# Books written solely from the villain's perspective **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 30, 2013, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-solely-from-the-villains-perspective/677461 "2013-12-30T05:06:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-solely-from-the-villains-perspective/677461/1 "2013-12-30T05:06:03Z")
Are there books that are written solely from the perspective of the villain in the story? ---
**Author:** ![yellowjacketcoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4bbf92/32.png) [@yellowjacketcoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowjacketcoder)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-solely-from-the-villains-perspective/677461/2 "2013-12-30T05:40:54Z")
Solely might be difficult. _Soon, I Will Be Invincible_ is half written from the villain’s perspective, and is quite excellent, even if it’s not quite what you’re looking for. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-solely-from-the-villains-perspective/677461/3 "2013-12-30T05:43:34Z")
Red Army by Ralph Peters tells the story of a Soviet invasion of Europe from the Soviet point of view. The Soviets win ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-solely-from-the-villains-perspective/677461/4 "2013-12-30T05:51:35Z")
_Lolita_ is the best example I can think of off the top of my head. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-solely-from-the-villains-perspective/677461/5 "2013-12-30T05:53:01Z")
There’s a rather famous one where – well, I don’t want to spoil it if you’re looking for a good read, but just in case you’re only looking for answers to your question, I’m giving you every chance to stop reading this post as I long-windedly explain that we don’t realize until the end of the book that the villain’s been telling the story in **The Murder of Roger Ackroyd**. ---
**Author:** ![PigArcher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bcef8e/32.png) [@PigArcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PigArcher)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-solely-from-the-villains-perspective/677461/6 "2013-12-30T06:04:41Z")
Does _I am Legend_ count? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-solely-from-the-villains-perspective/677461/7 "2013-12-30T06:07:02Z")
> [@yellowjacketcoder](#): > > Solely might be difficult. _Soon, I Will Be Invincible_ is half written from the villain’s perspective, and is quite excellent, even if it’s not quite what you’re looking for. That’s the book I came in here to mention - I adored this book. I think I’ll have to add it to my library so I can re-read it regularly. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-solely-from-the-villains-perspective/677461/8 "2013-12-30T06:36:52Z")
This may not fit perfectly, but The Vampire Lestat is told by Lestat, who is the villain of Interview With A Vampire. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-solely-from-the-villains-perspective/677461/9 "2013-12-30T06:56:59Z")
I think a case can be made with Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. Although the monster is pointed out as the usual villain, it was Victor Frankenstein the one that stole the body parts, abandoned the monster, killed its bride. Very unethical. Some bits like the introduction and ending are narrated by others, but almost all comes from Victor Frankenstein, that surprisingly enough was not ever a doctor in the novel. By the time he made the monster he was learning Chemistry, but the creation of the monster took place before he finished his studies. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-solely-from-the-villains-perspective/677461/10 "2013-12-30T07:23:47Z")
[_Grendel_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grendel_(novel)) ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-solely-from-the-villains-perspective/677461/11 "2013-12-30T07:52:51Z")
**The Other Waldo Pepper** : I just read that last week! I think you can probably imagine my emotional reaction… Jack Vance’s “Cugel the Clever” books – “The Eyes of the Overworld” and “Cugel’s Saga” – are written from the point of view of a nasty, greedy, cheating, stealing, rat-bastard of a rogue, a con-man, liar, snitch, and oathbreaker of the first water. The stories are hilarious, because he usually ends up getting snared in his own traps. The old time radio show “The Further Adventures of Harry Lime” were sometimes a little like that. He’s always out there trying to pull a con job, but he keeps failing, usually because he falls in love with the girl who would have been his victim. (Very different from the Harry Lime in “The Third Man” who was a total stinkard, and who also wasn’t the point-of-view character.) ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-solely-from-the-villains-perspective/677461/12 "2013-12-30T08:07:24Z")
The Parker stories by Richard Stark (Donald Westlake). Parker is clearly a bad guy–brutal professional thief. > **[The Violent World of Parker](https://violentworldofparker.com/)** > > The Parker Novels by Richard Stark (AKA Donald E. Westlake), other works by DEW, and crime fiction and film in general ---
