Villains ran amok during the February 2024 meeting. Collectors were asked to bring their favorite bad guys and worse women. Most of the books shown are better known for their villains than their protagonists.
Many of the books shown have been adapted to film, and three of these villains have earned their way onto the American Film Institute's 100 Heroes & Villains list. The AFI defines a villain as "a character whose wickedness of mind, selfishness of character, and will to power are sometimes masked by beauty and nobility, while others may rage unmasked. They can be horribly evil or grandiosely funny but are ultimately tragic."
The blog begins with the villains who appear on the AFI Top 50 Villains list—Dr. Hannibal Lecter, Mrs. Danvers, and Harry Lime—then considers some other equally reprehensible characters, both fictional and real.
Dr. Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs
Dr. Hannibal Lecter is a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer. He is novelist Thomas Harris's titular antagonist of the Hannibal Lecter tetralogy, Red Dragon (1981), The Silence of the Lambs (1988), Hannibal (1999), and Hannibal Rising (2006). Lecter is captured at the beginning of Red Dragon but deviously helps the protagonists of Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs capture other serial killers before he kills a guard, escapes, and resumes his own killing spree in Hannibal. Lecter's origin story and the childhood trauma which formed the cannibalistic killer is told in Hannibal Rising.
Dr. Hannibal Lecter is ranked #1 as the Greatest Villain of all time by the American Film Institute's Top 50 Villains.
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| The Silence of the Lambs |
Harris, Thomas. The Silence of the Lambs. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1988. First edition. Lecter, locked in a maximum-security facility in a mental institution while serving nine consecutive life sentences for murder, is visited by Clarice Starling, a young FBI trainee, covertly attempting to get Lecter to provide a profile of an active serial killer, "Buffalo Bill." Lecter offers cryptic clues in exchange for personal information from Starling about her painful past. Their strange relationship results in the capture of Buffalo Bill but also creates an opportunity for Lecter to escape. The Silence of the Lambs won the 1988 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel. The film adaptation won the 1991 Academy Award for Best Picture.
Mrs. Danvers from Rebecca
Mrs. Danvers is the domineering housekeeper of Manderley, the country estate of Maxim de Winter. She was the family maid to Rebecca, Maxim's first wife who supposedly died in a sailing accident. Mrs. Danvers remains profoundly devoted to Rebecca and is determined to preserve and protect her memory. She resents Maxim's new wife, whom he married less than a year after Rebecca's death, and seeks to undermine her at every step. When her sinister efforts appear fruitless, she apparently burns Manderley to the ground, preferring to destroy the house rather than allow the new Mrs. de Winter to make it her home.
Mrs. Danvers is ranked as the 31st Greatest Villain by the American Film Institute's Top 50 Villains.
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| Rebecca |
de Maurier, Daphne. Rebecca. Franklin Center, PA: The Franklin Library, 1988. Maxim de Winter returns from abroad with his new bride to his mansion, Manderley, where Mrs. Danvers, the housekeeper, quicky takes a dislike to the new Mrs. de Winter. She psychologically torments the woman by acclaiming how Rebecca, the previous Mrs. de Winter, ran the house, preventing her from making any changes to the home. Mrs. Danver's tricks the Mrs. de Winter into enraging her husband and then tries to get her to commit suicide. Her scheme is interrupted by the discovery of the real body of Rebecca, exposing Maxim as her murderer.
Harry Lime from The Third Man
The Third Man (1949) is set during the contemporary post-war Four-Power Occupation of Vienna, Austria. Harry Lime is a known racketeer, stealing scarce, much-in-demand penicillin from the military hospital, diluting it, and selling ineffective treatments to civilian hospitals. Many patients, including children, die because of the watered-down medication; those who do not die, especially the children who have contracted meningitis, suffer, go mad, and have to be institutionalized. Knowing the British police force is onto him and his scheme, Lime fakes his own death to evade capture. His plan is thwarted by an old friend, however, and the story ends the same way it began, with the graveside service for Harry Lime.
Harry Lime is ranked as the 37th Greatest Villain by the American Film Institute's Top 50 Villains.
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| The Third Man release script |
Greene, Graham. The Third Man. Shepperton: London Film Productions, 1949. An original Release Script for the 1949 film. This post-production script is the first appearance in print of the Cuckoo clock lines delivered by Orson Welles in the film. In Greene's screenplay, the scene between Holly Martins (Joseph Cotton) and Harry Lime (Orson Welles) at the Wiener Riesenrad Ferris wheel ended with Harry asking Holly about an old school chum. It was meant to show Lime's nonchalance about the tense, dark conversation he and Holly just had, but it was a weak ending to the encounter. When they shot the scene, Welles went off-script and improvised the Cuckoo clock line, which he later said he took from an obscure Hungarian stage play. This copy comes from the Richard Manney Collection of Film Classics.
