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

[FreddoBaggyMac]

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.

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.

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

Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair.

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

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.

Lord Voldemort.

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'.

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

pinkchaffinch

Oh yes, Becky Sharp. Silly mare.

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

Tony Blair.

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

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 .

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.

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?

I voted for Kevin sethsmum

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.

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.

Alec in Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Nasty rapist who ruined that girl's life.

Also, the evil mother in Goodnight, Mister Tom.

Having read the thread, agree Mrs Danvers is way evil.

Also, the copper in Irvine Welsh's Filth.

Henleigh Grandcourt in 'Daniel Deronda' - classic emotional abuser

ditto Arthur Huntingdon in 'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall', I really wanted Gilbert to deck him at the end.

Gerald Fedden in 'The Line of Beauty' especially at the end when he turns on Nick, what a hypocrite!

Also Barbara Covett in 'Notes on a Scandal' is pretty terrifying, played well by Judi Dench in the film

Bunny in 'The Secret History' - I'd have killed the little fucker myself and not thought a moment about it.

Personally can't stand Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, with Cathy a close second. They're just so...deranged, the pair of them.

Hatsumomo in memoires of a geisha

Neely and Helen in valley of the dolls