Bluebeards

They are the Svengalis and the Bluebeards of fiction.

Smoke, Mirrors, and Murder Ann Rule 2008

These are usually sheltered waters with quick access to ports and a complex shoreline that gives modern-day Bluebeards plenty of places to hide.

Dangerous Waters 2006

To give the children this sense of mystery I do not believe it is at all necessary to turn to vicious tales of giants, of ogres, and Bluebeards, or to the no less vicious pictures of the beautiful princess and the wicked stepmother.

Here and Now Story Book Two- to seven-year-olds Lucy Sprague Mitchell 1922

By husbands and fathers, real Bluebeards and Timons,

Nothing to Wear 1912

By husbands and fathers, real Bluebeards and Timons,

Little Masterpieces of American Wit and Humor Volume I Various 1900

Chinese legend, cited in the last chapter, were neither Swan-maidens nor female Bluebeards; and this is not the only tale from the Flowery Land in which these superhuman beauties appear without promoting the development in question.

The Science of Fairy Tales An Inquiry into Fairy Mythology Edwin Sidney Hartland 1887

By husbands and fathers, real Bluebeards and Timons,

The Wit and Humor of America, Volume VIII (of X) Various 1887

As for the Bluebeards, of course _they_ hated the widow.

Stories of Comedy Rossiter Johnson 1885

Of course, an envious and sneering world said that she was tired of the country, and wanted to marry again; but she little heeded its taunts; and Anne, who hated her step-mother and could not live at home, was fain to accompany her sister to the town where the Bluebeards have had for many years a very large, genteel, old-fashioned house.

Stories of Comedy Rossiter Johnson 1885

She put up a most splendid monument to her departed lord over the family vault of the Bluebeards.

Stories of Comedy Rossiter Johnson 1885