# 100 Greatest Deaths in Literature? (SPOILERS, probably) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 15, 2003, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611 "2003-07-15T10:06:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/21 "2003-07-16T02:00:51Z")
Moving this to Cafe Society. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/22 "2003-07-16T02:18:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by green\_bladder \* > \*\*Fredo in _The Godfather_ \*\* I thought Fredo was still alive when the book ended. ---
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/23 "2003-07-16T02:22:14Z")
Finally remembered the one I didn’t post before! Turin Turambar in _The Silmarillion._ ---
**Author:** ![look\_ninjas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b2d939/32.png) [@look\_ninjas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/look_ninjas)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/24 "2003-07-16T02:22:51Z")
Cecilia in The Virgin Suicides. A lot of death in that book, but hers is the one that starts the ball rolling. ---
**Author:** ![skeptic\_ev](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@skeptic\_ev](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skeptic_ev)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/25 "2003-07-16T02:23:00Z")
Well, I’m not suggesting that this qualifies as great literature, but since someone already mentioned Marvin from the Douglas Adams books, what the heck. The Four Bikers of the Apocalypse from _Good Omens_, a fine, fine book by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Tambo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/76d3ee/32.png) [@Mr\_Tambo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Tambo)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/26 "2003-07-16T02:24:15Z")
The death of V, in her priest’s clothes, in Thomas Pynchon’s _V_. She’s basically disassembled by a group of children, having become more made up of metal and glass prosthetics than flesh and bone by the end of the novel. The death of Dorian Gray, in Oscar Wilde’s novel. ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/27 "2003-07-16T03:07:34Z")
Gregor Samsa (the person-turned-giant-bug) in _The Metamorphosis_. That death scene always kills me. Not really a spoiler, but I’ll put the quote in a box anyway: “The first broadening of light in the world outside the window just entered his consciousness. Then his head sank to the floor of its own accord and from his nostrils came the last faint flicker of his breath.” ---
**Author:** ![Tertius01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e99b99/32.png) [@Tertius01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tertius01)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/28 "2003-07-16T03:31:23Z")
_Where the Red Fern Grows_ I remember crying as I read the end as a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Shemem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de053/32.png) [@Shemem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shemem)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/29 "2003-07-16T03:55:50Z")
**Tertius01** , my dad and I picked Where the Red Fern Grows as bedtime reading when I was a kid, and we _both_ cried. Cyrano de Bergerac. And maybe Proginoskes in L’Engle’s A Wind in the Door, if what happened to him counts. ---
**Author:** ![schplebordnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@schplebordnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/schplebordnik)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/30 "2003-07-16T03:59:32Z")
The kids in “Jude the Obscure.” Pretty brutal. ---
**Author:** ![Orual](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/779978/32.png) [@Orual](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orual)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/31 "2003-07-16T04:05:23Z")
Leslie in _Bridge to Terabithia_. Fantine and Jean Valjean in _Les Miserables_ (Enjolras, my one true love, having already been mentioned). Valentine Michael Smith, _Stranger in a Strange Land_. ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/32 "2003-07-16T04:05:37Z")
Duh! The best literary death was that of Bob Ewell in _To Kill a Mockingbird_. ---
**Author:** ![Tortuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c4cdca/32.png) [@Tortuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tortuga)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/33 "2003-07-16T05:46:52Z")
As a macabre little girl I remember really getting a kick out of the death of Myrtle Wilson in _The Great Gatsby_–remember, she’s the gas station owner’s wife who gets her left breast (mostly) torn off when Daisy mows her down in the big shiny Gatsby-mobile. ---
**Author:** ![JerseyDiamond](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8491ac/32.png) [@JerseyDiamond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerseyDiamond)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/34 "2003-07-16T07:36:21Z")
Yay! I get to be the first to mention Old Yeller? And Old Dan & Little Ann. (Where The Red Fern Grows) ☹ ---
**Author:** ![fizzygoodmakefeelnice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8491ac/32.png) [@fizzygoodmakefeelnice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fizzygoodmakefeelnice)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/35 "2003-07-16T09:58:30Z")
Lord Groan in _Gormenghast_. Ripped apart by owls, nasty. Elpenor from the _Odyssey_ who fell off the roof while drunk. However, my favourite is definitely Danny from Steinbeck’s _Tortilla Flat_ ---
**Author:** ![TeaRoses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c37758/32.png) [@TeaRoses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaRoses)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/36 "2003-07-16T12:09:33Z")
Yosef K. in Kafka’s the Trial. It wasn’t so much dramatic, but it just seemed so bizarre and pathetic. Spoiler for Passage by Connie Willis: The death of Dr. Joanna Lander. There’s all this buildup about her near-death research, and she seems to be developing a relationship of some kind with Dr. Wright, then she just suddenly gets stabbed and Dr. Wright has that wild idea to go look for her in her near-death experience… I sat there for pages saying “No way, she’s not really dead, she can’t be.” ---
**Author:** ![Morgainelf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Morgainelf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgainelf)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/37 "2003-07-16T12:25:27Z")
Charlotte in _Charlotte’s Web_ was the first to make me cry. Phineas in _A Separate Peace_ was the second. ---
**Author:** ![MercyStreet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a9adbd/32.png) [@MercyStreet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MercyStreet)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/38 "2003-07-16T12:54:05Z")
Every other character in “The Jungle.” Snort. ---
**Author:** ![green\_bladder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@green\_bladder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/green_bladder)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/39 "2003-07-16T14:58:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by HPL \* > \*\*I thought Fredo was still alive when the book ended. \*\* You’re right, that was a ludicrous mistake. I had just watched GFII last night so I guess my mind was a little off track. Apologies. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/40 "2003-07-16T18:03:40Z")
Berlioz in “The Master and Margarita.” Bambi’s cousin Gobo, who has been raised by Man and thinks he is somehow special and that he can trust humans and they won’t harm him. He walks up to a hunter and finds out the hard way that this isn’t true. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611.md?page=3)