The 10 best bad mums in literature

Mother's Day: be grateful for the mother you've got. At least she's not one of these 10 classic mum villains from literature

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10725512/The-10-best-bad-mums-in-literature.html

CONTAINS SPOILERS

It's easy to forget that Fitzgerald's jazz-age aristocrat is a mother. Daisy's daughter is hardly in the book at all, with Daisy too busy being betwitched by Jay Gatsby to spend much time parenting. She does mention that when she was first told she had given birth to a daughter, she replied: "I hope she'll be a fool – that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool." Not much maternal ambition there.

BADNESS RATING: 2/5

We only ever see Charlotte Haze through the eyes of Humbert Humbert, who shows her initially as a vaguely repulsive obstacle to Humbert's advances on the young Lolita, and then even more worthy of his disgust because of her own dislike of her daughter. Charlotte seems to realise that Lolita is competing for Humbert's affections, but that only makes Charlotte like her even less. Difficult to forgive.

BADNESS RATING: 4/5

Etc.....