What do you think are the saddest scenes/passages in literature? *General spoiler alert*

[QuimReaper]

For me, it's either:

• Lyra leafing Pantalaimon on the shore in The Amber Spyglass
• Will leaving to go back to his awful mother in Goodnight Mr Tom

Makes me tear up just thinking about either. What's yours?

Quotes would be much appreciated, even though I was too lazy to look any up!

(This thread will probably contain assorted spoilers, don't read on if you're going to complain about them )

The end of the dark tower series and roland knows he has to do it all again just for a moment he knows I feel so sad for the guy to have loved and lost over and over and to be sent back to do it again

@HelgaHufflepuff76 Honestly I well up even thinking about Charlotte's Web. I remember reading it as a child and being really devastated that she'd died.

The Green Mile and also The Color Purple made me ball my eyes out, proper sobbing.

Hemingway - Farewell to Arms

"After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain."

His lover and baby son have just died.
Bleak.

@LittleFairywren

When nighteyes dies in robin Hobbs farseer trilogy

Argh I'm about 2/3 of the way through Assassin's Quest. I should have heeded the spoiler warnings! And also: noooooooo! Nighteyes!!!! 😭😭😭

@allabouteve1 Oh gosh, yes. Heartbreaking. That whole book really gets to me.

@QuimReaper it definitely is! It's near the bit about how Albert died smiling and it was only when he was turned over that half his head was missing 😢 I don't believe those characters appear in any others books.

The Time Traveller's Wife when they know he is going to die soon and can't do anything to stop it.

When Dumbledore died in Harry Potter. I cried bucket loads. To be fair, I had been reading for a straight six hours and was a bit crazed by then.

Nearly every page towards the end of Return of the King. Frodo and Sam realising that they won't make it but keep going anyway. Even though I know it's going to turn out OK, it still upsets me.

Then she was pressing her little proud broken self against his face, as close as she could get, and then they died.

The Book of Lost Things, at the beginning where David's mother is sick and he thinks if he can do everything right she'll be safe. He avoids stepping on cracks, obsesses over numbers, sticks to a set routine and so on then when she dies he thinks he must have made a mistake on that day and so it's his fault. Then the ending where he lives out his life but gradually loses everyone he loves

The Book Thief when Himmel Street is bombed and Rudy finally gets his kiss... I ugly cried.

Another from To Kill a Mockingbird.

When Scout says of Boo Radley "He had given us so much and we had given him nothing. And it made me sad"

"And she quickly struck the whole bundle of matches, for she wished to keep her grandmother with her. And the matches burned with such a glow that it became brighter than daylight. Grandmother had never been so grand and beautiful. She took the little girl in her arms, and both of them flew in brightness and joy above the earth, very, very high, and up there was neither cold, nor hunger, nor fear-they were with God."

@AveAtqueVale

Bollocks sorry! I thought twice about posting that but I assumed nobody else would be reading/have read that. Sorry

In the Kite Runner when he reads the letter.

Also agree with Boy in Striped Pyjamas.

Another from Watership Down. Not when Fiver or Hazel dies (although that's sad) but when General Woundwort is offered the chance to take another path, and end animosity/go forward in friendship ... and doesn't choose it. Adams was a genius at seeing the bigger picture, and that choice (by a rabbit for goodness sake, but saying something about war) upsets me even now, not having read it for 20 years.

Tears welling at so many of these.,
Aslan’s death was my first. I cried and put the book away, unable to read more. My mum persuaded me to keep going.

I read Tom’s Midnight Garden to the dc and got ready at the bit where he goes upstairs to apologize to the landlady.

Not a quote, but the ending of The Plague Dogs, where Ralph and Snitter paddle out to sea, thinking the setting sun is an island where they'll come out 😭😭

“In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

Anne Frank - written in her diary. So poignant.

Lee Scorsby and Hester

And the death in The Hunger Games of the wee girl...can't remember her name now...

The time travellers wife. The bit about how he always knew he’d see her one last time and why didn’t he tell her and he says he didn’t want her to spend her whole life waiting for him

Also the killing of Simon in "Lord of the Flies"

Oh I love threads like these, they make me weep but it’s the most beautiful kind of sadness.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doer is a heartbreaking, wretchedly sad but beautiful book. There are many moments that made break down, but one of my favourite quotes, right near the end, is as follows:

“And is it so hard to believe that souls might also travel those paths? That her father and Etienne and Madame Manec and the German boy named Werner Pfennig might harry the sky in flocks, like egrets, like terns, like starlings? That great shuttles of souls might fly about, faded but audible if you listen closely enough?”

That whole book is made up of tiny fragment of light in a sea of sadness. Reading it truly changed my outlook.

The whole of 'The Light Between Oceans.' 😭😭😭

@RedForShort

@haverhill
There’s a wonderful children’s book called When Marnie was There about a lonely girl; I remember being profoundly moved by it as a child.

I loved this book, and have never found anyone else who read it!

Did anyone read 'Come Back, Lucy' years ago? I always think of it in the same breath as When Marnie Was There.

@Passmethecrisps I am with you on Behind the Scenes at the Museum, I loved it too.

Not high literature, but when Snape dies, imploring Harry to "look at me", and the following chapter revealing his motivation. More than a bit embarrassing at the time for a 25-year-old man to :

a) insist on buying the Harry Potter book the first day it came out ;
b) on holiday with friends in Sweden ;
c) sat in friends kitchen with tears streaming down my face as they played World of Warcraft in another room.