There are 2 novels which have unbelievably sad deaths of characters in them, which affected me. I'll just mention the novels themselves, and if anyone hasn't read them yet, but plans to, it won't be spoiled too much.
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy and L'Assomoir by Emile Zola. Both had me wiping away a tear and clearing my throat.
We will probably forget most of these deaths, so don't worry
Unless you happen to have one of the books in in progress.Originally Posted by kelby_lake
Dang!!
Oh well, an excellent author anyway... I'm still enjoying the experience.
i don't read about death in literature but i do think about death often in my life....i would like to die in my room with a rose in my hand and i knife in the other ...lying on my floor looking at the nightsky from my window ..thats my only dream in life.
Her heart is played like well worn strings; in her eyes the sadness sings; of one who was destined for better things.
Jude the Obscure was absolutely devastating. It was the first Hardy book I read and I can't bring myself to pick up another one because of that scene.
The first one that comes to mind for me is Soames' death in Swan Song. It's kind of odd that that one sticks out more than the others because it wasn't all that remarkable but I just loved that character. I had become so attached to him throughout all the Forsyte Saga books and all that I had invested in him was bound up in that one scene. I knew it was coming, I even put off reading for a few days so I could pretend like it wasn't going to happen but eventually I accepted I had to just get through it and I tell you, it was the hardest few pages I've ever had to read. His death was the only one that made me sob.
the luminous grass of the prairie hides
feet lovely and still as sleeping doves,
porcelain bones strong enough to carry a life,
but weighty and unmovable
As black Dakota hills. ~ Riesa
Oh and Dobby's death too!Hedwig in Harry Potter!
I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew.
I thought of one more.
Andersen's fairy tale, death of a little match girl.
[QUOTE=Idril;602329]Jude the Obscure was absolutely devastating. It was the first Hardy book I read and I can't bring myself to pick up another one because of that scene.
I think it his saddest, most tragic book, and of course his last novel. He got such a battering from the critics over it that he only wrote poetry after that, so you're not alone in not liking it. But I would urge you to try his others. He is brilliant, if a little depressing.
Oh god! That ripped my heart in two! I was eight years old when i read that book, and i just cried and cried.
But the death of a character that effected me most was the death of Kryltsov in Tolstoy's "Resurrection" You don't actually see Kryltsov die, so to speak, but after he dies, the prince Nekhludov goes into the mortuary and sees his corpse. That scene is so solemn and beautiful.
The death isn't sudden and devastating - Kryltsov suffers from tuberculosis, and his condition deteriorates throughout the novel. You expect that he's going to die. But the way the scene in the mortuary is described is just bitterly sad.
Oh my god! how could i forget about Joes death in Bleak House!
"Come away O human child!To the waters of the wild, With a faery hand in hand, For the worlds more full of weeping than you can understand."
W.B.Yeats
"If it looks like a Dwarf and smells like a Dwarf, then it's probably a Dwarf (or a latrine wearing dungarees)"
Artemins Fowl and the Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer
my poems-please comment Forum Rules
Don Quixote's death had me shocked. He just dies, and it was so sad after all his heroic acts!
"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."
The Awakening
Oliver Twist
I thought Edna Pontellier's death was so eery and sad, I really hoped she would have a happy ending, but I guess that was kind of naive.
Nancy's death was disturbing and violent, I hated that the one believable female character in Oliver Twist had to die such a horrible death.
"Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, obstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact." George Eliot
Ralph Touchett's death in The Potrtrait of a Lady
Dream as though you'll live forever, live as though you'll die today (James Dean)
That one guy from that one novel... The Great... something... hmm the name escapes me at the moment
Also, Michael Valentine's death in Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land". He was such a triumphant figure that I didn't really expect him to meet a tragic fate. Though I suppose the Martians wouldn't consider it tragic at all...
Strangers passing in the street, by chance to separate glances meet, and I am you and what I see is me.
Lin Taiyu's death in the Dream of Red Mansions. It was caused by her disappointment at not being the chosen one to marry her cousin Paoyu with whom she shared an intimate relationship. Her death was so sad and tragic, it happened during the marriage of Paoyu to Xue Paochai.
Also. the death of Quasimodo who followed Esmeralda the gypsy to her grave.
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