeladov isn't a villain, he's a pathetically weak drunk. Svidrigailov is the principal villain.

While we're on Dostoyevsky: Smerdyakov (and Fyodor) in Brothers Karamazov, Peter Verkhovensky and Nikolai Stavrogin in Devils, Peter is particularly odious, Rogozhin in The Idiot.

Hugo: Claude Frollo is vile in The Hunchback, Thernadier in Les Miserables.

Jo498

#53
March 13, 2019, 02:12:30 PM
Frollo is vile but he is also a complex character; he really cared for Quasimodo when he was young (and he is also too charitable towards his lazy partying brother. He is a Faustian character with his alchemy obsessions and basically driven insane by lust and jealousy.
Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal

DaveF

#54
March 13, 2019, 02:41:17 PM
Milo Minderbinder in Catch-22.  Villainous and funny.
"All the world is birthday cake" - George Harrison

NikF4

#55
March 13, 2019, 06:02:15 PM
Quote from: Florestan on March 13, 2019, 12:04:02 PM
Will do.

Cool.  8) Seriously, if you have the time to read it (even just the 'Princess Mary' section) your thoughts would be interesting, due in part that you're one of the posters in this forum who has the balls to share your opinion on stuff, seemingly unbridled.  ;D

Florestan

#56
March 14, 2019, 12:39:20 AM
Quote from: NikF4 on March 13, 2019, 06:02:15 PM
Cool.  8) Seriously, if you have the time to read it (even just the 'Princess Mary' section) your thoughts would be interesting, due in part that you're one of the posters in this forum who has the balls to share your opinion on stuff, seemingly unbridled.  ;D

Why, thanks, I'll try to oblige asap.  8)
Si un hombre nunca se contradice será porque nunca dice nada. —Miguel de Unamuno

Overtones

#57
March 14, 2019, 01:01:42 AM
Quote from: BasilValentine on March 13, 2019, 01:27:01 PM
Marmeladov isn't a villain, he's a pathetically weak drunk. Svidrigailov is the principal villain.

While we're on Dostoyevsky: Smerdyakov (and Fyodor) in Brothers Karamazov, Peter Verkhovensky and Nikolai Stavrogin in Devils, Peter is particularly odious, Rogozhin in The Idiot.

Hugo: Claude Frollo is vile in The Hunchback, Thernadier in Les Miserables.

I second the Stavrogin mention. The most evil and best written character I've ever read.

Jo498

#58
March 14, 2019, 01:08:31 AM
I should get back to reading Dostoevsky. I again realized that I never got through any of the earlier novels and novellas (like Poor people, Humiliated and Insulted etc.) as I had to google Valkovsky although I read all of the "big ones" and several of them twice.
Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal

Florestan

#59
March 14, 2019, 01:14:13 AM
Quote from: Alberich on December 18, 2018, 06:51:43 AM
Alexandre Dumas pére: Danglars, Villefort, Edmond Dantés

Edmond Dantés, a villain? And more, as villain as Villefort? No way.
Si un hombre nunca se contradice será porque nunca dice nada. —Miguel de Unamuno
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