Classic books about revenge

Wrongful imprisonment leads a young sailor toward escape, a new identity and revenge against those responsible for his suffering.

Love and revenge sustain a feud across two generations, with cruelty and exclusion shaping Heathcliff's place in the Earnshaw household.

Ahab turns a whaling voyage into a private hunt for the white whale that took his leg.

Abandoned by his creator, a living being seeks acceptance until repeated rejection turns his hopes toward punishing the scientist.

An unexplained death in a London house sends Sherlock Holmes toward a history of wrongs reaching beyond the city.

A grieving prince seeks proof of his father's murder while struggling to act on a demand for revenge.

When courtly power shields his son's murderers, a keeper of the law finds his grief turning toward vengeance.

Mythic rulers and heroes pursue revenge amid questions of family ties and political authority.

Defeated after war in Heaven, Satan plans to punish God by turning his attention toward Adam and Eve.

After Malta's rulers seize his property, Barabas draws his daughter and others into schemes of deception and murder.

Royal marriages become entangled in secrets and betrayal as love and rivalry draw families toward settling accumulated wrongs.

Norse gods and heroes face conflicts of loyalty and vengeance in poems about the world's beginnings, destruction and heroic lives.

Gambling, love and retaliatory impulses unsettle lives in Russian tales where calculation can meet the possibility of supernatural forces.

Loyal retainers seek to settle wrongs in Japanese tales where personal wishes and social obligations pull people in different directions.