# Best death scene in a novel **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 8, 2011, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-novel/566879 "2011-01-08T14:41:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-novel/566879/21 "2011-01-18T16:07:46Z")
> [@Satchmo](#): > > Heinlein describes a good scene in “The Long Watch”. > > Especially the hand rolled cigarette. See also the death of Dora in _Time Enough for Love._ Pretty damned heart-wrenching for an ordinary death of old age. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-novel/566879/22 "2011-01-18T17:53:22Z")
I may be the only person in the entire world who’s ever felt this, but Javert’s death in _Les Miserables_. If he’d been just _that_ much less rigid, a tiny bit more flexible in his morality, he could have lived. Because his death was almost entirely caused by the cognitive dissonance of a convicted criminal who had a deep morality that happened to not quite jibe with the law, but that demonstrated Christian beliefs more than the law did. Javert couldn’t live in a world that contained such a contradiction (to him). ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-novel/566879/23 "2011-01-18T18:12:13Z")
The whole scenerio that leads to the death of Walt in John Irving’s _The World According to Garp_ ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-novel/566879/24 "2011-01-18T18:20:03Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > The whole scenerio that leads to the death of Walt in John Irving’s _The World According to Garp_ Yes. This is what I came in to post, as well. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-novel/566879/25 "2011-01-18T18:30:54Z")
Mike & Professor Bernardo de la Paz from Heinlein’s _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_. To die in the moment of victory. Tywin Lannister from A Song of Fire & Ice. I didn’t see that one coming. Kossara from Poul Anderson’s _A Knight of Ghost and Shadows_. Raven from Poul Anderson’s _The Night Face_. Sydney Carlton’s death in Dickens’ _A Tale of Two Cities_. Dickens also wrote several other memorable deaths in his other novels. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-novel/566879/26 "2011-01-18T18:33:42Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > from _The Subtle Knife_ by Phillip Pullman > > The death of Lee Scoresby and Hester is just unbelievably good writing. _Poignant_ isn’t a strong enough word to describe it. That’s exactly what I was coming in to say. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-novel/566879/27 "2011-01-18T18:49:09Z")
Little Ann from _Where the Red Fern Grows_. Coming on the heels of Old Dan’s death, if you don’t cry you’re an inhuman monster. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-novel/566879/28 "2011-01-18T19:48:14Z")
Patrick O’Brian was very good at developing a character, then killing him off in a combat. Barrett Bonden is the best example - major supporting character in 19 books, then is one of only 2 casualties during a one sided and meaningless battle. > [@awldune](#): > > Agree, haven’t cried at a book like that since I read Scarlett’s Web as a little kid. Scarlett’s Web? Is that the porn version or the Clue version? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-novel/566879/29 "2011-01-18T20:00:53Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Scarlett’s Web? Is that the porn version or the Clue version? Fiddle-de-dee! It’s obviously the antebellum Southern version. ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-novel/566879/30 "2011-01-18T20:13:05Z")
> [@sparky\_1](#): > > I’m currently reading War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk. The death of Warren Henry was probably the best I’ve read. The author began to present the character more and more during the Japanese escalation in the pacific. Then, the author just had him die routinely as a dive-bomber when hit by anti-aircraft fire attacking a ship. When I lived at home, I’d read my father’s books after he was finished with them. As I was reading War and Remembrance, my father joked, “Have you got to the part where Warren dies yet?” “Er, no.” “Really, you’re not kidding?” My father was devastated. He loved books as much as I do, and he thought I was farther along. To him, he had, albeit unknowingly, committed a cardinal sin. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-novel/566879/31 "2011-01-18T20:15:36Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Fiddle-de-dee! It’s obviously the antebellum Southern version. You can tell because the Black spiders are the ones actually doing the spinning. ---
**Author:** ![Dread\_Pirate\_Jimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dread_pirate_jimbo/32/3897_2.png) [@Dread\_Pirate\_Jimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dread_Pirate_Jimbo)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-novel/566879/32 "2011-01-18T20:16:44Z")
Affter seeing the movie “From Russia With Love” as a kid, I was eager to read Ian Fleming’s novel. And when I read the final chapter, where James Bond is killed (WTF?!?!?!?!?!) I was dumbfounded. I seem to recall reading elsewhere that Fleming had had enough of writing about this particular character and wanted to wrap the franchise up and was eventually coaxed into “resurrecting” Bond for the next novel, “Dr. No,” and the many that followed. The other death that really stuck with me all through the years was that of Snowden in “Catch-22.” ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-novel/566879/33 "2011-01-18T20:47:38Z")
