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List of mad scientists

 
Wikipedia: List of mad scientists

The following is a list of fictional mad scientists in cultural sources (literature, movies, comics, etc.). They are split into pre- and post-1945, as the images of mad scientists changed and proliferated in the years following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the increased role of scientists following World War II.

Contents

Before 1945

Literature

  • Victor Frankenstein, creator of Frankenstein's monster, in the novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley (1818).
  • Nathaniel Hawthorne, in his short story "The Birthmark" (1843), shows a scientist named Aylmer who, while perhaps not mad, is certainly overconfident, and whose meddling with nature brings about tragedy.
  • The following year, Hawthorne wrote "Rappaccini's Daughter," in which medieval Paduan naturalist Giancomo Rappaccini performs botanical and toxicological experiments on his own daughter.
  • Nathaniel Hawthorne also wrote the story "Artist of the Beautiful", in which Owen Warland, a quirky clock-maker, seeks to discover/create perpetual motion, and is thought mad by the townspeople.
  • Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) portrays the essentially humane experimenter driven to madness and suicide by the nature of his science.
  • Several (but not all) of Jules Verne's novels feature a mad scientist. Some of these are humorous, who fail everything they try; others are shown as rather serious and even dangerous characters. A partial list follows.
    • The main characters of The Chase of the Golden Meteor (La Chasse au météore) (1908) are three mad scientists: Dean Forsyth and Sidney Hudelson, rivalling astronomers, and the eccentric inventor Xirdal Zephyrin.
    • Thomas Roch in Facing the Flag (Face au drapeau) (1896) is a typical mad scientist in that he doesn't realize his powers are used for evil purposes.
    • Captain Nemo, the rich protagonist who builds a submarine appears in two novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870) and The Mysterious Island (1874). However, he appears more as a vigilante, an explorer and a super engineer, than a god-playing mad scientist. None of his inventions (not even the Nautilus - which is much more a means to travel and discover the undersea world, than a battle machine) could ever be questioned on any moral ground. Despite being a misanthrope (who still has faith in some good men and who still cares for the underdog), he has no plan to dominate or destroy the world. Furthermore, his research and experiments never involved any living being.
    • Arguably, the main character of Mathias Sandorf (1885).
    • Professor Lidenbrock from Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864).
    • J. T. Matson (and other characters) in Barbicane and Co. (Sans dessus dessous) (1889) and also in From the Earth to the Moon (1865) who enjoys making giant cannons.
    • Off on a comet (orig. title Hector Servadac, 1877) has the astronomer Palmyrin Rosette as an important character.
    • In Search of the Castaways (1865) has Jacques Paganel, a geographer who becomes involved in the story by accident: he is so forgetful that he's boarded the wrong ship. Nevertheless, he is a very famous scientist in the book, has three lines of titles and three middle names.
    • John Hatteras from The Adventures of Captain Hatteras (French: Les Aventures du capitaine Hatteras, 1864) can be counted as one as well.
    • Carpathian Castle (1892) has a mad scientist named "Orfanik".
  • H. G. Wells' The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896) carried Frankensteinian experimentation a step further with its mad scientist Dr. Moreau, contrasting it with an idyllic 'natural' South Sea island setting. Several film versions were made (such as The Island of Lost Souls (1933)).
  • The Harold MacGrath 1920 novel The Drums of Jeopardy had a Russian mad scientist named "Boris Karlov" reported to be the source for the stage name adopted by actor Boris Karloff.
  • Dr. Herbert West, a Frankenstein-like doctor obsessed with bringing the dead back to life, in H. P. Lovecraft's novella "Herbert West, Reanimator" (1922).
  • Griffin, from The Invisible Man (1897) by H.G. Wells. Griffin discovers the secret of invisibility, but the process sends him into murderous insanity.
  • Vladimir Ipat'evich Persikov, a specialist in reptiles, in The Fatal Eggs (1924) by Mikhail Bulgakov.
  • Philip Philippovich Preobrazhensky who implants human testicles and pituitary gland into a stray dog named Sharik, in Heart of a Dog (1925) by Mikhail Bulgakov.
  • Ras Thavas, who performs grotesque human experiments in Edgar Rice Burroughs' The Master Mind of Mars (1928) and Synthetic Men of Mars (1940).
  • Phor Tak, the discoverer of invisibility in Edgar Rice Burroughs' 1930 science-fiction novel, A Fighting Man of Mars.
  • Eleanor Allison who at the age of 10 was the creator of the famous Ellie the little freak series of scary kiddy night time books.
  • Dr Rance Mandarin, a.k.a. Doctor Death, from the novels "12 Must Die", "The Gray Creatures" and "The Shriveling Murders" which appeared in three issues of the pulp magazine Doctor Death in 1935.

Movies

After 1945

Novels

Movies

Television series

Cartoon

Comics

Video games

Music

Toys

Audio drama

Opera


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