10 greatest villains in all of literature

A list of the 10 greatest villains in all of literature – the most memorable bad-guys of the fictive world . 

1. Iago from Shakespeare’s "Othello"

Everyone calls him “Honest Iago,” but in truth he is a deceitful liar who convinces everyone that he is on their side while he works for their destruction. He never has a clear reason for his actions other than that he is jealous of the good Moor, Othello. His insinuations work themselves into the minds of his victims until they are led to do actions that destroy not only themselves, but also the people they most love. Iago drives Othello mad with jealousy when his insinuations lead Othello to believe that his new wife is having an affair with his close friend, Cassio. Iago ends by destroying all those he uses to pull off his evil scheme. 

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Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

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