History VillainProtagonist / Literature

* ''Literature/{{You2015}}'' is told from the perspective of [[{{Yandere}} Joe]] and his unhealthy obsession with Beck.

* The title characters of ''Edgar & Ellen'' are [[KidsAreCruel sadistic]], misanthropic NightmareFetishist brats who play nasty pranks, con people, abuse animals (including [[KickTheDog their own pet]], and are generally unpleasant people.

* Lucius Cornelius Sulla from Colleen [=McCullough=]'s ''MastersOfRome'' series is a pretty mean guy. He [[spoiler:brings about the deaths of his stepmother, her nephew and his stepmother's lover in order to inherit their fortune (and kills ''another'' man to frame the deaths on him), treats his wife harshly to the point of driving her to suicide, and travels up north to spy on a group of Germans where he meets and impregnates a woman, he later arranges for his German family to be protected and leaves them]]. And that's all in the first book.
* Doctor Impossible from ''SoonIWillBeInvincible'' is pretty comfortable with being the Evil MadScientist, albeit with a sort of flamboyant SilverAge kind of villainy. But even if he turns out to be a fairly nice and somewhat misunderstood guy, he ''is'' [[CardboardPrison breaking out of jail for the thirteenth time]] to launch yet another EvilPlan to [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt destroy]] or TakeOverTheWorld, and that's not even counting ones [[VillainExitStageLeft where he got away]].

* ''Film/TheEagleHasLanded'' follows a group of Nazi agents attempting to assassinate WinstonChurchill. You'll still likely find yourself rooting for them at a few points.

* MercedesLackey, in one of her stories featuring fantasy elves in the real world, had a cold-hearted, ruthless bitch of an antagonist who was quite willing to kill children if the job required it. The only problem was that she was going after a family that were protected by those same, very powerful, elves acting in secret to protect them. The sheer magnitude of her hapless floundering around as she was constantly thwarted in one long HumiliationConga would make you feel sorry for her if you didn't remind yourself that she was a murderous sociopath.

** The DarthBane trilogy follows the exploits of Darth Bane, a ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin dark lord]] [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment of the Sith]]''. It is interesting in that it follows the mythical hero's journey, as made famous by the films, but with a negative character.

* For most of the book ''The Woad to Wuin'', the normally cowardly AntiHero SirAproposOfNothing descends into this. And fully enjoys it.
* Gerald Tarrant of the ColdfireTrilogy is the true embodiment of a villain hero. From the beginning of the first book he is foreshadowed as the boogieman of a country. He is what parents threaten their children with to get them to go to their beds on time, and it is completely justified. The only reason he is a protagonist is because the thing that is threatening the world just happens to be a threat to him as well. He is a MagnificentBastard who feeds on suffering and fear. But he also has an amusing side, in a state of near exhaustion in a land where he might be attacked at any moment, he still uses a part of his magic to fix his clothes and hair to look dashing.

* In the second book of ''TheBartimaeusTrilogy'', Nathaniel becomes one of these as part of his CharacterDevelopment, especially unfortunate seeing as how he had previously been disgusted with the behavior of magicians who acted similarly to how he started to in the book.

* In JohnCWright's ''[[Literature/TheGoldenOecumene The Golden Age]]'', Ao Aeon points at Phaethon's behavior and assures him he is obviously the villain of the piece. In ''The Golden Transcendence'', Phaethon cites this to explain his behavior to Daphne, who is obviously, he explains, the heroine.

* Creator/NeilGaiman's "AStudyInEmerald" [[spoiler:sets up Moran and Moriarty as the heroes in a TwistEnding. Throughout most of the story the reader thought Moran was Watson and Moriarty was Holmes.]]

* The protagonists of JamesEllroy's Underworld USA trilogy. While most of Ellroy's main characters are simply dark {{Anti Hero}}es who PayEvilUntoEvil, Kemper Boyd, Ward Littell, Wayne Tedrow Jr., Dwight Holly, and Pete Bondurant are a motley crew of extortionists, drug peddlers, mercenaries, con men, and assassins who are out for nothing but their own enrichment.

* ''Literature/TheStrangerBesideMe'' stars RealLife SerialKiller [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_BundyTed Bundy]].

* In Kim Newman's ''Literature/TheHoundOfTheDurbervilles'', Colonel Moran and Professor Moriarty are the main characters, with Moran being the narrator. Moran is a thief, misanthrope, cheat, thrill-junkie who kills animals for sport and men for pay. As a protagonist, he's somewhat sympathetic due to being kind of funny, and even though he's very capable, Moriarty often manipulates him for his own reasons. Likewise, Moriarty is shown as taking joy in solving problems (either scientific ones or seemingly impossible crimes), but he has very little in the way of positive emotions or impulses. Both have {{FreudianExcuse}}s, Moran had a mean angry dad so he became a mean angry man, and Moriarty's father was even worse.

