History PerspectiveFlip / Literature

* ''MaidenCrown'' is a retelling of the medieval Danish ballad "Valdemar and Tove" that focuses on its villain, Queen Sophia. It undoes the ballad's HistoricalVillainUpgrade and depicts her as a sympathetic and kind young woman who is only driven to what she does because of the pain she endures--first being uprooted from her homeland to marry a stranger, then being attacked by false accusations of an affair and [[spoiler:losing her firstborn.]]

* Gregory Maguire did ''Literature/MirrorMirror'', which was an alternate telling of Snow White.
* Creator/MarionZimmerBradley reimagines the Myth/ArthurianLegend from the viewpoint of the women in ''Literature/TheMistsOfAvalon'' and its sequels.

* In 2020, Creator/StephenieMeyer released ''Literature/MidnightSun2020'', which re-tells the events of ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' through the eyes of Edward Cullen.

* Creator/TerryPratchett's ''Literature/NightWatchDiscworld'' is a typical Literature/{{Discworld}} take on ''Literature/LesMiserables,'' which flips the perspectives of the two main characters, while keeping them easily recognizable. This is made possible because Vimes (Javert) is a much more developed character and his sense of justice is not ''quite'' as unforgiving as Javert's, while Carcer (Valjean) is a homicidal psychopath who [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation only thinks]] or [[ObfuscatingInsanity appears to think]] that he is the wronged, noble hero of Les Miz.

** One of the best is ''I, Jedi'' by Michael A. Stackpole, which fills in and comments on some of the more JustForFun/{{egregious}} plot holes from the earlier ''Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy''.

* Scott Corbett's ''Literature/TheDiscontentedGhost'' is a retelling of Creator/OscarWilde's "The Canterville Ghost" from the ghost's perspective.

* ''Literature/IncarnationsOfImmortality'': The first five books feature 'Satan' as the (expected) bad guy. Then we find out in ''For Love of Evil'' that the '''current''' office holder used to be a monk, and he's more concerned about making sure souls go to their proper destination; also, Gabriel thinks he's effective/dangerous ''because he's not DrunkWithPower''. ''WithAVelvetCloak'' doesn't feature him, but the plot is really only possible because he effectively won by the seventh book....

* Retellings of ''Literature/TheIliad'':
** Creator/MarionZimmerBradley's ''The Firebrand'' tells it all from the point of view of Cassandra, princess of Troy.
** ''Literature/TheSongOfAchilles,'' by Madeleine Miller, tells it from the point of view of Patroclus, lover of Achilles.
** Donna Jo Napoli's ''Sirena'' takes perhaps the unlikeliest POV, that of a siren who refuses to lure men to their deaths, but is drawn into the Trojan War anyway.
* ''Literature/{{Wicked}}'' is a ''Literature/LandOfOz'' based book (with heavy [[Film/TheWizardOfOZ MGM]] influences) from the viewpoint of the Wicked Witch of the West (named "Elphaba Thropp"). The wizard is the Big Bad. A major difference is that Dorothy intends to apologize to the Witch in the end, while in the [[Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz original book]], Dorothy and company intend to kill the Wicked Witch, though only succeeded by accident.

* Gregory Maguire also did ''Literature/MirrorMirror'' which was an alternate telling of Snow White.
* ''[[Literature/TheVampireChronicles The Vampire Lestat]]'' shows Lestat from his own, more sympathetic viewpoint than that in ''Literature/InterviewWithTheVampire''.
* Creator/NeilGaiman's story "Literature/SnowGlassApples" turns the evil queen into a benevolent ruler and tragic hero, Literature/SnowWhite into an insatiable vampire that has killed many people (including the king), and the prince into a necrophiliac who fell in love with Snow White because she's basically a walking corpse. Similarly, he wrote ''Literature/TheProblemOfSusan'' as the ''The Last Battle'' from the point of view of the girl who didn't return to Narnia, and ''Literature/AStudyInEmerald'' as a two-fold flip: a Sherlock Holmes story where the main characters willingly serve Lovecraft's abominations, and [[spoiler:are actually Moriarty and Moran tracking the murderers Holmes and Watson]].
* ''Literature/TheTrueStoryOfTheThreeLittlePigs'' is narrated by one "A. Wolf," who explains that the huffing and puffing was actually a bad case of hay fever, and he had no big bad intentions against the pigs. "I was framed," he laments. He's heavily implied to be an UnreliableNarrator, however.

