Charles Strickland`s death on Tahiti in the Moon and Sixpence by Somerset Maugham. You would have to be made of stone not to be deeply moved by his terrible end.
Charles Strickland`s death on Tahiti in the Moon and Sixpence by Somerset Maugham. You would have to be made of stone not to be deeply moved by his terrible end.
Hairy Ape. The guy doesn't think he's worthy of being human so he dies in a gorilla pen in a zoo.
For me, a death that doesn't actually occur. But I can't bear to read where Tiny Tim is missing from the Cratchet household in the Christmas future.
Oh for sure Tess, in "Tess Of the D'Urbevilles".. her execution after she finally finds happiness with Angel is awful!
In Jude the Obscure there is an incredibly sad death scene, I agree with those who have mentioned it before. The whole book is the most depressing I have ever read.
The death of the youngest Rostov in War and Peace.
Et l'unique cordeau des trompettes marines
Apollinaire, Le chantre
Helen's death in Jane Eyre.
My friend, I am not what I seem. Seeming is but a garment I wear—a care-woven garment that protects me from thy questionings and thee from my negligence.I would not have thee believe in what I say nor trust in what I do—for my words are naught but thy own thoughts in sound and my deeds thy own hopes in action.
Khalil Gibran
A good choice, I'd forgotten about that one. On the other hand, Prince Andrew's death from the same book, is probably the best written death scene ever. I found it almost comforting.Originally Posted by Etienne
Henry James's Portrait of a Lady is the only book that made me weep while I was reading it, although several books affected me
emotionally: Beckett's novel trilogy and Sophie's Choice. (The latter so traumatized (is that a word?) me that I've been unable to watch the movie version to this day.)
I can read Shakespeare "without tears," but I can't watch performances of Hamlet and Lear without crying.
Be forewarned: First one is a spoiler for the Thomas Hardy novel, "The Woodlanders".
One of the saddest for me is from Thomas Hardy's novel "The Woodlanders"...I cry when Giles dies in the rain, after sacrificing his tiny cabin to Gracie.
I also think Hardy's novel, "The Mayor of Casterbridge" has to have the saddest endings ever. I own the film version and cry, actually sob, at that ending, and that is no matter how many times I have seen it. It just tears me up inside something awful.
Editing now: You guys are right - "Tess...." is incredibly sad, as is "Jude the Obscure". Let's face it, most of Hardy's work was tragic and thoroughly sad, enough to evoke many genuine tears.
Last edited by Janine; 11-21-2008 at 08:57 PM.
"It's so mysterious, the land of tears."
Chapter 7, The Little Prince ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
...Don Quixote...
*tear* I don't think I was so shocked even when Boromir died.
"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."
Perhaps it's just me, but I find Isabel Archer extemely irritating. I am currently watching a tv version from the 60's though, with the lovely Richard Chamberlain as Ralph. I like him, and what happens to him is very sad, (I won't spell it out), but so far she's annoying, and I don't know if it's just the actress who's playing her. I can't see what all the characters see in her. Am I just being harsh on my own sex, as I love the thought of an intelligent, independent woman being the main character of the book, but she has no warmth, unless it's just the actress. I'll confess I haven't read the book, but I have listened to it on audio, and I didn't really get any warmth there either. The Kidman version is lacking too.
In The Stand when Nick Andros died after Harold blew up the house that the Free Zone Committee was meeting in. Especially since he died grabbing the bomb to try and save everybody else.
Also in The Dark Tower when Eddie and Jake died. Those were all sad deaths.
Dear Members,
I think of two books wherein, I feel the saddest deaths are portrayed.One is that of Sydny Carton in Charles Dicken's "A Tale Of Two Cities".Here the death is not shown in actuality but portrayed by the journey that Sydny Carton does in carriage that will take him to the Guilletine.He does this for saving his lover's husband.( It was only Carton who loved her and not she).
The next one is that of the brother and sister combination of Maggie and Tom in George Elliot's novel "the Mill On The Floss".The river rises here to take away these two.
Sybill's death in Dorian Gray. So moving.
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