The Telegraph UK asked a panel of lit-minded folks to come up with their list of the top 50 villains in the history of literature. It’s quite a dastardly list
And the losers include the likes of Iago, Ku
10 Vindice from The Revenger’s Tragedy, by Thomas Middleton
Filled with bile from his persistent melancholy – his beloved was killed by the duke – Vindice decides the best way to avenge her is to make the duke lock lips with her poisoned corpse. Fair enough: the duke got what was coming to him, as do the many others who fall under Vindice’s furious sword, but if you do think of yourself as God’s scourge, you probably shouldn’t be enjoying it this much. SR
9 Mr Kurtz from Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad
In Europe, he is an organist and scholar with a charming fiancée; but in Africa, Mistah Kurtz prefers genocide and surrounding himself with impaled heads. In the ivory trade, this kind of behaviour used to be called unsound; even today’s ivory smugglers might think it inappropriate. TP
8 Claudius from Hamlet, by William Shakespeare
Hamlet is sure who the villainliest villain is. “Bloody, bawdy villain!” he exclaims, and just to remove any doubt: “Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!” Yes, it’s Claudius, the effects of whose villainy we observe on Hamlet. CSH
7 Ambrosio from The Monk, by M G Lewis
The forerunner of the stereotype of the hypocritical priest, Ambrosio uses his pious exterior to mask a multitude of unsavoury urges. His first transgression is succumbing to his lust for temptress-disguised-as-a-monk Matilda. From then on it’s a slippery slope to damnation, culminating in the novel’s luridly gothic climax. SM
6 Robert Lovelace from Clarissa, by Samuel Richardson
The original rake, Lovelace engages in a prolonged battle of wits with the virtuous Clarissa Harlowe. He weaves an impressively intricate web of lies in his attempts to rob Clarissa of her honour: intercepting her mail, forging letters from her best friend – nothing is beyond, or beneath, this man. SM
5 Voldemort from the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
His motivation may not be clear, but you can’t deny his ingenuity. Sadly, the “most powerful Dark wizard who ever lived” is thwarted time and again by Harry Potter, so, in a bid for immortality, he splits his soul into Horcruxes, which is a bad thing to do. SM
4 Iago from Othello, by William Shakespeare
Othello’s “honest, honest” subordinate, quietly intent on the destruction of his boss’s world for reasons whose slightness has nettled critics ever since. Coleridge’s formulation “the motive-hunting of motiveless malignity” seems the best answer: behind the smiles and jokes, Iago’s mind is pure seething white noise. TM
3 Cruella de Vil from The Hundred and One Dalmatians, by Dodie Smith
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Recognising the perfect business synergies between her likes (pepper, hot things, fur coats and having one side of her hair white, the other black) and dislikes (animals), Cruella sets about turning the one into the other. To some she is a perefectly self-actualised human, to others a monster; it depends on what you think of dogs. TC
2 Samuel Whiskers from The Tale of Samuel Whiskers, by Beatrix Potter
To the stark terror of generations of toddlers, this chimney-dwelling monster rat ambushes Tom Kitten and does everything in his ratty power to bake him into a roly-poly pudding and eat him. Shudder-making terror from the doyenne of anthropomorphic animal evil. SL
1 Satan from Paradie Lost, by John Milton
There’s a school of thought that the villain of Paradise Lost is actually God. But Milton wouldn’t, at least consciously, have subscribed. Satan is the rebel’s rebel, the villain’s villain – “Hell within him for within him Hell/ He brings…” Easily clinches the top spot in our evil-dude hit parade.