# Ever cry at a passage in a novel or short story? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 24, 2008, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262 "2008-11-24T16:26:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2008, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/21 "2008-11-24T23:00:06Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > At the end of the last book, _The Last Battle_, even before we discover the truth about the children I start weeping and can barely read the final paragraphs. Me too. I do get choked up. Some of the more notable ones… The death of Flint in the _Dragonlance_ saga, and the final scene with Tasslehoff and Fizban Several paragraphs at the end of _LOTR_, the joyful bits as well as the sad bits. I cried at the end of _Les Miserables_ - the book and the show. _Men at Arms_ - the death of Cuddy the dwarf And the end of _Harry Potter_, and a few bits in the middle, too. Si ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2008, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/22 "2008-11-24T23:19:42Z")
When it comes to fictional characters I have a heart of stone, but I completely lost it in the part of _Lonesome Dove_ when Gus McCrae dies. That’s right, make me love him and then kill him, McMurtry you bastard! ---
**Author:** ![Barrett\_Bonden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5e9695/32.png) [@Barrett\_Bonden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barrett_Bonden)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2008, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/23 "2008-11-24T23:30:59Z")
> [@NicePete](#): > > I misted up when in _The Hundred Days_ > > Barret Bonden is cut in half by a cannon ball. Dammit I **hate** that part! Dickens does me in. [QUOTE=Sydney Carton] It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![MadPansy64](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@MadPansy64](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadPansy64)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2008, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/24 "2008-11-24T23:39:58Z")
Since listing all the passages I’ve cried about (online and in print) would kill the hamsters, I’ll just chime in with: Oh, my, yes, quite frequently, actually. I’m a weepy reader. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2008, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/25 "2008-11-24T23:41:30Z")
Well, it’s a play rather than a novel or short story, but I never cry when I see it performed, only when it read it. The last scene of Cyrano de Bergerac when Roxanne realizes that she’s only loved one man in her life, and she’s lost him … twice. Or much earlier when Roxanne tells Cyrano that she has fallen in love with a man who is gallant, brave, and … handsome. At great cost to his feelings he manages to dissemble his bitter disappointment. Then she asks him about a fantastic swordfight he had the previous night, and when he has finished telling the story she exclaims about his enormous courage. Under his breath he says “I have done better, since.” Roddy ---
**Author:** ![Euryphaessa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Euryphaessa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euryphaessa)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2008, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/26 "2008-11-24T23:49:55Z")
I’m definitely a weeper. I bawled during Order of the Phoenix and the Deathly Hallows, I sobbed during The Host, I cry EVERY single time I read The Outsiders, and I’m know there’s more that I’ve blocked out. I actually like it when books make me feel something that powerfully, same as I like books that make me laugh out loud. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/27 "2008-11-25T00:27:55Z")
I’ve done it many times. One that really affected me was the death of a major character in _The Tale of Genji_. Not him, of course. _Her_. I was so upset I put down the book and still have only gone a few chapters past that point. “It is such a secret place, the land of tears.” ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/28 "2008-11-25T00:52:02Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > And _The Amber Spyglass_ whereLyra and Pantalaimon undergo intercision.I sobbed like a baby. Big fat tears flopping down my cheeks. And at the end too. For me, it was when: Lyra and Will said goodbye for the last time, having to return to their separate worlds. ---
**Author:** ![Wednesday\_Evening](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b2d939/32.png) [@Wednesday\_Evening](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wednesday_Evening)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/29 "2008-11-25T01:09:00Z")
One that comes to mind: _The Golden Compass_, when Lyra finds the boy who is holding a dead fish as a substitute for his intercised daemon. Gets me every time. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/30 "2008-11-25T01:13:53Z")
I’m a sucker. I could name dozens of such passages. The death scene from _A Tale of Two Cities_, with Sydney Carton’s immortal last words, is the first one I can remember crying over. I was 12. ---
**Author:** ![Danalan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@Danalan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danalan)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/31 "2008-11-25T01:22:12Z")
Of course. That’s one of the great reasons to read novels and short stories – emotional highs. Here’s the passage that brought tears to my eyes most recently: “I asked her why she missed so much school. At first she made a joke about it. Then she started crying and couldn’t stop.” The tears were streaming down Mikee’s face now, and she didn’t even try to wipe them away. “So she told me about the leukemia, and she told me she was going to… to… to…” ---