* In Kim Newman's ''Literature/TheHoundOfTheDurbervilles'', Colonel Moran and Professor Moriarty are the main characters, with Moran being the narrator. Moran is a thief, misanthrope, cheat, thrill-junkie who kills animals for sport and men for pay. As a protagonist, he's somewhat sympathetic due to being kind of funny, and even though he's very capable, Moriarty often manipulates him for his own reasons. Likewise, Moriarty is shown as taking joy in solving problems (either scientific ones or seemingly impossible crimes), but he has very little in the way of positive emotions or impulses. Both have FreudianExcuses, Moran had a mean angry dad so he became a mean angry man, and Moriarty's father was even worse.

* MercedesLackey, in one of her stories featuring fantasy elves in the real world, had a cold-hearted, ruthless bitch of an antagonist who was quite willing to kill children if the job required it. The only problem was that she was going after a family that were protected by those same, very powerful, elves acting in secret to protect them. The shear magnitude of her hapless floundering around as she was constantly thwarted in one long HumiliationConga would make you feel sorry for her if you didn't remind yourself that she was a murderous sociopath.

* An interesting [[Literature/TheBible Biblical]] example is the prophet Jonah (although he can also be seen as a very unpleasant sort of AntiHero). God has a plan to push the entire city of Ninevah into a HeelFaceTurn and he wants Jonah's help, but Jonah refuses. Eventually God convinces him to play along and the city does indeed get saved - but Jonah is explicitly noted to be "angry enough to die" about it. He ''wanted'' the city to remain evil. In particular, he appears to have been hoping that they would remain evil and dangerous enough for God to have no choice but to [[KillEmAll destroy them]], which kinda implies the prophet was a closeted BloodKnight. While not the only Biblical protagonist to ''start off'' by opposing God, he is the only one who doesn't seem to learn the error of his ways. The narrative ends with God giving him a WhatTheHellHero speech before apparently leaving him alone.

* Soltan Gris, narrator of Creator/LRonHubbard's ''MissionEarth'', is also the series antagonist (although you can't really call him sympathetic) who is secretly trying to stop the mission of his incorruptible, heroic MartyStu counterpart Jettero Heller.

* ''ParadiseLost''. Half of the story follows the War in Heaven, in which Satan is the protagonist. Putting Satan center stage and allowing him to work his diabolical charisma on the reader is a major source of the poem's appeal.

* Hester Shaw, from Philip Reeve's ''MortalEngines'' quartet (really, she's only the protagonist of the second book "Predator's Gold;" the first focuses on her husband and the third and fourth on her daughter), hovers between this and anti-hero. On the one hand, she is completely and incontrovertibly evil (she sells a city into slavery or death just to get rid of her rival for her husband-to-be, and actively enjoys killing people); on the other, one somehow can't help sympathising with her regardless, and because of her genuine love for Tom, her interests generally coincide with those of the other (not so evil) protagonists.

* While ''TheGapCycle'' has [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters plenty of protagonists]], most of whom are villainous to some extent, it's strongly dominated by Angus Thermopyle, a man who starts the story as a pirate, murderer, and rapist. He does get a bit less horrible over the course of the story, but even at the end he's a NobleDemon at best. StephenRDonaldson has stated that he hesitated to publish the first book in the series, because he didn't like what it said about him that he found it so easy to write Angus.

* ''ThereseRaquin'' is all about a woman who murdered her husband to be with her lover.

* ''{{Ravenloft}}'s'' ''I, Strahd'', is a novel about the history of - who else? - Strahd, a vampire overlord who was cursed after killing his brother to take his bride, forcing the woman into suicide to escape him.

* Strahd von Zarovich, the sociopathic vampire in ''I, Strahd'' (and TSR's ''[[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons Ravenloft]]'' campaign world).

* The protagonists of ''Literature/BlackLegion'' are all founding members of one of ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFortyThousand'''s most evil factions. Notable is the narrator, Khayon, who, while AffablyEvil, doesn't shy away from feeding his slaves to his prisoner or {{Mind Rap|e}}ing his rival.

* Creator/HPLovecraft used these sometimes. In "In the Walls of Eryx," the narrator is a heartless exploiter who treats the native Venusians as subhuman in his quest to steal their [[Unobtainium crystals]]. In "The Temple," the narrator is a heartless stereotypical [[AllGermansAreNazis militaristic]] German U-boat captain who murders helpless ''untermenschen'' after sinking their ship. Both are severely punished for their evil attitudes.

* ''BarryLyndon''. The title character is based on a real-life cad, and William Makepeace Thackaray hides no joy in having his villain protagonist gets what's coming to him, including a KarmicDeath. Creator/StanleyKubrick's adaptation makes Barry far more sympathetic (though still a jerk).
* The abominable Protagonists, from the novel HellsChildren, by Andrew Boland, are this.

* In George Orwell's ''Literature/1984'', Winston Smith becomes this by the book's end [[spoiler: after his time in the Ministry of Love, by embracing the Party and betraying his girlfriend Julia.]]