**Author:** ![NiceGuyJack](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/niceguyjack/32/3069_2.png) [@NiceGuyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NiceGuyJack)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-solely-from-the-villains-perspective/677461/13 "2013-12-30T08:17:20Z")
The 10 book series by L Ron Hubbard called Mission Earth, (yes the same L Ron Hubbard who founded the church of scientology), is from the villain’s perspective Soltan Gris. Mind you he isn’t the only villain in the series. Despite the C of S stigma of the author, I actually enjoyed the books quite a lot, (I didn’t even know the connection of the author to scientology at the time). It is science fiction and it is quite humerous at times, and as each book progresses, Soltan Gris the villain who is narrating his own adventure becomes darker and darker. The books are actually written as if Soltan is making a confession. Anyway, I do recall reading these books voraciously, but maybe ten volumes was just a bit too much in one sitting. By the tenth volume, I was getting a bit jaded with it, and was keen to have it end. Never the less, I do recommend it, just pace yourself. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-solely-from-the-villains-perspective/677461/14 "2013-12-30T08:55:07Z")
It has been a very long time since I read it, but, although I think it is in the third person, isn’t _Crime and Punishment_ told from the murderer Raskolnikov’s perspective? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-solely-from-the-villains-perspective/677461/15 "2013-12-30T10:21:38Z")
A Clockwork Orange ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-solely-from-the-villains-perspective/677461/16 "2013-12-30T12:41:26Z")
Fred Saberhagen turned _Dracula_ inside out in _The Dracula Tapes_, having a still-surviving Dracula telling the story from his side into a tape recorder. It’s a hoot, although I could do without the sequels. Similarly, John Gardner has written a series of novels as told by Professor Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes’ nemesis. And, back in 1976 Walter Wager wrote _My Side, by King Kong_ **Eonwe** has already mentioned John Gardner’s **Grendel** (not the same one that wrote the Moriarty books cited above) As I’ve mentioned recently, **How the Grinch Stole Christmas** is essentially the same story as Grendel’s. Even if you don’t buy this, it’s clearly a story told from the villain’s point of view. So is Austin Grossman’s **Soon I Will Be Invincible** : > **[Soon I Will Be Invincible](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soon_I_Will_Be_Invincible)** > > Soon I Will Be Invincible is a novel by Austin Grossman, published by Pantheon Books and released on June 5, 2007. The novel uses two alternating first person narratives—the first told from the point of view of Fatale, a female cyborg recruited by the superhero group The New Champions as they investigate the disappearance of a superhero named CoreFire. The other narrative is told from the point of view of Dr. Impossible, a supervillain possessing super-human strength and intellect who suffers f... I’m sure there must be others, especially of the “Here’s MY Side of the Story” type. I’ve written one myself ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-solely-from-the-villains-perspective/677461/17 "2013-12-30T13:05:48Z")
So, is a villain the same as an anti-hero? _Confessions of a D-List Super-villain_ is similar to _Soon I Will Be Invincible_, but I think of the protagonists as the latter. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-solely-from-the-villains-perspective/677461/18 "2013-12-30T13:33:53Z")
You could argue that _Flashman_ is an antihero instead of a villain, but, yeah, no. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-solely-from-the-villains-perspective/677461/19 "2013-12-30T13:38:31Z")
**Young Adolph** by Beryl Bainbridge. Yes, _that_ Adolph. ---
**Author:** ![Alba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea666f/32.png) [@Alba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alba)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-solely-from-the-villains-perspective/677461/20 "2013-12-30T13:49:34Z")
**The Gentleman Bastard** series by **Scott Lynch**. It’s about thieves; they are trained to steal, do elaborate plans. Set in a fantasy world. I am currently greatly enjoying reading book 2. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-solely-from-the-villains-perspective/677461.md?page=2)