50 Greatest Villains in Literature

[John McFetridge]

There's another one of those silly lists, this time in the Telegraph.

The 50 Greatest Villains in Literature.

Helen Grayle/Velma Valento from Farewell, My Lovely is #50, Moriarty is #46, The Joker is #23, Hannibal Lecter is #14 and you'll never guess who's #1.

The whole list is here.

[Josephine Damian]

Well, I was glad they included The Judge, Mrs. Danvers, and Count Fosco, but how about that soldier from COLD MOUNTAIN, the guy who kills Inman? Good villain, IMO.

[John Dishon]

I don't consider Moby-Dick a villain. Ahab, perhaps, but not the whale. Why is it a villain, because it's pissed off from being constantly hunted?

Darth Vader should have been on the list. George Lucas wrote a Star Wars novel, so he counts as a literary villain.

[carole gill]

I agree with John.
Ahab was the villain, although a sympathetic one (in a way--wouldn't have wanted to be on the ship)!
And definitely Darth!

[John McFetridge]

I was in the audience once when Robert Sawyer gave this speech.

[Jude Hardin]

Drat, drat, and double drat!

What happened to Dick Dastardly and his sidekick Muttley?

[Julie Lomoe]

I tried checking the list, but all the text was too much to wade through right now. Is there an abbreviated version? Too bad the list doesn't include TV villains - Michael Easton's "Caleb" vampire on the deceased soap opera Port Charles is my all-time favorite.

My friend M.E. Kemp thinks Shakespeare's Richard III is the best villain ever, but I'll have to read the play to find out why, especially since she used the reference in a blurb about my book.

[mike D]

I think movy dick should be removed from the list as well. Tolkein's Sauron should be higher up. In general I think that list is a failure. Moriarity is one of the greatest villains of all time, and I would prefer to see Dickens' Sikes a little higher up on the list.
They left out Darth Vader, which is inexcusable among others. The real Louie from The Man in the Iron Mask is another evildoer I would have liked to see there. Satan as number one...understandable, but Beatrix Potter at number two....really?

[Nick Lawless]

Satan? That wimp?

[Jessica]

Was Voldemort in there?