* Creator/FredSaberhagen did Perspective Flip novels about Frankenstein's monster and the Minotaur.
* Creator/TanithLee's ''Red As Blood: Tales of the Sisters Grimmer''.

* The two-part ''Literature/TheSundering'' series by Jacqueline Carey is a [[CaptainErsatz lawyer-friendly]] inversion of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. It's told mostly from the perspective of the Forces of Darkness, who really just want to be left alone and aren't responsible for the cataclysm that has been blamed on them.
* ''Burning Dragons'' - in which the dragons are a friendly and intelligent species and Saint George is a homicidal (or dracocidal) maniac suffering from FantasticRacism.
* Creator/GordonRDickson's much earlier ''Literature/TheDragonAndTheGeorge'' and its sequels had used a variant on this riff.
* ''Paint Your Dragon'' by Creator/TomHolt takes the general idea of 'St George vs the Dragon', and makes the point that (despite being part of the official 'Good' side) George is pretty much an evil, despicable man who likes to kill things.
* ''The Other Log of Phileas Fogg'' and ''A Barnstormer in Oz'' by Creator/PhilipJoseFarmer. In the latter, Glinda the Good assassinates U.S. President UsefulNotes/WarrenGHarding by stuffing an object down his throat.
* ''Literature/TillWeHaveFaces'', by Creator/CSLewis, plays with this trope in quite a few ways. It retells [[Myth/ClassicalMythology the myth]] of Myth/CupidAndPsyche from the perspective of Orual, one of the "wicked" sisters. The events of the story are mostly the same, with the biggest difference being that, in the original story, Psyche's sisters could clearly see the fine palace she shared with Cupid (and thus their later actions were clearly motivated by jealousy), but in ''Faces'' Orual can't see Istra's palace, making her motivation much more ambiguous. As Orual tells her story, she claims that her first motivation was always Istra's well-being, and she blames the caprice of the gods for the disasters that come from her own attempts to do the right thing. (Istra is still just as incorruptibly pure as Psyche was in the original.) The perspective flip even happens in-universe: Orual lives long enough to hear Istra's story pass into myth, and she's angry as hell to find out that she's become the villain of the story. [[spoiler:Then the perspective gets flipped ''again''. In the process of telling her side of the story to set the record straight, Orual has a HeelRealization and understands how much of her "concern" for Istra was actually selfishness.]]
* This has been done a few times to ''Literature/GoneWithTheWind''; the books ''The Wind Done Gone'' and ''Rhett Butler's People'' are both perspective-changed takes on the original novel.
* ''Wide Sargasso Sea'', by Jean Rhys, does this for ''Literature/JaneEyre'': [[spoiler:Bertha Mason, Mr. Rochester's crazy first wife,]] is the main character, and Rochester is the villain.
* Creator/TerryPratchett's ''Literature/NightWatchDiscworld'' is a typical Literature/{{Discworld}} take on ''Literature/LesMiserables,'' which flips the perspectives of the two main characters, while keeping them easily recognizable. This is made possible because Vimes (Javert) is a much more developed character and his sense of justice is not ''quite'' as unforgiving as Javert's, while Carcer (Valjean) is a homicidal psychopath who [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation only thinks]] or [[ObfuscatingInsanity appears to think]] that he is the wronged, noble hero of Les Miz.
