Michelle Pauli in The Guardian:
According to Waterstone’s, the baddies have the edge over the good guys every time if you’re after a gripping read, and the bookshop chain has launched a campaign celebrating great fictional villains and anti-heroes. It has compiled a list of the top 20 novels it believes feature the best villains, from Lord of the Flies and Fight Club to The Catcher in the Rye, American Psycho and Lolita…
1. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (Penguin)
The devil goes down to Moscow.2. Perfume by Patrick Suskind (Penguin)
A vile crime carried out by an eloquent criminal makes for moral confusion.3. Lord of the Flies by William Golding (Faber)
The thin line between human reason and animal instinct is crossed.4. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk (Vintage)
Much nastier than the film. A cocktail of hatred, anger and destruction.5. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (Penguin)
The ultimate novel of teenage delinquency…
More here. And click here to submit your own nomination for top villain in 50 words or less, to win all 20 books.