**Author:** ![Marlitharn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marlitharn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlitharn)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/32 "2008-11-25T01:27:29Z")
For some reason, all the books they gave me to read at school were major tear-jerkers. _Where the Red Fern Grows, The Pearl, The Red Pony, Bridge to Terebithia, Of Mice and Men_; I spent a lot of study hall time in tears in junior high and high school. _Charlotte’s Web_ makes me bawl like a baby everytime. I tear up when I read _Night Watch_, too, at the part where Vimes decides he won’t sell good men to the night for the sake of his own future, even if it means he loses everything; history may find a way to happen anyway, but it was going to have to come up with something good, because it was up against HIM now, and he had to do the job that was in front of him or he wouldn’t be Sam Vimes. I am madly in love with Sam Vimes. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/33 "2008-11-25T01:38:42Z")
When I was a kid, I read Old Yeller. Cried like a river when they had to shoot him. ---
**Author:** ![stargazer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb8c5e/32.png) [@stargazer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stargazer)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/34 "2008-11-25T01:52:24Z")
Oh lordy yes. Let’s see. Some of the _Anne of Green Gables_ books do it to me, as well as many of John Irving’s books, but those are mostly happy tears. Oh, and _On the Night You Were Born_. I can hardly get to the 3rd page without choking up. Same with _Love You Forever_. The _Ya-Ya Sisterhood_ books make me blubber. I tear up for Scarlett at the end of _Gone With the Wind_, every time. There are lots more – if, in book, song, tv show, movie, or play, there is a scene where one character is mourning another character or relationship, it will usually get me, even if it isn’t terribly well-written. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/35 "2008-11-25T03:37:33Z")
The ending to Tad Williams’ _Otherland_. That’s all I’m going to say because I do not wish to be flayed alive for spoiling the end of a 3000-page epic. ---
**Author:** ![Pyper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pyper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyper)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/36 "2008-11-25T04:25:14Z")
Another vote for _Where the Red Fern Grows_ as the book that made me cry the hardest. I’m getting teary right now! As an adult, I don’t remember really crying over a book, but I have gotten misty and maybe shed a tear or two. A few that I remember: _The Lovely Bones_, when her father destroys the ships-in-a-bottle that they made together. _The Cold Equations_. The whole story is sad, basically, starting from when the girl realizes what her fate is. _Into the Wild_. I actually got teary-eyed in front of a student when we were reading this during a tutoring session. The description of Chris’ last moments and his last diary entry. The student was completely unmoved by the whole book. ---
**Author:** ![zoogirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b9bd4f/32.png) [@zoogirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoogirl)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/37 "2008-11-25T04:41:42Z")
I’m not sure if I’ve actually cried over it, but I sure feel like it - _The Snow Goose_. The whole thing is just beautifully written. The end is sad and kind of… and…oh hell, I can’t even describe it. ---
**Author:** ![jharvey963](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/54ee81/32.png) [@jharvey963](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jharvey963)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/38 "2008-11-25T08:08:08Z")
I remember not being able to see in several places in **The Time Traveler’s Wife**. J. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/39 "2008-11-25T10:00:07Z")
> [@Eureka](#): > > I used to re-read _The Little Princess_ and weep For me, it was only the first time, but boy, that first time I read about Sara’s father dying, I was lying in my bed sobbing and sobbing. I also cried at the end of **Hans Brinker** the first time I read it, not so much because it was sad, but because of the epilogue. Everyone’s future was summed up, and it made me realize just how much the Brinkers had been through. Now, though, I cry at the scene where Gretel is outside the house while the surgery is being performed. It’s brutally cold, but she’s at the point of feeling warm and thinking she’ll lie down and sleep for a bit. The one girl, Hilda, sees her and insists on walking Gretel up and down until her circulation comes back. Then she (Hilda) won’t look through the shutters into someone else’s house, but waits for Gretel to report back to her that it seems to be all right. Gretel goes into the house without a backward glance, and Hilda goes back to school to stare at the blackboard through blurry eyes. Much as I’m doing right now. And more recently, I read the Warren Zevon biography. I’m not sure if it was a really good idea or a really bad one to open with a description of his final hours. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262/40 "2008-11-25T10:19:50Z")
> [@jali](#): > > _The Good Earth_ . What got me in that one was when Olan is dying and hallucinating her past, including her parents selling her, and relives being beaten at the great house for stealing a cake. She’s such an enigmatic and seemingly cold character that this adds avenues of aspects. Capote moved me to tears in _Christmas Memory_. Generally speaking I cry at stories in which people who have nothing but shit, yet learn to be happy with just the shit, get the shit taken away from them.:rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cry-at-a-passage-in-a-novel-or-short-story/474262.md?page=3)