** Likewise, ''Literature/TheAmazingMauriceAndHisEducatedRodents'' is a PerspectiveFlip (indeed, a full-on Perspective Inversion) of the Pied Piper story.
** Literature/TheTruth, Literature/GoingPostal (and Literature/MakingMoney) alongside Literature/{{Thud}} portray protagonists from one book as, well not really antagonists but nuisances towards the protagonists of another. We KNOW Vimes is a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, but in The Truth he wants the paper shut down because it stirs things up, plus he'd probably want to see ConMan Moist von Lipwig behind bars...
** Minor PerspectiveFlip retellings of fairy tales have also turned up in Literature/{{Discworld}}, including a Woobie-wolf version of "Literature/LittleRedRidingHood" in ''Literature/WitchesAbroad'', and Susan's more cynical revision of "Literature/JackAndTheBeanstalk" in ''Literature/{{Hogfather}}''.
* Presented literally in the [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon Disney]] book series ''MySideOfTheStory''. Each book is actually two books in one--the first half recaps the events of the film in question from the perspective of the [[PrincessProtagonist title character]], and the reader then physically flips the book over to get the villain's version of the same events.
* ''Literature/ATaleOf'':
** ''A Tale of the Wicked Queen'' is a TwiceToldTale of Disney's ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs''. It goes into who the Queen is and why she became a WickedStepmother. Most of the book takes place years prior to the film. In her case, the Queen was corrupted by three distant cousin's of her husband after his death. Her grief, [[IAmNotPretty self-esteem problems]], and [[GreenEyedMonster jealousy issues]] led to her easily being manipulated into an [[MyBelovedSmother overprotective mother]] towards Snow.
** In ''A Tale of the Wicked Queen'', the Queen delivers her own alternative interpretation of ''Literature/SleepingBeauty''. In it, Maleficent was a [[ShrinkingViolet shy]], misunderstood woman who feared rejection. She [[TheShutIn shut herself away]] with only blackbirds for companionship. Maleficent put Sleeping Beauty into her sleep in order to protect her from the world.
** ''A Tale of the Beast Within'' reveals the descent into darkness that made [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast the Prince the Beast]] before love redeemed him.
* Jon Clinch's ''Finn'' is written from the prospective of Pap Finn, the father of the character of Creator/MarkTwain's ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn''.
* Creator/MargaretAtwood's ''The Penelopiad'' retells ''Literature/TheOdyssey'' from the perspective of Penelope, Odysseus's wife - from beyond the grave, no less. Perspective Flips also play an important meta-role: while Penelope is waiting for Odysseus to return, stories of his doings trickle back with different spins on the same event, such as whether the Cyclops was really a one-eyed giant or just a half-blind innkeeper pissed off that the sailors wouldn't pay their tabs.

