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We all have our favourite hero's and heroines. Mine are an eclectic bunch including the Narnia gang, the Losers Club and David Lister - Last Human. Of course the only way they can be heroes is if there is a villain for them to fight against so that is what I'm going to cover in this list. Here are my picks for the book villains I love to hate.
Dolores Umbridge - Harry Potter Series
An obvious one to start with. She's one of the most hated characters in the Potter universe, some say they hate her more than "He Who Must Not Be Named" because at least he has a reason to be horrible and I'm inclined to agree with them. I should point out that my knowledge of Madam Umbridge is purely from the books, I haven't read her Wiki article nor have I read anything about her on Pottermore. To be honest, I kinda wish JK had stopped when she released the Deathly Hallows, but anyway. Dolores Umbridge is a premium bitch of the first degree. She is so so so nasty. Imagine having her as an Auntie with her freaky kitten plates and toad-like face, she'd be a hard woman to love. But I do love her because without her The Order of the Phoenix would be a terribly boring book about Harry having nightmares. Instead we got an antagonist to rival "You Know Who" himself. From forcing Harry and various other students to slice open their hands with her "knife quill" to stomping on actual creative thought Umbridge is someone who deserves all that she gets.
William "Bill" Sikes - Oliver Twist
Did you read Oliver Twist at school? Maybe you've been in a performance of Lionel Bart's version. Either way, I bet you've heard of Bill Sikes. He is a barbaric man and career criminal with few redeeming qualities. His prostitute girlfriend Nancy loves him no matter how much he beats her and he's trained his dog Bullseye to be terrifying to all. If that's not enough for him to deserve a place on this list I don't know what is.
Corrine Foxworth - The Dollanganger Series
Ladies my age will probably recognise this venomous vixen. Even if the picture doesn't clue you in, the name should. Corrine is the product of mistakes made by her parents - her father loved her too much, giving her everything she could possibly want, her mother jealous of her husband's obvious love for his little girl hid the truth about the true parentage of Christopher, the man Corrine would marry. Her love of fine things made her betray her children eventually murdering one and causing another to commit suicide. I bet you ring your Mother right away now and tell her how much you love her for not being Corrine Dollanganger
Captain Jonathan "Black Jack" Randall - Outlander Series
If you've been on the internet over the last couple of years you'll likely have heard of Outlander, a show set in the Scottish Highlands around the time of the Jacobite Rising. Incomprehensible men in kilts and handsome British Redcoats, am I right? Well no, I'm only partly right - the Scots aren't incomprehensible, not to me in any case. Just in case you haven't read it or heard about it I'll keep this pretty brief - Captain Randall is an utter bastard. His propensity for cruelty goes beyond anything Bill Sikes ever did and he's an officer who should clearly know better. If you want to hate him (and his future alter-ego) as much as I do, go watch the show. Tobias Menzies is magnificent.
Mrs Coulter - His Dark Materials
I picked up "His Dark Materials" for some stupidly low price sometime in the 1990's. I didn't have any expectations of it, I think I read the first page of Northern Lights and bought them on the strength of that alone. Mrs Coulter (no relation to but possibly based on Ann) and her evil golden monkey are not the only antagonists in this trilogy but they are the most obvious. She's basically a modern day child catcher, stealing children to study them and destroy their innocence. I have seen "The Golden Compass" but I have no memory of it - in this case I'm not being a book snob at all, the book is 100% better.
Napoleon - Animal Farm
A final classic nasty bastard for you. Napoleon the pig is ruthless in his ambitions. He steals the farms new born puppies in order to bring them up as his own personal guards, chases away another pig who is a rival to his power then stole his ideas to improve the farms lot (which failed). He lies to the animals who look up to him and then as a final act of betrayal joins with the humans. I've only scratched the surface of this bullying Berkshire boar - he's much much worse in truth. If you've only seen either of the films (the CIA paid for British animation or the 1999 Hallmark made for TV travesty) I urge you to read the book. Especially if you think Communism is a good idea. Ugh, I can't believe I live in a world where I have to qualify this. Orwell truly would be rolling in his grave.
Don't forget to Upvote, Follow and Resteem. TTFN. x
Great post! I loved hating Dolores Umbridge and OMG Corrine Foxworth hate hate hated her!
I really need to set aside some time to watch the lifetime remakes. I watched the Flowers in the Attic one and thought it pretty good but I didn't know until I wrote this that they had made Petals in the Wind and If there be Thorns too. I thought Heather Graham was a great modern day casting for Corrine :D
I watched the original Flowers in the Attic when I was a kid and it scared the 💩 out of me. That grandpa was terrifying!
I watched the Lifetime one (although now I can't remember if I finished the whole thing) and Heather Graham was perfect! I hated her too. Lol
What? No Grendel?
I've only encountered a quarter of these villains but Oliver Twist is pretty high on my to-read list. High School left a bad taste for Dickens in my mouth after we had to over-analyze Great Expectations, although I do recall Miss Havisham being a Royal Bitch.
His Dark Materials was a tour de force though, wasn't it? Philosophy, action, fantasy... You're damn right about the books being better than the movie - what a disaster. I dragged my wife to that, telling her how great the books had been. After she said, "what the hell just happened?" and I could just shake my head and say, "I don't know. I really don't know."
Did they ever make a sequel? I never bothered to check.
VC Andrews is kind of underrated. As a connoisseur of fucked-up families, you can always trust her to share the five-star monsters.
No, no Grendel. Beowulf has passed me by in life strangely. The only encounter I've had with him is that Star Trek Voyager episode where Harry's playing the Beowulf game.
I was soooo disappointed with The Golden Compass - just the fact they changed the name from Northern Lights got up my nose. I think it would look great as a dark animation like ... um ... have you seen the animated version of Dante's Inferno? Or maybe some of the Animatrix cartoons. And no they never made The Subtle Knife.
I've read tons of Andrews' books. They were very "in" when I started high school. I really enjoyed My Sweet Audrina and just found out that they made a movie of that one to.
Thanks for your input as always @winstonalden
I have some catching up to do. Should definitely read Oliver Twist, as we didn't have it at school. I love these type of posts. :)
Oliver Twist is indeed fantastic. Hope you enjoy it!