Audible.com has created a list of the Top 20 Fictional Villains in literature. After reading over the list, I felt that there were a few entries I didn't fully agree with - and a few notable villains that were completely missing from the list. Here's the list, according to Audible:
20. Alex - A Clockwork Orange
19. Jack Torrance - The Shining
18. Hal 9000 - 2001
17. Moriarity - The Sherlock Holmes Theater
16. Grendel - Beowulf
15. Big Brother - 1984
14. Edward Hyde - The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
13. Iago - Othello
12. Simon Legree - Uncle Tom's Cabin
11. Dracula - Dracula
10. The Devil - Paradise Lost
09. The White Witch - The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
08. Oddjob - Goldfinger
07. Nurse Ratched - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
06. Fagin - Oliver Twist
05. The Poet - The Poet
04. The Headless Horseman - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
03. Heathcliff - Wuthering Heights
02. Hannibal Lector - The Silence of the Lambs
01. Count Olaf - The Bad Beginning
I'm not sure where they came up with this list, but the biggest surprise to me was number 1 on the list. Count Olaf, really?!? Where's Lord Voldemort (Harry Potter)? And, while Iago is obviously a master villain, I'm not sure he beats out Lady Macbeth (Macbeth) or Goneril and Regan (King Lear). With so many vile and vicious evil-doers to choose from, I'm sure it's just a matter of the difficulty of narrowing it down to the very best. So, who's on the list that shouldn't be, in your opinion, and with whom would you replace them?
