Doesn't have to be exactly like the aforementioned Joseph Campbell book but it's the closest I can get to describing what I'm looking for. Just something that tackles humanity's depictions of evil throughout history and maybe even what it says about us psychologically or about the world itself. If you have something in mind that doesn't exactly fit this description but still has some of the same essence you can feel free to suggest away!
I'm currently reading On Evil by Terry Eagleton and plan on getting to Pagel's origin of Satan and Marie-Louise von Franz' Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales.
This isn't too important but if it helps to know what kind of villains I love look no further than some of my favorite stories:
- Dracula/Nosferatu (multiple adaptations)
- The Call of Cthulhu and Color Out of Space
- IT (Stephen King)
- Lord of the Rings (Gollum and Sauron might be tied with Pennywise for my favorite villains in fiction)
- Star Wars (big fan of OT, Stover's ROTS novel and Andor especially)
- Milton's Paradise Lost and its more recent loose retelling His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
- Pan's Labyrinth
- I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
- Between Two Fires (Buelhman)
- First Law (Joe Abercrombie)
- The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
- Little Shop of Horrors
- Hereditary
by jesster_0