Tuesday, September 9, 2025

Top Ten Tuesday - Literary Villains

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. Top Ten Tuesday was originally created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

Below are ten literary villains!! I chose a mix of both men and women villains in this post as well demonic forces/spirits/ghosts that fit the theme as well.

1. Nurse Ratched - One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

2. Cathy Ames (my favorite female villain) - East of Eden by John Steinbeck

3. Lady MacBeth - MacBeth by William Shakespeare

4. Anton Chigurh - No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

5. Annie Wilkes - Misery by Stephen King

6. Phantom of the Opera - The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

7. Norman Bates - Psycho by Robert Bloch

8. Emeric Belasco - Hell House by Richard Matheson

9. Demonic Forces - The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson

10. Mrs. Danvers - Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Do you have a favorite literary villain or two? Leave me a comment below.

12 comments:

  1. Ooh nice list! Haven't read these but am familiar enough with a few of them! Great picks!


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  2. Wow, you've got some good - or maybe I should say bad - ones there! I remember several of them but I think my favorite literary villain will always be Mrs. Danvers. When I was a teenager I reread "Rebecca" many times and Mrs. Danvers is forever engraved in my memory. I can see her face (as I've imagined it) even now...

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    1. Thanks, Dorothy! I read Rebecca in 2022 (???) for the first time and found it to be an interesting read. I wasn't expecting Mrs. Danvers to be an evil character.

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  3. You chose some great villains. These are classics.

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  4. I'm not keen on villains, so I skipped this week. But you found some good ones.

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    1. Thank you, Marianne! I find villains to make for interesting reading... Not that I seek them out, but I find that they can add depth to the storyline/plot. I have found women have made some of the best literary villains.

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  5. If you've seen the film version of No Country, how does the characterization compare across mediums?

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    1. I've only seen the movie version, but haven't read the book. So can't compare the two mediums.

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  6. Good work! I need to finally read Catch-22 https://hopewellslibraryoflife.wordpress.com/2025/09/09/villains-favorite-best-worst-lovable-creepiest-most-evil-etc/

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