* The 18th century writer Creator/{{Voltaire}} had an early example with his story ''The White Bull'', most of whose protagonists are villains from Literature/TheBible. The heroine is a Babylonian princess in love with Nebuchadnezzar II currently [[ForcedTransformation turned into a bull]] by God. She is aided in her quest to change him back by a Eunuch and [[EvilChancellor Good Chancellor]] who was one of Pharaoh's magicians who challenged Moses, his friend, an old woman who was the Witch of Endor, and the AuthorAvatar, a friendly [[SatanIsGood talking snake]].
** Of course, the talking snake also tricked the princess into saying her lover's name, dooming her to execution, so maybe it doesn't count for him. She doesn't get killed, of course, but the intent was there.
* French novelist Anatole France wrote a story titled ''The Seven Wives of Bluebeard'' which is told from that character's perspective, portraying him as a nice guy whose wives died not by his hands, but by circumstances of their bad choices (one's an adulteress, another a drunkard, etc.). Like ''The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs'' mentioned above, the number of "accidental" deaths occurring in proximity to the supposedly innocent protagonist definitely suggests an alternate interpretation that he is an UnreliableNarrator.
* ''D'Artagnan - The Cardinal's Guard'' by Alexander Bushkov is a very poorly done total reversal of Dumas' novel.
** ''Yes, That Same Milady'' by Yuliya Galanina is another retelling - from the point of view of... well, Milady de Winter. Yes, she [[spoiler: turns out to be very much alive]]. And, yes, she's an ''extremely'' UnreliableNarrator, and doesn't even try to deny it.
** Tiffany Thayer's ''Three Musketeers and a Lady'' does a brilliant Perspective Inversion of the story from the same perspective, [[spoiler: depicting Milady de Winter as a TragicVillain who found true love too late]].
* Creator/MarionZimmerBradley reimagined Myth/ArthurianLegend from the viewpoint of the women in ''Literature/TheMistsOfAvalon'' and its sequels.
* Creator/MarionZimmerBradley does this again with ''The Firebrand'', which retells the story of ''Literature/TheIliad'' from the perspective of Kassandra.
* ''Literature/AThousandAcres'' by Jane Smiley is a reversal of ''Theatre/KingLear'', set on an Iowan farm and showing the story from Ginny's (Goneril's) perspective.
* Not exactly a villain/hero perspective swap, but there's more than a few latterly-written versions of ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudice'' around which are told from Mr. Darcy's perspective on events as opposed to Elizabeth Bennet's. Most of these are about as good as you would expect (and tend to ignore that Darcy, for all that he's a romantic hero, is still supposed to be a bit of a tool initially); an example of one of the better ones is Pamela Aidan's ''Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman'' series, which fleshes out Darcy's character and background whilst still remaining faithful to both the original novel and the period.
* Creator/NancySpringer's ''Literature/IAmMordred'' and ''I Am Morgan le Fay'' (which are ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin).
* There is a book about Judas Iscariot and how he accidentally betrayed Jesus. He is spending his remaining days repenting for his sins in an Essene monastery. He was heartbroken when his fellow apostles killed him off in the Gospels.
** Similarly, ''Theatre/JesusChristSuperstar'' portrays Judas as a "true believer" who has become concerned about the cult of personality surrounding Jesus. He believes the messenger is becoming bigger than the message.
* The [[ShowWithinAShow novel]] within ''Literature/TheMasterAndMargarita'' has Pontius Pilate as its main character. Matthew the Evangelist is depicted as a somewhat crazy hanger-on of Jesus, and [[DirectLineToTheAuthor doesn't record his words very accurately]]. And while cruel, Pilate is far from unsympathetic.
* P.N. Elrod's "King of Shreds and Patches" does a perspective flip of ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'', presenting the story from the point of view of King Claudius [[spoiler: who is innocent of his brother's murder and at his wit's end to deal with his insane nephew]].

