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.

How about Engleby (from the Sebastian Foulks book of the same name?) a very creepy individual?

Wormtongue from Lord of the Rings

The child Briony in Atonement is just awful. Though I sort of came around to the adult version in the final pages.

Kevin's mother...dunno... it's such a complicated story that I felt a certain amount of sympathy for her at times. Again, I came around to her in the end.

For books chock-full of horrid irritating characters you can't beat Martin Amis. Vile, all of them. It's made me want to read them all again now!

Another one is Camberwell Beauty by Jenny Eclair. Anna is particularly vile, but she goes a bit mad in the end so that's alright then.

Eucrid Eucrow in Nick Cave's first book "And The Ass Saw The Angel". Really, there is no competition.

LOL @ Briony in Atonement as "the most horrible character in any book you've ever read", by the way.

You must have led a sheltered life, Bue Have you never even read a crime novel, with, I don't know, a criminal or something?

Mrs Norris in Mansfield Park.

Mr Pudd - he pops up in a couple of John Connolly books mainly The Killing Kind I believe.
Truly horrible

Nope, the only crime novels I've read are Jackson Brodie series by Kate Atkinson and there's no one terribly unlikeable in those :) I honestly think Briony is about a million times worse than some of the other characters mentioned here!

But I've changed my mind. Just finished The Help. My god, the OP was right. Hilly Holbrook is horrid.

ooh the 'lead' in perfume by patrick suskind - totally makes me shiver years later!

Joe St. George, the husband in Dolores Claiborne.

I'd have done worse, you can bet on it.

Fagin.

He is NOT the lovable rogue in the musical, he is throroughly nasty through and through (though obv a v racist character). He is a murderer several times over; and he grooms the children in his gang to become criminals and prostitutes once they are too big to pick pockets. he is why Bill Sikes is so vile.

Franklin from We Need to Talk About Kevin - not questioning your son about how his little sister lost a fucking eye? When said son was looking after her? Fucking twunt.

Pappy in Mudbound by Hillary Jordan. Horrible, horrible, racist, evil, murderous, horrible man. And probably a paedophile too.

Yy re Fagin. The real villian.

Voldemort obviously as said

Also agree re Angel Clare, Mrs Danvers and Edward in Twlight. Can't think of anyone new at this time in the morning. (sleep deprived and a bit brainless clearly)

Hello!! I'm new so hello all. I think Lydia Bennett - total slagrat, Miss HIlly obv, and whoever that total bitch was in Cat's Eye - Cordelia?

the aunt in jane eyre. i used to have nightmares about the red room

yy to miss minchin and marchpane

the mother in flowers in the attic

tess was a complete drip btw. MOST iritating literary character ever.

The bent copper in Filth by Irvine Welsh

Totally agree re Mrs Norris, but think Mr Collins and Lydia are just hilarious, though they make me cringe with embarrassment too.

Urk is v creepy (yes, will go and cletter something to get over it).

Also agree re Sir Percival Glyde and many of the others. Refuse to read American Psycho, so can't comment on that.

I thought nearly everyone in the Slap was absolutely obnoxious, but still found an absorbing read nonetheless.

Beatrice and her son, Richard, in the Wideacre trilogy by Phillipa Gregory.
I don't think I've ever disliked any characters as much as I did with those two.

Loved the trilogy though and was quite sad when I'd finished them all.

Ronald Merrick in The Jewel in the Crown. Utterly loathsome little bounder, doncha know?

The husband in 'Wide Sargasso Sea'.

La Grenouille is definately a contender, but I reckon that Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill from the Sharpe books by Bernard Cornwell exceeds even him in sheer hideousness.... although, to be fair, I was much influenced by Pete Postlethwaite's scarily excellent performance in the tv series!!

I found Esme's sister (whose name, shockingly escapes me) in the Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox a particularly hateful peice of work!!!

Baron Vladimir Harkonnen in Dune