What about villains

[emily655321]

The name that springs to mind is "Svidrigailov," from Crime & Punishment. Probably just because that's my favorite book, and tends to top all lists I make. But I like him because his character is analyzed—even in books that are pretty good about depth of character, the "villains" rarely get their fair share, when they tend to be the ones whose motives you most want to know about! But in C&P he actually gets some first-person perspective all to himself; we get to see inside his head. So he's a good—I mean, bad—one.

[higley]

Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. What an awful woman. Of all the characters I've ever seen, she sticks out in my mind as being the most villainous. Her psychological torment of her patients is unparalleled in cruelty--she destroys them from the inside out and suppresses any threat to her absolute control over the ward.

[byquist]

If you can go for a screenplay, look at "The Man (Jimmy Stewart) Who Shot Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin)." Liberty Valance is one mean dude.

[Charles Darnay]

I would definatly put Iago up there.
Macbeth not so much.
Javert (if you can call him a villain) only becasue of the great debate on whether he is or is not a villain.
vengence (from Mobey-Dick).... probably my number 1 pick

[PeterL]

Nurse Ratched was a pretty good villian, and Voldemar also fits the mold well, but I think that Rudi von Starnberg in "Royal Flash" is the best villian that I have encountered.

[Sami]

I suppose my “favourite” villain is Uriah Heap because he’s so slimy and resentful – he's disgusting because he's cunning. He's villainous as a result of weakness. I think Iago’s a good choice as well.

[davoarid]

Iago is the best, and this is from someone who's not that wild about Othello.
"The Professor" from Conrad's The Secret Agent is cool too.

[Bysshe]

It's debatable whether he's a villian - he's probably more of an anti-hero, but because he's so unpleasant, I'd have to say Heathcliff.

Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. What an awful woman. Of all the characters I've ever seen, she sticks out in my mind as being the most villainous. Her psychological torment of her patients is unparalleled in cruelty--she destroys them from the inside out and suppresses any threat to her absolute control over the ward.

I have to agree with that. I loved One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Nurse Ratched was a fantastic villian.

[Truth Untold]

I also love Iago for this.
Also i think possibly Chauvelin from the Scarlet pimpernel books if onyl for his demmed unfashinable cravat sir! Tally ho! lol!

[Union Jack]

Clamence, from "The Fall" by Camus.

[mono]

Interesting question.
As Nightshade replied, I would probably have to choose Mephistopheles from Goethe's Faust and/or Marlowe's Dr. Faustus - witty, intelligent, and deceitful.
Others I would have to choose from: Uriah Heep from Dickens' David Copperfield, the multiple villains of Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, MANY characters of Shakespeare plays, particularly from Macbeth, Hamlet, and Titus Andronicus, and multiple characters from Homer's The Iliad.

[bhekti]

Smerdyakov in The Brothers KAramazov. I really want to meet him!

[slipperyyoke]

I always liked Satan and his retinue in The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.

[mono]

I always liked Satan and his retinue in The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.

Yes, that reminds me of two other fictional characters, through representing the same figure: Satan in both Paradise Lost by John Milton and The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri.

[rabid reader]

Devil- Paradise Lost by Milton