Ten of the best horrid children in fiction

For the Guardian, John Mullan named ten of the best horrid children in literature.

One entry on the list:

The Parsons children

In Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-four, Parsons is Winston Smith's neighbour, a man utterly loyal to the Party. His paternal affections are rewarded when his children betray him to the authorities for thought-crimes revealed when he talks in his sleep. (They are resentful because he wouldn't take them to a public execution.) He is proud of their infant allegiance to the state.

Read about the other horrid children on the list.

Nineteen Eighty-four is #7 on a list of the 100 best last lines from novels. It disappointed Neil deGrasse upon re-reading. The book made Daniel Johnson's five best list of books about Cold War culture, Robert Collins' top ten list of dystopian novels, Gemma Malley's top 10 list of dystopian novels for teenagers, is one of Norman Tebbit's six best books and one of the top ten works of literature according to Stephen King, and appears on John Mullan's list of ten of the best rats in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue