Eye for an Eye: Ten Tales of Revenge

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted at That Artsy Reader Girl. Every Tuesday, you pick ten books on that week’s topic. This week’s topic was books similar to Crayola Crayon Colors. But it was really difficult — so I decided to go with tales of revenge.

Here are 10 books where the main driving force was revenge, or where the characters spend a lot of time figuring out the mechanics of vengeance or dealing with its aftermath.

1/ The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

The conspiracy plot against Dantes is too horrifying for words. And who doesn’t want to cheer when Dantes returns, determined to take his righteous revenge?

2/ Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie

Revenge is a dish best served cold, but how far will you go to get even? Monza has been betrayed, her brother killed. She wants gory revenge, and if that means hiring a band of vile murderers, so be it.

3/ Paladin by C.J. Cherryh

In a very Japanese Samuarai-inspired fantasy, a peasant girl demands that the exiled Shoka teach her some swordfighting. His plans for solitude do not fare well in the face of her burning desire for vengeance.

4/ Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Hamlet is, of course, the posterboy for revenge. Finding that your uncle killed your father and married your mother isn’t a fairy tale; the fault lay in Hamlet’s stars.

5/ Wuthering Heights by Emile Bronte

Heathcliff wants to be haunted by his dead love and to destroy that dead love’s family. Not that his lady love was quite sane either. A unique brand of lovesick madness.

6/ Atonement by Ian McEwan

A very different kind of revenge: that borne of a seemingly-small immature reaction. But the consequences can be something you can never atone for. Briony discovers this for herself around the time of World War II.

7/ And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Most people would quote Christie’s other work, Murder on the Orient Express. But retributory murders can also smack of moral hypocrisy and that’s a dangerous game to play.

8/ The Visit by Friedrich Dürrenmatt

Claire Zachanassian, now a multi-millionnaire widow, re-visits her dying hometown and offers financial help. Except she has a condition: they must execute the man next in line for Mayor. Will the town agree?

9/ Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay

Tigana is a nation conquered by dark sorcery. Its displaced people want deliverance, but the death of the tyrannical ruler will only mean exposure to another bigger threat. Revenge comes down to choosing the lesser evil.

10/ Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Another book where revenge is taken to the ultimate extreme. The new Mrs. de Winter (who does seem very TSTL) has no idea that her predecessor’s loyal minions are out and about to show her out.

So, which books would you add to this list? Which other tales of revenge were memorable for you?