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| The Third Man continuity script |
Greene, Graham. The Third Man. Los Angeles: Selznick International, 1950. An original post-production Dialogue Cutting Continuity Script, dated March 11,1950, following the February 2, 1950, US release of the film. David O. Selznick, the American co-producer of the film, wanted Noël Coward to play Harry Lime, but Carol Reed, the director and co-producer, thought that would be a disaster and preferred Orson Welles. When Alexander Korda, the British co-producer, did not have an opinion, Reed went with Welles. This copy is a duplicate deaccessioned from the archive of David O. Selznick.
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| The Third Man and The Third Man and The Fallen Idol |
Greene, Graham. The Third Man. New York: Viking Press, 1950. First American edition. A preface by Greene explains The Third Man story treatment was never intended to be read; the treatment was written to be raw material from which he would produce the screenplay. The preface also notes several differences between the treatment and the film; some of the changes were made by Greene while writing the screenplay, some were made by the director, Carol Reed, and some were suggested or made by cast members Joseph Cotton and Orson Welles. This copy comes from the library of Larry McMurtry and bears his bookplate on the front inside cover.
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| Bookplate of Larry McMurtry |
Greene, Graham. The Third Man and The Fallen Idol. London: William Heinemann, 1950. First British edition. Includes "The Fallen Idol," a short story by Graham Greene originally published in 1936 as "The Basement Room." Greene wrote the screenplay, adapting the story to film, which was directed by Carol Reed and released in 1948 as The Fallen Idol. The success of this film prompted Alexander Korda, the executive producer, to request an original screenplay from Greene, resulting in The Third Man, the second Greene/Reed collaboration. This copy comes from the library of Larry McMurtry and bears his bookplate on the front inside cover.
Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men
Anton Chigurh is a psychopathic killer and hired hitman, devoid of conscience, compassion, or remorse. He is known for his signature weapons, a sound-suppressed semiautomatic shotgun and a captive bolt pistol (stungun) which he uses to kill his victims up-close. For people he does not necessarily have to kill, he flips a coin to decide their fate; no one ever seems to "win" Chigurh's coin toss.
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| No Country for Old Men |
McCarthy, Cormac. No Country for Old Men. New York: Knopf Publishing Group, 2005. First edition. When a drug deal gone bad leaves almost everyone dead, Llewelyn Moss stumbles upon the scene in the desert near the Mexican-American border and takes a satchel full of cash. Anton Chigurh is dispatched to recover the money, while Sheriff Ed Tom Bell investigates the drug deal and tries to protect Moss. Chigurh ruthlessly tracks Moss, ultimately kills him, and finds the money. Bell subsequently retires, feeling defeated. The 2007 Coen Brothers film adaptation won four Academy Awards including Best Picture. Javier Bardem, who played Anton Chigurh, won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Sauron, Saruman, Grima, and Gollum from The Lord of the Rings
Villainous characters abound in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. Among them, Sauron is the primary antagonist seeking to rule all of Middle-earth. Saruman is a wizard who has been overcome by his lust for power and has sworn fealty to Sauron. Grίma is an advisor in the king's court who is bought and corrupted by Saruman and becomes his mole. Gollum is a centuries-old creature, originally a Stoorish hobbit, who once possessed the One Ring and will do anything to get it back.
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| The Lord of the Rings |
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings. New York: Ace Books, 1965. The "pirated" edition. The primary plot of The Lord of the Rings is to destroy the One Ring, which corrupts anyone who wears it. In an earlier age, Sauron secretly forged the One Ring to rule all the other Rings of Power in his campaign to conquer and rule Middle-earth. Now, the Fellowship of the Ring assembles to rally the peoples of Middle-earth against Sauron's armies and to defeat him, ultimately, by destroying the ring and preventing him from consolidating the power of the other magical rings.
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| The Two Towers |
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Two Towers. Norwalk, CT: Easton Press, 1965. From the four-volume set including The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. In The Two Towers Saruman faces off with Gandalf after Saruman sends Orcs to attack the Fellowship of the Ring. Gandalf frees the king from the influence of Saruman's spy, Grίma (aka Wormtongue). When Gandalf strips Saruman of most of his powers, Grίma attempts to kill him but fails.
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| Creating Gollum |
Russell, Gary. Gollum: Creating Gollum. Los Angeles: New Line Home Entertainment, 2003. After the hobbit Smeagol comes into the possession of the One Ring, he is corrupted by it and transforms into Gollum. When he loses the ring, he attempts to murder Bilbo Baggins, another hobbit who finds the ring. Throughout The Lord of the Rings, Gollum pursues the Fellowship of the Ring in their quest to destroy the ring on his own mission to get it back. Creating Gollum is a book and DVD set detailing how Gollum was created and portrayed for the Peter Jackson The Lord of the Rings film adaptation.