* Stephen R. Donaldson's ''The Real Story'' features a perspective flip, not as a binary reversal of hero/villain, but a more complicated flip in which [[spoiler: the victim, the villain and the rescuer ALL swap places. The villain becomes the victim, the victim becomes the rescuer, and the rescuer becomes the villain.]]
* A character from an alternate universe in Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/TheCatWhoWalksThroughWalls'' comes from a universe where Albert Einstein is considered to be evil on the scale of Hitler, despite doing the exact same things he did in our universe: She (and apparently most other people from that universe) blame him for the existence of nuclear weapons.
* ''Day of the Minotaur'' by Thomas Burnett Swann tells the story of a teenage boy and girl who meet the last of the legendary race of monsters... only to find that he's not so monstrous as the stories suggest. [[spoiler:The girl ends up as his lover.]]
* ''Never Never'', a short story by Bruce Glassco, is the story of ''Literature/PeterPan'' from Captain Hook's perspective, where he and his crew are trapped in Neverland unable to win, and Tinkerbell brings them back to life (described in graphic detail) every time they die. Oh, and one of them always [[CameBackWrong Comes Back Wrong]].
* Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski is well-known for using this trope in his short stories about ''Franchise/TheWitcher''. In ''[[Literature/TheLastWish Lesser Evil]]'' (''Mniejsze Zło'' in the Polish) we have another example of using it on the classic "Literature/SnowWhite" story - good queen saw terrible things that would be done by her step-daughter in future, and gave orders to kill her. Girl killed queen's servant when he tried to rape her, and ran and joined a bunch of gnomes, with whom she was robbing people. Queen sent a wizard that killed all the gnomes and imprisoned girl in a crystal. But then some stupid prince freed and married her, and she murdered him to rule herself. Then she attacked her family lands, and killed the queen, formed a group of murderers and came to kill the wizard, only to die from the hand of the Witcher. And that's only one example.
* ''The Way of Cross and Dragon'' by Creator/GeorgeRRMartin. It's about an heretical cult that venerates Judas Iscariot as a tragic hero.
* There are a lot of ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' novels that fit this trope, including the "Tales of The" books, each containing several short stories about just about every character who appears in the Mos Eisely cantina and Jabba's palace.
** One of the best is ''I, Jedi'' by Michael A. Stackpole, which fills in and comments on some of the more JustForFun/{{egregious}} plot holes from the earlier ''Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy''.
** ''Literature/DeathStar'' is popular too. It's about various people on the first Death Star, from Darth Vader on down to a political prisoner whose experience in architecture let her work on the superweapon's less essential elements. Only one Rebel character gets named at all, and that's Princess Leia, who leaves a major impression on the surgeon who tended her after she was tortured. The novel serves to make things a little less black-and-white than in [[Film/ANewHope the film]]; although the Empire is still incredibly evil, it's easier to see why anyone worked for it.
** Quite a few characters take rebellious actions, without joining the Rebel Alliance.
* Creator/JackVance's books are usually narrated by a [[TheStoic stoic]], [[TheQuietOne quiet]], hypercompetent hero. ''The Grey Prince'', however, is told mainly from the point of view of the love interest and the DoggedNiceGuy--who see the standard hero as an aloof {{Jerkass}}.
* Peter Carey's ''Jack Maggs'' is a retelling of ''Literature/GreatExpectations'' from Magwitch's point of view.
* There is a book told from Literature/{{Lolita}}'s view, but it was largely criticized in that it only re-told the story, and it didn't take into account that H.H. was a UnreliableNarrator.
* The ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'' novel ''[[Literature/DoctorWhoMissingAdventures Who Killed Kennedy]]'' examines the myriad alien invasions and whatnot of the Third Doctor era (1970-1974) of ''Series/DoctorWho'' on television from the perspective of a New Zealander journalist named James Stevens who is trying to expose a secret organisation called UNIT and its "Doctor" agents. Stevens is the protagonist while the Doctor himself is barely featured at all, though he is mentioned throughout.
* Creator/HarryTurtledove's "The Horse of Bronze" is the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lapith Centauromachy]] from the perspective of the centaurs.
* Mercedes Lackey's ''Literature/TheBlackSwan'' is ''Theatre/SwanLake'' from Odile's point of view.
* ''Literature/{{Flipped}}'' by Wendelin Van Draanen is a book about, basically, preteen romance, starting from when the characters were 5. The book is told in two perspectives - that of Bruce's, and that of Julianna's. The two perspectives are distinct in speaking style (and it kinda helps that the fonts are different too).
* Creator/MatthewStover's ''Jericho Moon'' is an account of a Hebrew attack on the city that would become Jerusalem, as told by the defenders of its Canaanite inhabitants. It is not sympathetic towards YHWH.

* ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'', while at first appearing to be a fairly classic fantasy romp, turns into a perspective flip on Literature/TheBible. God's really a cruel dictator (or perhaps innocent wimp being controlled by more powerful angels) who are trying to stop freedom and knowledge. The serpent was never really a serpent, but 'dust', matter which had gained consciousness and is helping other beings learn more about the universe.
* While most series about school show the AlphaBitch and her GirlPosse as the villains, ''Literature/TheClique'' does the opposite, and makes them the main characters, exploring the perspective of mean, [[RichBitch spoiled]] [[SpoiledBrat brats]].
* In 2020, Creator/StephenieMeyer released ''Literature/MidnightSun2020'', which re-tells the events of ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' through the eyes of Edward Cullen.
* ''How To Train Your Viking'', a SpinOff within the ''Literature/HowToTrainYourDragon'' series telling of a certain collection of events from Toothless' point of view.

* The ''Literature/WitchWorld'' anthology ''Tales of the Witch World'' begins with Creator/AndreNorton's "The Shaping of Ulm's Heir"; it is immediately followed by Creator/RobertBloch's "Heir Apparent", in which the same story is retold by one of the antagonists, who naturally gives it a different slant.

* The climactic baseball game at the end of ''Left-Handed Shortstop'' by Patricia Reilly Giff is retold from the title character's perspective at the beginning of ''Rat Teeth''.
* Mary Stolz's book ''The Bully of Barkham Street'' is a retelling of her earlier ''A Dog on Barkham Street'', but from the antagonist's point of view.
* ''Literature/ParadiseLost'' retells the Bible with {{Satan}} as a fairly sympathetic character.
* Arturo Pérez-Reverte created ''{{Literature/Alatriste}}'' because he got tired of reading French and English language {{swashbuckler}}s where Spaniards only ever appeared as the villains.
* Part of ''Literature/AFrozenHeart'' is from the perspective of the villain of ''WesternAnimation/Frozen2013'' [[spoiler:Hans]].
* ''Literature/WingsOfFire'' is a perspective flip on traditional tales featuring dragons. The main characters are all dragons who view humans as little more than cute critters - and many other dragons in the series have even less flattering views.
* The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel ''Literature/{{March}}'' tells the story of the father from ''Literature/LittleWomen'' - in this book, he is a flawed individual, far from the saintly patriarch that Alcott wrote him as.

* Steven Brust's ''Literature/{{Dragaera}}'' books feature the ''Vlad Taltos'' books, in which we see the Dragaeran Empire from the perspective of the outsider Vlad, while ''The Khaavren Romances'' feature the perspective of Dragaerans on themselves. The two series do not usually overlap plot events, but some characters do cross over and come across differently. The UnreliableNarrator of the ''Khaavren Romances'', who is a [[DirectLineToTheAuthor historical fiction author]] in Vlad's time, is also a factor.
* ''Literature/AscendanceOfABookworm'':
** After the Epilogue of each volume are a number of mini-chapters showing the perspective of other major and minor characters in the story, showing how they feel about Myne and the events that have transpired in the story.
** During the story's first arc, the most antagonistic figure is the Merchant's Guild guildmaster. Benno, the merchant helping Myne recreate items she remembers from her previous life on Earth, hates the guildmaster because of lot of hostile behavior on his part. When Benno's father died, the guildmaster offered to marry his mother while she was still mourning. A few years after that was refused, the fiancée Benno was going to MarryForLove died and the guildmaster offered a marriage to one of his daughters. This was refused as well, but the guildmaster has continued making marriage offers to Benno's family over the years all while being a frequent obstacle to Benno's ventures. In the story proper, the guildmaster agrees to sell Myne a very expensive single-use magic tool in case she has a serious Devouring episode, but lies to Benno about the price so that even if Benno helps Myne pay for it, Myne will be in debt to the guildmaster and have to move to his store to WorkOffTheDebt induced by the difference. According to the chapter written from the guildmaster's point of view, the guildmaster was genuinely trying to help Benno's family business through tough times with the marriage offers, but poor forethought and timing with the first two resulted in the subsequent ones being mistaken for harassment. His tendency to be an obstacle to Benno's ventures were him keeping him from biting more than he can chew, which he risks doing by selling Myne's products and trying to monopolize him. The ploy to get Myne to join his store was out of genuine care for her her, as it would have made it easier for Myne to secure a contract with a noble that would give her a reliable supply of the magic items she needs to treat the disease that may otherwise kill her (the magic item sold to Myne was from a supply the guildmaster brought for a family member who might need them in the future).
* ''Literature/IncarnationsOfImmortality'': The first five books feature 'Satan' as the (expected) bad guy. Then we find out in ''For Love of Evil'' that the '''current''' office holder used to be a monk, and he's more concerned about making sure souls go to their proper destination; also, Gabriel thinks he's effective/dangerous ''because he's not DrunkWithPower''. ''WithAVelvetCloak'' doesn't feature him, but the plot is really only possible because he effectively won by the seventh book....
* ''The Testament of Judith Barton'' by Wendy Powers and Robin [=McLeod=] retells the story of the Alfred Hitchcock film ''Vertigo'' from Judy's perspective. It tells a little bit about her background in Salina, Kansas before her move to San Francisco, how she began to take classes on Method Acting, and how she got lured by Gavin Elster into playing his wife Madeleine because he tells her that Scottie was an unstable stalker and that Judy wasn't Gavin's mistress.
* The ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'' spin-off ''Literature/DiaryOfAnAwesomeFriendlyKid'' is set from Rowley's point of view.
* Scott Corbett's ''The Discontented Ghost'' is a retelling of Creator/OscarWilde's "The Canterville Ghost" from the ghost's perspective.

