[Peter Sellers as #34 via prodigaldog]

The 50 Greatest Villains in Literature according to The Telegraph

50. Helen Grayle/Velma Valento from Farewell, My Lovely, by Raymond Chandler

49. Steerpike from Titus Groan and Gormenghast, by Mervyn Peake

48. Shere Khan from The Jungle Book stories, by Rudyard Kipling

47. Long John Silver from Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson

46. Moriarty from The Final Problem, by Arthur Conan Doyle

45. The White Witch from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C S Lewis

44. Milo Minderbinder from Catch-22, by Joseph Heller

43. Fred from The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood

42. Grendel’s Mother from Beowulf

41. O’Brien from Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell

40. Captain Hook from Peter and Wendy, by J M Barrie

39. Moby-Dick from Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

38. Gil-Martin from The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, by James Hogg.

37. Surtur in A Voyage to Arcturus, by David Lindsay

36. The Judge from Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy

35. Mrs Coulter from the His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman

34. Clare Quilty from Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov

33. Count Fosco from The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins

32. Signor Montoni from The Mysteries of Udolpho, by Ann Radcliffe

31. Tom Ripley from The Talented Mr Ripley, by Patricia Highsmith

30. Bill Sikes from Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens

29. Marquise de Merteuil from Les Liaisons Dangereuses, by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

28. Quilp from The Old Curiosity Shop, by Charles Dickens

27. Alec d’Urberville from Tess of the d’Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy

26. Cthulhu from The Call of Cthulhu, by HP Lovecraft

25. Sauron from The Lord of the Rings, by J R R Tolkien

24. Don Juan in (among others) El Burlador de Sevilla, by Tirso di Molina

23. The Joker from Batman, by Bob Kane, Bill Finger and Jenny Robinson

22. Ernst Stavro Blofeld from the James Bond novels, by Ian Fleming

21. Augustus Melmotte from The Way We Live Now, by Anthony Trollope

20. Mr Hyde from Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson

19. Edmund from King Lear, by William Shakespeare

18. Mrs Danvers from Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier

17. Patrick Batemen from American Psycho, by Bret Easton Ellis

16. Ferdinand from The Duchess of Malfi, by John Webster

15. Svengali from Trilby, by George du Maurier

14. Hannibal Lecter from Red Dragon, by Thomas Harris

13. Count Dracula from Dracula, by Bram Stoker

12. Barabas from The Jew of Malta, by Christopher Marlowe

11. Pinkie Brown from Brighton Rock, by Graham Greene

10. Vindice from The Revenger’s Tragedy, by Thomas Middleton

9. Mr Kurtz from Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad

8. Claudius from Hamlet, by William Shakespeare

7. Ambrosio from The Monk, by M G Lewis

6. Robert Lovelace from Clarissa, by Samuel Richardson

5. Voldemort from the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling

4. Iago from Othello, by William Shakespeare

3. Cruella de Vil from The Hundred and One Dalmatians, by Dodie Smith

2. Samuel Whiskers from The Tale of Samuel Whiskers, by Beatrix Potter

1. Satan from Paradie Lost, by John Milton