Well at least in the BigBadRead poll. JK Rowling's creation, Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter novels, was voted as the favorite literary villain of all time by British schoolchildren.
The BigBadRead poll was conducted by Bloomsbury, had more than 16,000 votes and JK had this to say of the honor:
I am thrilled and honored beyond words that Lord Voldemort has been voted best villain in the BigBadRead poll.
I am not sure how he would react ot knowing that he had won a Muggles' unpopularity poll. A mixture of pleasure that you recognized his power and menace, coupled with fury at your nerve at mentioning his real name, I think. His author, however, is absolutely delighted.
The top five baddies included:
2. Sauron The Lord of the Rings Trilogy JRR Tolkien
3. Mrs Coulter His Dark Materials Sequence Philip Pullman
4. Lex Luthor Superman Graphic novels DC Comics
5. The Joker Batman Graphic novels DC Comics
That is pretty cool, and I'm glad to see His Dark Materials is there, but its kinda sad that the only novels these kinds know date back to about 20 years ago max :-\
Where's Alec D'Urberville? One of the murderers from the great mysteries? The villian from Heart of Darkness? Henry VIII from Shakespeare? If HP is what these students think is high brow literature, than the future is doomed.
I know and agree, too little great lit being read by yyoung ones these days