Princess Suldrun in Jack Vance’s _Lyonesse_. I had to put the book down and go outside. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-novel/566879/34 "2011-01-18T21:08:05Z")
> [@Dr.Rieux](#): > > Princess Suldrun in Jack Vance’s _Lyonesse_. > > I had to put the book down and go outside. That’s very interesting, because in the Vance I’ve read (and I’ve read a lot, but not _Lyonesse_ ), Vance is fairly remote and cold toward his characters. ---
**Author:** ![JackaRoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@JackaRoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackaRoe)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-novel/566879/35 "2012-10-15T18:36:47Z")
> [@Rocketeer](#): > > That’s very interesting, because in the Vance I’ve read (and I’ve read a lot, but not _Lyonesse_ ), Vance is fairly remote and cold toward his characters. Well that is excactly how Suldrun dies, cold and remote. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-novel/566879/36 "2012-10-15T18:54:12Z")
> [@Satchmo](#): > > Heinlein describes a good scene in “The Long Watch”. > > Especially the hand rolled cigarette. And the description of the honors done to Johnny after he was found dead, that really got to me. The vessel that brought his body back to Earth was thrown into an orbit where it would re-enter the atmosphere and burn up _“never again to be used for a lesser purpose.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Not\_Appearing\_In\_This\_Film](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Sir\_Not\_Appearing\_In\_This\_Film](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Not_Appearing_In_This_Film)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-novel/566879/37 "2012-10-15T19:22:09Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Patrick O’Brian was very good at developing a character, then killing him off in a combat. Barrett Bonden is the best example - major supporting character in 19 books, then is one of only 2 casualties during a one sided and meaningless battle. > ? To say nothing of Diana in the same novel! Death is a significant theme of **The Hundred Days** ; I immediately thought of this book after reading the OP. The grief that Jack and Stephen both experience and their very different ways of coping establish O’Brian once again as a master of his craft. Re-reading most books of the Aubrey-Maturin cycle is a pleasure akin to visiting an old friend, but opening this one comes with a cloud of trepidation. On the bright side, no more Mrs Williams! ---
**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:** [October 15, 2012, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-novel/566879/38 "2012-10-15T19:41:16Z")
I am a fan of Peter O’Donnell’s _Modesty Blaise_ books, and for the longest time I couldn’t find a copy of the last book in the series-_Cobra Trap_. Finding it was bittersweet, for it contained the final Modesty Blaise/Willie Garvin adventure. Set about 15 years after the the previous adventure, they are off on a rescue when Modesty asks Willie to kiss her. In all the years they were together they were as close as any two people could be, but romance itself just never entered the picture. He hesitates, until she tells him that this is her last adventure because of a blood clot that would kill her soon. When it becomes apparent that they would have to separate, one to hold off the enemy and the other to complete the rescue, she stays behind and dies while in battle. Willie is able to get the innocent party to the border, but can’t make it himself. As he is running through the jungle, hit several times by bullets, the jungle slowly fades away and turns into a noonday summer’s field. His pain is forgotten as he sees a youthful Modesty waiting for him. I sometimes wish I had never found that book. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-novel/566879/39 "2012-10-15T19:47:07Z")
> [@Taomist](#): > > This seems like a massive spoiler thread, but my example isn’t a highly read series or anything. > > **Spoilers inc: Warning for those who haven’t read all of the Robin Hobb “Farseer” series, or at least not through the first few books.** > The series involves partnerships with animals that utilize a certain sharing of minds. The human is exhausted and feels close to death, and his wolf is drawing him out in his dreams to go run through the forests and hunt. The human is tired, even in his dreams, and the wolf is exuberant and running freely, exhorting about how he always has to go do everything first. The human wakes up to recognize that his wolf died by his side, in their sleep. > Just the way it was written, I was all the way through it and past before I really understood the wolf had died, and wasn’t just off on a run. It was very well done. Oh. God. Yes, that was amazing. PoorYorick, that is a cardinal sin. I don’t know if I’d ever be able to forgive your dad. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-novel/566879/40 "2012-10-15T20:14:18Z")
The death of Harold Lauder in **the Stand** , a pitiful suicide. The death of The Outsider in **Watchers** [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-novel/566879.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-novel/566879.md?page=3)