Most heartbreaking lines from a book ever...

[iamdivergent]

Mine has to be this one...

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

I cried so hard the three times I've read the book (I haven't put the name of the book in case of spoilers) - what lines got to you?

I agree with TheHodgeofTheHedge that Tess of The D'Urbervilles has some of the saddest lines of all time. The ones that get me occur on the lovers' final night together after managing to evade the law for five happy days, before Tess is finally captured. (They are fleeing after Tess, in a fit of grief and anger, has killed the man who seduced her and ruined her life.)

Knowing that her life "can only be a question of weeks", Tess asks Angel:

^"Tell me now, Angel, do you think we shall meet again after we are dead? I want to know."
He kissed her to avoid a reply at such a time.
"O, Angel - I fear that means no!", said she, with a suppressed sob. "And I wanted so to see you again - so much, so much! What - not even you and I, Angel, who love each other so well?"
...to the critical question at the critical time, he did not answer: and they were again silent.^

When they wake, it is to find that the forces of the law have caught up with them.

^"What is it, Angel?", she said, starting up, "Have they come for me?"
"Yes, dearest", he said, "They have come."^

Oh blimey, this thread.
I sobbed over The Little Mermaid when I was young.
Ditto Charlotte's Web.

What was the one about nursing the baby (?) from?

I was sobbing on the bus home thanks to you lot by the way.

Fuckers.

It's from Goodnight Mister Tom. I weep buckets over it.

Some of these I've read and obviously blocked out, Goodnight Mister Tom and Grapes of Wrath being ones I've read and seemed to have forgotten...

Most of the mouse and his child. 'He fell in love and prepared to meet his end'

At the moment, most (all) of my reading is to DD. Echo that quote from "on the night you were born" and I haven't read the whole thread, so not sure if anyone has mentioned the end of "no matter what".

The last page of “The Paper Dolls”.
Also, whilst on chikdren’s books, DS had a book when he was 3ish about a sea turtle called Tortua, who laid eggs all round her tropical island and they all died. It was an awful book, that went to a new life fairly quickly.

That sounds horrible Bike

First story I read that made me cry was The Nightingale and the Rose. Can't recall what age I was, possibly 10. Sobbed so much I couldn't breathe.

Can't get the quote because I have ever read it again. Not able. Over 30 years later!!

But the part I recall with most sadness was where the nightingale lifeblood (Think it was described as that) was leaving her and she sang.

I read Goodbye Mog about a month after we'd had to have our elderly cat put to sleep, cue ugly sobbing in the library!

“The only person I really wanted to talk to about Augustus Waters’ death with was Augustus Waters”

From the Fault in Our Stars.

For the most part I found it a bit cheesy and overly sentimental, but having lost a dear friend a few months before that line stood out as so incredibly true and honest.

MrsFionaCharming

I haven't read that book or seen the film but I lost a very close friend very recently and the only person I want to chat to about it is her! Completely relate to that.

From "Erica's Story" by Ruth Vander Zee and Roberto Innocenti. A couple along with their baby are being transported to a death camp, maybe Auschwitz. The story is narrated by Erica, the baby in the story, now an old lady. She describes how, in an attempt to save her baby's life, the mother throws her from the moving train.
"On her way to death, my mother threw me to life." is the line that makes me cry.
It's a picture book, aimed at older children, beautifully written, with stunning illustrations.

An incredible, moving image, Edith.

The vast majority of the lines quoted on this thread are moving and memorable because they reaffirm the only true value in life, which is love.

As summed up in the last line of Larkin's poem An Arundel Tomb -

What will survive of us is love.

I read Scott Turow's Law's of our Fathers when I was just coming out of a painful breakup and the lines:

"Who will love me for myself? Whose love will let me know myself?"

had me bawling.

"Thank God" from A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh

The character who says it is a married woman and the mother of a little boy called John. She also has a lover she is obsessed with called John. The boy is killed in a hunting accident and this is how she receives the news:

What is it, Jock? Tell me quickly, I’m scared. It’s nothing awful is it?”

“I’m afraid it is. There’s been a very serious accident.”

“John?”

“Yes.”

“Dead?”

He nodded.
6
She sat down on a hard little Empire chair against the wall, perfectly still with her hands folded in her lap, like a small well-brought-up child introduced into a room full of grown-ups. She said, “Tell me what happened? Why do you know about it first?”^

“I’ve been down at Hetton since the week-end.”

“Hetton?”

“Don’t you remember? John was going hunting today.” She frowned, not at once taking in what he was saying. “John… John Andrew… I… Oh thank God…” Then she burst into tears.

I know it's fiction and unrealistic crap written by a man. But it's so heartbreaking that a mother could say that. Upsets me every time. And actually the film with Kristen Scott Thomas (unusually) is a very good adaptation of the book and this scene is done beautifully.

The funeral scene in my sister Jodie always makes me cry in a really ugly way.

Also King Lear at the end:

Kent. I have a journey, sir, shortly to go;
My master calls me, I must not say no.

His master was Lear who is dead after a heartbreaking descent into madness

Don't have the exact quote but Animal Farm George Orwell

(SPOILER COMING UP - this whole thread should have a spoiler alert in the title I fear)

That bit at the end where lovely loyal hardworking Boxer is taken away to the "vet" and "horse slaughterer" is written on the side of the van.

Aw! No! Lovely Boxer! Tears and more tears.

Edith my DD 10 is doing World War II for her topic. Would this be a good book for her? She's read When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit.

EvilDoctor I think it will be fine. I've used it with a Y6 class who were captivated by it. It's an amazing book.

The death of Hamlet:

HORATIO
Now cracks a noble heart.—Good night, sweet prince,
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest...

I can hardly bear to read the end of The Amber Spyglass because I know what's coming!

"I will love you forever; whatever happens. Till I die and after I die, and when I find my way out of the land of the dead, I'll drift about forever, all my atoms, till I find you again..."

"I'll be looking for you, every moment, every single moment. And when we do find each other again, we'll cling together so tight that nothing and no one'll ever tear us apart. Every atom of me and every atom of you...We'll live in birds and flowers and dragonflies and pin trees and in clouds and in those little specks of light you see floating in sunbeams...And when they use our atoms to make new lives, they won't just be able to take one, they'll have to take two, one of you and one of me, we'll be joined so tight..."

They lay side by side, hand in hand, looking at the sky.”