I don't think I'd include this in the "villains won" category, since the ending of the novel is not that the axis powers won the war. FDR losing to Lindbergh is the beginning of the story, not the end.
A lot of the stories in Ovid's Metamorphosis involve the victim being punished in truly awful ways and the victomizer (mostly Jove being lurid) getting off scottfree.
I don't know about a book but the movie se7en has that kind of ending. [SPOILER ALERT] Sure the bad guy dies, but he finishes his work and the good guy gets arrested.
yeah its an old movie, maybe I shouldn't say old since it was made the same year I was born. I couldn't think of a way to explain why it was kind of a villains win movie without giving a spoiler. I just added a spoiler alert in front of it. Amanda
This is one of the best examples of the trope the OP was looking for. Animal Farm, too. Lord of the Flies is probably the purest example of a downer ending that I can think of, since it is an allegory of the fall, but without any redemption. That book fucked me up.
Tell-All by Chuck Palahniuk. Besides the ones already mentioned, I'm having trouble thinking of any more. Bizarre.
That's not technically true. There is a happy ending to the book, you can leave it knowing The Party will fail. It is very subtle, but it is there.
You are essentially right, you have to really look at the entire novel to see the one hint I am referring to.
The Dark Angel by Mika Waltari, " about a hopeless love affair and the Fall of Constantinople." -from Wiki Good luck finding it, though.
Pretty much anything by H. P. Lovecraft. Even if hero kinda wins, the hero typically ends up in a straight jacket. Plus, there is the overall feeling that everyone is still gonna get devoured in the end. There's also a slew of short stories by Harlan Ellison that fall into this category, such as "The Whimper of Whipped Dogs" and "I have No Mouth, and I Must Scream."
I saw some film recommendations, so I'll add a few downers to the list... Sweet Smell of Success Before The Devil Knows You're Dead Ace in the Hole Chinatown Body Heat A History of Violence The Counselor Also be sure to check out A Simple Plan. The book is incredible, and Sam Raimi's film adaptation is just as good. I also enjoyed Scott Smith's other book, The Ruins. Huge downer ending there. There was a film adaptation of that, too, but it was crap.
I really liked both the books A Simple Plan and The Ruins, but does the "villain" really win in A Simple Plan? Who are you considering the villain in that story? The Ruins, though, definitely is a villain winning story. Soooo disturbing, and yet sooo gooood.
I can think of a non-fiction novel Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. Also The Stranger by Albert Camus. As for the films: Independence Day, War of the Worlds, The Hunt for Red October, The Patriot (with Mel Gibson), Sleeping with the Enemy, Braveheart, Predator 1 and 2, The Expendables, etc.
With noir - classic or neo - the villain is oftentimes the protagonist, willingly agreeing to some evil plot or scheme and (usually) suffering the consequences of such actions. This is not always true, of course. There are enough private eye and random sap protags finding themselves caught in a web of lies/deceit/sex/murder/whathaveyou where there is an explicit villain, but it's the willingness of the main character to go down dark paths that gives noir its name. The antagonist of A Simple Plan is also the protagonist. It's just one guy who does a bad thing and karma catches up to him. Same deal with the film ACE IN THE HOLE (which is a full-fledged masterpiece; I suggest everyone see it immediately). Chuck Tatum is both hero and villain. He's in it for his own good. He's the guy struggling against the conflicts of the story, but he's also the guy responsible for them.
Blood Meridian, yes, and also No Country for Old Men by the same author, though the "villain" does get critically injured in the end, but only after making sure everyone is dead including all the good (and other bad) people. The only good person who survives is the sheriff, but he never encounters Anton Chigurh and anyway, he's hopelessly ineffective.
I suppose that's one way of looking at it, but neither does the hero win. Far from it. Just one of the many reasons why I love noir. There are so many ways to look at it and see characters as people instead of stock good guys or bad guys. When the good guys are as evil as the bad guys, are they really the good guys?