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Original poster

Whose the most horrible character in any book you've read?

244 replies

FreddoBaggyMac · 31/08/2010 08:28

I've just finished 'The Help' and am very sad about it too [sniff] I miss Aibileen... Anyway I feel the need to make my hatred of Miss Hilly public. I don't think I've ever detested anyone in a book quite so much...

I thought I would create a tribute thread in her honour, listing the most repugnant characters in fictional history. Please help by adding entries to the list!
I nominate MISS HILLY from The Help as the number one entry.

OP posts:
Snorbs · 01/09/2010 12:06

I think Kevin's mother was quite a complex and flawed character. And therein lies the book, of course - it was a lot less to do with Kevin himself than his mother's perceptions of his behaviour and what she thought that meant about him and her.

MrsMadWriggle · 01/09/2010 10:20

Another vote for Madame Bovary. I just wanted to shake her and tell her to stop being such a stupid cow.

Agree with all those you nominated Angel Clare.

BubbaAndBump · 01/09/2010 10:18

I voted for Kevin sethsmum

sethstarkaddersmum · 01/09/2010 10:14

how come people think Kevin's mum is worse than Kevin then - what's that all about? Being a cold mother is worse than blinding your little sister and murdering your dad? Confused

Spacehoppa · 01/09/2010 09:12

I'm with you on Mrs Danvers she is just so twisted (not you MrsDanversbites obviously). Come to think of it the vicar in Jamaica Inn was kind of scary.

pinkthechaffinch · 01/09/2010 09:10

He was called George osborne, a vain,amoral, over priveleged cad; remind you of anyone?

Jos sedley was also an obnoxious twat. Becky sharp hilarious .

tortoiseonthehalfshell · 01/09/2010 08:44

Becky Sharp is wonderful! I had less time for that wanker George, or whatever Amelia's husband was called. Twat.

deaddei · 01/09/2010 08:40

Tony Blair.
Smile

Snorbs · 31/08/2010 23:03

Elethiomel the Chairmaker in Iain M Banks' Use of Weapons is more than a touch unpleasant, too.

TheBolter · 31/08/2010 21:14

pinkchaffinch Grin

Oh yes, Becky Sharp. Silly mare.

bulby · 31/08/2010 21:07

I also couldn't stand the female lead in time travellers wife, didn't think she was evil though just pretentious and try hard. Not sure who I thought was really evil in fiction

chocolatefroggie · 31/08/2010 20:59

Yes UnePrune we did study Perfume for English lit but I took the International Baccalaureate so quite different, we studied 20 something books over the two years and they weren't all 'English' but they were all 'literature'.

BrightLightBrightLight · 31/08/2010 20:56

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

nappyzoneloveschinesefood · 31/08/2010 20:53

Lord Voldemort.

seaturtle · 31/08/2010 20:50

Another vote for Angel Clare. Been almost twenty years since I read Tess but I remember Angel admitting to Tess that he'd had a premarital romp in London in his youth. Then Tess admits to being assaulted by Alec and he decides he can't deal with it and leaves her. Or something like that. I remember thinking he was a bastard for doing that.

snigger · 31/08/2010 20:50

Oh, Judith, you don't like anyone. Go cletter something. Grin

maktaitai · 31/08/2010 20:18

Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair.

cyteen · 31/08/2010 20:12

Chappy the paedophile in The End Of Alice. An unrepentant rapist and murderer of children.

DilysPrice · 31/08/2010 20:08

Another vote for Heathcliff - what makes him so awful is that there are deluded Twilight-reading types out there who actually think he's romantic and swoony. Not got any time for Mr Rochester either, regardless of Wide Sargasso Sea rewritings he's pretty vile to everyone else.

And Madame Bovary - silly cow - I would have been more sympathetic, but the fate of the daughter seals it for me.

Rupert C-B, tragically I can sort of see the appeal of, (possibly because I read them in reverse order) but he is horrific in Riders.

Lurching off topic slightly, the Laurence Olivier Pride and Prejudice film has a bit at the end where Lady C de B's threats to Elizabeth are actually a put-up-job between her and Darcy to test whether her affections are genuine. Turns a great romantic hero into a sneaky untrusting git.

sethstarkaddersmum · 31/08/2010 20:02

Yes indeed Snigger. I don't like Urk.

Lionstar · 31/08/2010 19:56

Can I lower the tone and suggest Rupert Cambell-Black Grin

MrsDanversBites · 31/08/2010 19:53

hey my ears are burning

don't forget The Twits, they were rather unsavoury

actually, that one at the end of A Prayer for Owen Meany was vile - can't remember name - the one who tried to hurt all the little Vietnamese kids??

DuchessOfAvon · 31/08/2010 19:53

Just read a book left behind by a house-guest called The Blind Man of Seville by RObert Wilson. The figure of the artist father is unremitingly dreadful - a hateful, hateful man.

There is a difference between horrible and irritating (I defend Lydia and Clare and Henry) - Zenia is plain narsty though. She qualifies.

UnePrune · 31/08/2010 19:46

Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker in James and the Giant Peach were particularly disturbing.

Plumm · 31/08/2010 19:42

Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter makes my skin crawl!