Big Brother from Nineteen Eighty-Four
Big Brother is the personification of political power in Orwell's dystopia. Big Brother is the ostensible leader of Oceania, a totalitarian state where the ruling party wields power for its own sake. The notion of Big Brother represents the abuse of government power, the denial of civil liberties and the lack of choice in society, and mass surveillance in pursuit of ideological purity.
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| Nineteen Eighty-Four |
Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1949. Orwell's "first thought" of the book came in 1943 or 1944, inspired by the Tehran Conference, a strategy meeting among Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin in 1943. The dystopian novels We (1924) by Yevgeny Zamyatin and Brave New World (1932) by Aldous Huxley helped shape the mood of the story as Orwell wanted to write a dystopian story of his own; the success of Animal Farm (1945) afforded him the literary clout and financial stability to attempt the despotic work. Critical reception and sales of the book far exceeded the expectations of both Orwell and his publishers. The cultural impact of the book is evident in that "Big Brother" has become a synecdoche for the abuse of government power and "Orwellian" has become a synonym for dystopian.
Shere Khan from The Jungle Book
Shere Kahn, a tiger, is the main antagonist in The Jungle Book even though he appears in only a few stories. A failed attempt to hunt humans by Shere Khan results in a young Mowgli straying from his parents. Shere Khan is angry for losing his kill and vows the boy—now adopted by the Indian wolves and further protected by a panther and a bear—will be his some day. Shere Khan makes several attempts to get to Mowgli but is always thwarted by the boy and his animal companions.
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| The Jungle Books |
Kipling, Rudyard. The Jungle Books. Norwalk, CT: Easton Press, 1980. The Jungle Books contains both collections of Kipling's Mowgli stories, The Jungle Book (1894) and The Second Jungle Book (1895). Shere Khan appears in three stories, "Mowgli's Brothers" and "Tiger! Tiger!" in The Jungle Book and "How Fear Came" in The Second Jungle Book.
Brady Hartsfield from Mr. Mercedes
Brady Hartsfield is a psychopath who began killing as an emotionally disturbed boy. He is the central antagonist in Stephen King's Mr. Mercedes (2014), and a recurring character throughout the Bill Hodges trilogy, including Finders Keepers (2015) and End of Watch (2016). Brady kills some people individually while he kills others in mass casualty attacks in Mr. Mercedes. His plan to detonate a bomb and kill as many people as possible, including himself, is thwarted by Bill Hodges, a retired detective, and others, and Brady is injured and left comatose. He awakens in the hospital at the end of Mr. Mercedes, is visited in the hospital by Hodges in Finders Keepers, and finds a way to kill again from his hospital bed in End of Watch.
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| Mr. Mercedes |
King, Stephen. Mr. Mercedes. New York: Scriber, 2014. First edition. As a boy, Brady Hartsfield killed his mentally impaired brother. Now, as a young man, he steals a Mercedes and plows into a crowd, killing 8 people and injuring many more. He also manipulates the owner of the stolen Mercedes to commit suicide. He then lures a retired police detective into hunting for him by sending him a letter in which Brady claims to be the culprit, referring to himself as "Mr. Mercedes." As Hodges's pursuit begins, Brady accidentally poison's his own mother and kills another person before deciding to kill himself and others at a concert. Mr. Mercedes won the 2015 Edgar Award for Best Novel.
Captain William Kidd
Captain William Kidd (1654 – 1701) was a Scottish privateer-turned-pirate. Kidd was commissioned to hunt down pirates in the Indian Ocean but was not very successful. Many of his crew deserted him while those who remained threatened mutiny. In an argument with William Moore, one of his own crewmen, Kidd struck Moore with an iron bucket, killing him. Admiralty law generally turned a blind eye to violence against one's crew, but killing was not tolerated. Kidd also had a reputation for being extremely violent to crewmen taken as prisoner from other ships; escaped prisoners described various forms of brutality and torture at Kidd's hand. Kidd was declared a pirate in 1698, captured in 1699, charged with piracy on high seas and the murder of Moore, and executed in 1701. His body was gibbeted, or hung for public display, for three years over the Thames as a warning to would-be pirates.
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| Captain Kidd and his Skeleton Island |
Wilkins, Harold T. Captain Kidd and his Skeleton Island. New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 1937. Illustrated. A copy of the very scarce first edition. The book covers Kidd’s life from a young man to his adventures as a buccaneer on the high seas and eventually being hung as a pirate. The subtitle, “The Discovery of a Strange Secret Hidden for 266 Years,” refers to the finding of a chart or map hidden in the false bottom of his sea-chest for “Skeleton” or Pirate Treasure Island. The map is reproduced as the end papers of the book. An additional treasure island chart was discovered in a third chest owned by Kidd, hidden behind a mirror.
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| Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates |
Johnson, Merle, ed. Howard Pyle’s Book of Pirates. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1921. Illustrated. Howard Pyle, author and artist, describes the olden times and illustrates the many pirates of the Spanish Main, including Captain Kidd.
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| "Kidd at Gardiner's Island" |
