Intellectual incorrectness: melodrama, populism, cultural hierarchies -- The villains of stage melodrama: romanticism and the politics of character -- Dickens, acting, and ambivalence: periodical passions -- Melodramatic poetics and the gothic villain: interiority, deviance, emotion -- Twisting the Newgate tale: popular culture, pleasure, and the politics of genre -- Dickens and dandyism: masking interiority -- Byronic baddies, melodramatic anxieties -- Sincerely deviant women