KEV67 Posted June 24, 2023 Share Posted June 24, 2023 Inspired by Milady from The Three Musketeers, submit your best literary villainesses. Mine are: Milady - The Three Musketeers Barbara Covett - Notes from a Scandal Becky Sharp - Vanity Fair Miss Haversham - Great Expectations I cannot think of any others right now, but I may update my list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppy Posted June 25, 2023 Share Posted June 25, 2023 Two that spring to mind are from Game of Thrones ... Cersai Lannister and Melisandre, both unbelievably evil 😈 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madeleine Posted June 25, 2023 Share Posted June 25, 2023 Agree about Cersei, not sure about Melisandre. I'd forgotten about Barbara from Notes on a Scandal, great choice, and sadly believable too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KEV67 Posted June 26, 2023 Author Share Posted June 26, 2023 There were often villainesses in Raymond Chandler books. Often it was the beautiful woman who hired him in the first place. Think white gloves, think cigarette holder. This was not actually very original of Chandler because the her prototype was Brigid O' Shaughnessy in the Maltese Falcon by Dashiel Hammet, unless he pinched the idea from someone. I am guessing Brigid O' Shaughnessy was of Irish extraction, although that was not germane to the plot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunababymoonchild Posted June 27, 2023 Share Posted June 27, 2023 Cruella De Vil comes to mind but she's more a cartoon than anything else. The Wicked Witch of the West, from Wizard of Oz is also somewhat cartoonish/fantasy. There is Lady Macbeth from Shakespeare's Macbeth. My favourite would be The Snow Queen from Hans Christian Andersen - she stole a child how villainish is that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madeleine Posted June 27, 2023 Share Posted June 27, 2023 Yes I agree, for a lot of these characters it's best to go back to the original story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
France Posted June 27, 2023 Share Posted June 27, 2023 On 6/24/2023 at 5:24 PM, KEV67 said: Inspired by Milady from The Three Musketeers, submit your best literary villainesses. Mine are: Milady - The Three Musketeers Barbara Covett - Notes from a Scandal Becky Sharp - Vanity Fair Miss Haversham - Great Expectations I cannot think of any others right now, but I may update my list. I wouldn't describe Becky Sharp as a villaness, more of an absolute survivor, though I grant you she's thoroughly devious and always prepared to backstab but she does have redeeming points. 6 hours ago, lunababymoonchild said: Cruella De Vil comes to mind but she's more a cartoon than anything else. Have you read 101 Dalmatians? My children loved me reading it to them, it's very funny, and Cruella was a much more rounded figure than in the film - she was expelled from school for drinking ink and all her food tastes of pepper but she was a real villaness, totally focused on what she wanted. I didn't enjoy Gone Girl but the wife, was she called Amy?, was a thoroughly nasty piece of work. Most stepmothers in fairy tales are cast as villanesses, Goneril and Regan from King Lear might qualify or are they just thoroughly greedy and unpleasant? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KEV67 Posted June 27, 2023 Author Share Posted June 27, 2023 There was Livia, Emperor Augustus's wife, in I Claudius by Robert Graves. She was evil. There were a number of villainesses in those books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
France Posted June 28, 2023 Share Posted June 28, 2023 23 hours ago, KEV67 said: There was Livia, Emperor Augustus's wife, in I Claudius by Robert Graves. She was evil. There were a number of villainesses in those books. Messalina being probably the greatest villaness of them all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KEV67 Posted June 28, 2023 Author Share Posted June 28, 2023 2 hours ago, France said: Messalina being probably the greatest villaness of them all. Messalina was a slapper, but I doubt she was as bad as Livia and Agrippina. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hayley Posted June 29, 2023 Share Posted June 29, 2023 Do we have Circe yet? She has to score pretty highly for all the seducing and turning men into animals. The head witch from Roald Dahl’s The Witches was also very villainous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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