Lately I have been on an anti-hero kick. I admit, it has been mostly from reading a manga called Berserk, but I have read a few other novels that have great anti heroes such as some of the Dragon Lance books. Does anybody else know of some great novels with well-written anti-heroes?
Update: Thank you all for your suggestions! I have bookmarked this post so that I can use all of these for future reading.
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The Dark Tower. Roland Deschain has heroic moments but the fact that he’s constantly putting his quest for the tower above all puts him pretty firmly in antihero territory.
*A Clockwork Orange*
*Notes from Underground* by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Go for the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation if you decide to read it. It’s brilliant.
Prince of Thorns
Lolita
[The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Thomas_Covenant).
It is a fantastic series that I loved reading about.
*Catch-22*
*The Catcher in the Rye*
*1984*
*The Great Gatsby*
*Portnoy’s Complaint* — Greatest
*Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas*
*Fight Club*
*One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest*
*Post Office* (or any Bukowski)
*Rabbit, Run* (and the other ones)
*Madame Bovary*
*Money*
And copious loads of Shakespeare
1. Berserk soooo good.
2. Someone mentioned Notes from the Underground. I’d say go for it. However, prepare to have your mind twisted. Watch which translation you get.
Oblomov!
One of the first anti-heroes would be Elric of Melibone. He cares about the world, but he also kills most of the people he loves, sacks his hometown at the head of a fleet of pirates, and destroys the world.
More recently, Sam Syke’s Aeon Gate trilogy. It’s got 6 anti-heroes, at once. You end up not caring so much about the quest as laying bets on who kills who first.
“The Stranger” By Albert Camus
If you’re into fantasy: “The Conqueror’s Shadow” by Ari Marmell.
The protagonist is a retired conqueror in some fantasy world. He was pretty brutal, almost conquering the entire country until he just stops. Then a new warlord comes and it threatens the safety of the protagonist’s family. So he tries to stop the threat the only way he knows how: building an army. The main character isn’t nice. He has one clear goal, and will do whatever it takes to reach that.
* *American Psycho* (and basically any other Brett Easton Ellis book)
* *The Bonfire of Vanities* by Tom Wolfe
* *Trainspotting* and most other Irvine Welsh books
* *Dangerous Liaisons* by Choderlos de Laclos
Johannes Cabal series.
Or as I like to call them: “How to paint a murdering sociopath in a light that shows him to actually be a decent guy whose grandiose scheme is for the greater good.”
Johannes Cabal: The Necromancer. This first book in the series starts with Cabal summoning a demon to take him down into hell. Years ago he sold his soul to the devil to learn the secrets of Necromancy, the ability to bring the dead back to life. He wants his soul back not because of a moral issue but because he notices not having a soul messes with the reliability of his research. He makes a deal with the devil that if he can convince 100 people to sell their soul to the devil within a year he can have his soul back and keep his necromancy abilities.
This is my favorite novel, it is witty, funny, and Cabal is a wonderfully awful, socially awkward, mad genius main character. I love antiheroes as main characters and he’s the best of the best.
The ‘Keller’ books by Lawrence Block (Hit Parade, Hit Man, Hit List, etc.) They are about a very likable contract killer.
The Stand– Stephen King
The Name of the Wind– Rothfuss
I would say the much-lauded Game of Thrones books contain loads of antiheros (and antiheroines)
Also A Separate Peace– Knowles
The first law(trilogi), by Joe Abercrombie
The Path to the Spiders Nest – Italo Calvino
Zeno’s Conscience – Italo Svevo
The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M Cain
The Odyssey.
Odysseus is a great anti-hero because he masquerades as a hero, except his journey is self serving, his actions selfish and his conduct violent. Adorno had a cracking essay on this. The E V Rieu translation is really good.
Les Miserables by Hugo.
Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
Night’s Master – Tanith Lee