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Favourite books with a sad ending?

66 replies

fifteenmillionmerits · 09/06/2021 11:39

Mine are:
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
Z for Zachariah by Robert C O'Brien
The Green Mile by Stephen King
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D Taylor

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ginghamtablecloths · 02/07/2021 15:34

I read In Search of Mihailo by Dolores Pala many years ago and I think it fits the bill here, it's about first love, lost love and it may well be out of print but is worth searching for.

colincarrot · 01/07/2021 15:02

Dances with wolves..cried loads at the end of that book

WeeFae · 01/07/2021 14:39

The Bunker Diary!

Puppylucky · 22/06/2021 09:11

Another vote for Small Pleasures - just finished it last night and whilst I suspected it was coming it was still so sad!

Clawdy · 22/06/2021 08:56

Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close - that last sentence "We would have been safe."

IdblowJonSnow · 21/06/2021 23:49

A God in Ruins
Atonement
Any Human Heart is quite a melancholy read.

thanksforallthewhales · 21/06/2021 23:27

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

username059471 · 19/06/2021 23:53

Mill on the Floss George Elliot
Little Women
Remains of the Day Ishiguro

thatonesmine · 19/06/2021 23:39

Where My Heart Used To Beat by Sebastian Faulks.
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell.
Both have heartrendingly poignant endings.

DanglingMod · 19/06/2021 23:38

Oh, and Revolutionary Road Sad

DanglingMod · 19/06/2021 23:37

Came on to say THTFHM by Maggie O'Farrell
Also Rabbit, Run by John Updike
The Grapes of Wrath
And, of course, Jude...

Loads of kids' books.

DoctorMarten · 19/06/2021 23:31

@Griefmonster

Atonement, Ian McEwan The hand that first held mine, Maggie O'Farrell
Yes! I wept and wept at the part where she's in the sea in THTFHM by Maggie O'Farrell.
ComeDoonTheStairs · 13/06/2021 03:15

A play I read a few years back for a university course called Euridyce by Sarah Ruhl, which is the story of Orpheus and Euridyce but with a twist. This one really stood out for me and I found it enjoyable despite being sad. Although we read many other, more realistic plays, often not very happy ones, this one stood with me the most.
Also, The Velveteen Rabbit (sorry, I know most of these are novels). I read it about 7 and didn't fully grasp the impact. Read it again at 16 and just found it really sad about the boy becoming sick and having to part with the rabbit, even if he was able to see him again at the end.

Costalatte · 12/06/2021 22:51

The Virgin suicides Jeffrey Eugenides
Also agree with One day and The time Travellers wife

applecatchers36 · 12/06/2021 22:51

The sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

wherewildflowersgrow · 12/06/2021 22:46

Ooh yes David Nichols.

wherewildflowersgrow · 12/06/2021 22:45

Anna Karenina.

Aniseeeds · 12/06/2021 22:24

The Time Travellers Wife. The ending in the book is different to the film but it made me cry when I read it.

nickEcave · 12/06/2021 22:18

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. The characters all go through such appalling misery and degradation with no redemption at the end. An amazing book though!

HuntingoftheSnark · 11/06/2021 07:06

Many already mentioned and Gone With The Wind.

Griefmonster · 10/06/2021 22:12

Atonement, Ian McEwan
The hand that first held mine, Maggie O'Farrell

Andante57 · 10/06/2021 22:08

Frogcorset - The Revenge of the Protestant Orphan would be a best seller for the title alone.

Andante57 · 10/06/2021 14:23

Farewell to Arms is incredibly sad at the end.

ZingDramaQueenOfSheeba · 10/06/2021 13:33

Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

The film with Sinise & Malkovich is the only film I had to immediately watch again and then again on the same day.

love Hemingway's books too; I think the titles are Farewell to the Arms and For whom the bells toll.
is Old man and the sea his as well? (brain fog)

Frogcorset · 10/06/2021 13:19

@Andante57

Frogcorset hmmm……Charlotte and Lambert. Well unless she falls out of love with him like Scarlett O’Hara did with Ashley after Melanie died she she might entrap him by saying either marry me and I’ll pay all your debts including those to Christopher Dysart, or I’ll continue to persecute you, lay bare your dishonesty and have you in court for debt after which you’ll be cancelled by everyone. Or, she might just continue to persecute him.

I hope Christopher Dysart didn’t marry Miss Hope Drummond as he may have been a bit wet but in those days he was still a catch, and she was a complete pill.

25 years later the Protestant orphan may have her revenge ….

Re a dramatisation, exactly as you said, in the one they made some years ago they failed to make Charlotte at all grotesque - in fact she was quite attractive - so much of the point was lost.
.
So nice to find another Real Charlotte fan!

I like your take on this, @Andante57. Have you considered writing a sequel, possibly called The Revenge of the Protestant Orphan, but which would also deal with the subsequent relationship of Charlotte and Roddy, and possibly force Pamela Dysart to declare herself to whoever her similarly tongue-tied suitor was? Grin