* Creator/NeilGaiman's story "Snow, Glass, Apples" turns the evil queen into a benevolent ruler and tragic hero, Literature/SnowWhite into an insatiable vampire that has killed many people (including the king), and the prince into a necrophiliac who fell in love with Snow White because she's basically a walking corpse. Similarly, he wrote ''Literature/TheProblemOfSusan'' as the ''The Last Battle'' from the point of view of the girl who didn't return to Narnia, and ''Literature/AStudyInEmerald'' as a two-fold flip: a Sherlock Holmes story where the main characters willingly serve Lovecraft's abominations, and [[spoiler:are actually Moriarty and Moran tracking the murderers Holmes and Watson]].

* ''Literature/TillWeHaveFaces'', by Creator/CSLewis, plays with this trope in quite a few ways. It retells [[Myth/ClassicalMythology the myth of Cupid and Psyche]] from the perspective of Orual, one of the "wicked" sisters. The events of the story are mostly the same, with the biggest difference being that, in the original story, Psyche's sisters could clearly see the fine palace she shared with Cupid (and thus their later actions were clearly motivated by jealousy), but in ''Faces'' Orual can't see Istra's palace, making her motivation much more ambiguous. As Orual tells her story, she claims that her first motivation was always Istra's well-being, and she blames the caprice of the gods for the disasters that come from her own attempts to do the right thing. (Istra is still just as incorruptibly pure as Psyche was in the original.) The perspective flip even happens in-universe: Orual lives long enough to hear Istra's story pass into myth, and she's angry as hell to find out that she's become the villain of the story. [[spoiler:Then the perspective gets flipped ''again''. In the process of telling her side of the story to set the record straight, Orual has a HeelRealization and understands how much of her "concern" for Istra was actually selfishness.]]

* Not exactly a villain / hero perspective swap, but there's more than a few latterly-written versions of ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudice'' around which are told from Mr. Darcy's perspective on events as opposed to Elizabeth Bennet's. Most of these are [[LiteraryNecrophilia about as good as you would expect]] (and tend to ignore that Darcy, for all that he's a romantic hero, is still supposed to be a bit of a tool initially); an example of one of the better ones is Pamela Aidan's ''Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman'' series, which fleshes out Darcy's character and background whilst still remaining faithful to both the original novel and the period.

* ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'':

** During the story's first arc, the most antagonistic figure is the Merchant's Guild guildmaster. Benno, the merchant helping Myne recreate items she remembers from her previous life on Earth, hates the guildmaster because of lot of hostile behavior on his part. When Benno's father died, the guildmaster offered to marry his mother while she was still mourning. A few years after that was refused, the fiancée Benno was going to MarryForLove died and the guildmaster offered a marriage to one of his daughters. This was refused as well, but the guildmaster has continued making marriage offers to Benno's family over the years all while being a frequent obstacle to Benno's ventures. In the story proper, the guildmaster agrees to sell Myne a very expensive single-use magic tool in case she has a serious Devouring episode, but lies to Benno about the price so that even if Benno helps Myne pay for it, Myne will be in debt to the guildmaster and have to move to his store to reimburse the difference. According to the chapter written from the guildmaster's point of view, the guildmaster was genuinely trying to help Benno's family business through tough times with the marriage offers, but poor forethought and timing with the first two resulted in the subsequent ones being mistaken for harassment. His tendency to be an obstacle to Benno's ventures were him keeping him from biting more than he can chew, which he risks doing by selling Myne's products and trying to monopolize him. The ploy to get Myne to join his store was out of genuine care for her her, as it would have made it easier for Myne to secure a contract with a noble that would give her a reliable supply of the magic items she needs to treat the disease that may otherwise kill her (the magic item sold to Myne was from a supply the guildmaster brought for a family member who might need them in the future).

* Creator/NancySpringer's ''I Am Mordred'' and ''I Am Morgan le Fay'' (which are ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin).

** Marion Zimmer Bradley's ''The Firebrand'' tells it all from the point of view of Cassandra, princess of Troy.

* Creator/MarionZimmerBradley reimagined the Myth/KingArthur mythos from the viewpoint of the women in ''Literature/TheMistsOfAvalon'' and its sequels.

* Scott Corbett's ''The Discontented Ghost'' is a retelling of Literature/OscarWilde's "The Canterville Ghost" from the ghost's perspective.

* The 18th century writer Creator/{{Voltaire}} had an early example with his story ''The White Bull'', most of whose protagonists are villains from Literature/TheBible. The heroine is a Babylonian princess in love with Nebuchadnezzar II currently [[BalefulPolymorph turned into a bull]] by God. She is aided in her quest to change him back by a Eunuch and [[EvilChancellor Good Chancellor]] who was one of Pharaoh's magicians who challenged Moses, his friend, an old woman who was the Witch of Endor, and the AuthorAvatar, a friendly [[SatanIsGood talking snake]].

* In 2020, Creator/StephenieMeyer released ''Literature/MidnightSun'', which re-tells the events of ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' through the eyes of Edward Cullen.

* ''A Thousand Acres'' by Jane Smiley is a reversal of ''Theatre/KingLear'', set on an Iowan farm and showing the story from Ginny's (Goneril's) perspective.

* ''The Other Log of Phileas Fogg'' and ''A Barnstormer in Oz'' by Creator/PhilipJoseFarmer. In the latter, Glinda the Good assassinates U.S. President UsefulNotes/WarrenHarding by stuffing an object down his throat.

* ''Literature/IncarnationsOfImmortality'': The first five books feature 'Satan' as the (expected) bad guy. Then you find out in ''For Love of Evil'' that the '''current''' office holder used to be a monk, and he's more concerned about making sure souls go to their proper destination; also, Gabriel thinks he's effective/dangerous ''because he's not DrunkWithPower''. ''WithAVelvetCloak'' doesn't feature him, but the plot is really only possible because he effectively won by the seventh book....

* ''Literature/IncarnationsOfImmortality'': The first five books feature 'Satan' as the (expected) bad guy. Then you find out in ''For Love Of Evil'' that the '''current''' office holder used to be a monk, and he's more concerned about making sure souls go to their proper destination; also, Gabriel thinks he's effective/dangerous ''because he's not DrunkWithPower''. ''WithAVelvetCloak'' doesn't feature him, but the plot is really only possible because he effectively won by the seventh book....