# Most WTF Endings in Classic Books **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 12, 2019, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-wtf-endings-in-classic-books/836972 "2019-07-12T15:23:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2019, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-wtf-endings-in-classic-books/836972/41 "2019-07-13T20:35:15Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > The abrupt left turn at the end of Upton Sinclair’s _The Jungle_ annoys me, but the public reaction amuses me. I knew about the socialist ending of The Jungle, so that didn’t surprise me. However, I was definitely surprised by the super-racist “lazy Negroes are moving north and taking all our jobs” segment immediately before it. ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2019, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-wtf-endings-in-classic-books/836972/42 "2019-07-14T02:24:36Z")
Bernard Malamud’s novel, _The Natural_, has a lot in common with the movie. But in the end of the novel, Hobbs accepts a bribe and throws the last game. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2019, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-wtf-endings-in-classic-books/836972/43 "2019-07-14T03:34:01Z")
Smilla’s Sense of Snow. Fantastic book that took a hard left near the end. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2019, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-wtf-endings-in-classic-books/836972/44 "2019-07-14T04:05:50Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > I knew about the socialist ending of The Jungle, so that didn’t surprise me. However, I was definitely surprised by the super-racist “lazy Negroes are moving north and taking all our jobs” segment immediately before it. Is that where there’s a strike at the packinghouse and Jurgis and the others are working as “scabs”? Supposedly that was based on a real strike where a big factor of the strike was the immigrants that were working there didnt want “lazy negros” working there because even tho they were black they were paid more because they were " American" ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2019, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-wtf-endings-in-classic-books/836972/45 "2019-07-14T17:17:54Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I thought he just decided to wind things up quickly. This was definitely in Charles Dickens’s mind when he wrapped up **David Copperfield** by packing all the loose-end characters onto a boat and shipping them off to Australia to seek their fortunes. Speaking of Dickens, Evelyn Waugh’s **A Handful of Dust** certainly contains a WTF ending, but it’s not an annoying one. It’s the most gloriously horrifying ending in all 20th century literature. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2019, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-wtf-endings-in-classic-books/836972/46 "2019-07-14T17:19:04Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Gone With the Wind. Now what? Actually, I thought “Gone with the Wind” had a perfect ending. Scarlett realizes at long last that it’s Rhett she loves and not Ashley, but it’s too late. Rhett no longer loves her. But in true Scarlett fashion, she refuses to accept defeat, and plans to pursue Rhett after a rest stop at Tara. Of course, that story was botched by Alexandra Ripley, but that’s another thread. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2019, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-wtf-endings-in-classic-books/836972/47 "2019-07-14T17:45:11Z")
At the end of James Barrie’s _Peter & Wendy_, a grown Wendy asks Peter about Tinker Bell. She’s not only dead, but he doesn’t even remember her, and just says “They don’t last a long time.” ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2019, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-wtf-endings-in-classic-books/836972/48 "2019-07-14T17:47:37Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > Smilla’s Sense of Snow. Fantastic book that took a hard left near the end. I would agree. But it didn’t take a “hard left turn,” it completely changed genres. ---
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2019, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-wtf-endings-in-classic-books/836972/49 "2019-07-14T21:52:54Z")
The ending of Robert Tressel’s \*Ragged-trousered philantropists \* - bible of socialism, left me cold - bleak future of penury and dead children alleviated by rich man giving him money? Seemed at odds with the skill and wit of the book, I didn’t understand it. ---
**Author:** ![MacSpon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@MacSpon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacSpon)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2019, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-wtf-endings-in-classic-books/836972/50 "2019-07-14T23:11:37Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I always thought Tom Joad’s “Where there is injustice, I’ll be there,” speech was a lot weirder than the breastfeeding. It’s the great, epic story of the American dustbowl and economic migrants, and then right at the end he starts talking like he’s Batman. I may be way off base here (not having read GoW), but is it possible that the Three Amigos were satirising this speech? ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2019, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-wtf-endings-in-classic-books/836972/51 "2019-07-14T23:24:45Z")
The Wings of the Dove, by Henry James. Read this in college. Main characters are a couple who want to marry, but don’t have enough money. They decide to have the man court and marry the woman’s wealthy cousin, Milly, who is (conveniently for them) dying. To be fair, they don’t hasten her death, at least not intentionally, but she thinks her husband truly loves her. She finds out differently. I plowed through the novel, eagerly awaiting the scene where Milly finds out about the plot, and then the scene where she confronts them. They’re both “offstage”. The author never shows them happen. I was seriously annoyed. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-wtf-endings-in-classic-books/836972/52 "2019-07-15T01:41:02Z")
> [@MacSpon](#): > > I may be way off base here (not having read GoW), but is it possible that the Three Amigos were satirising this speech? I always thought it was. I read GoW long before TTA’s was made. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-wtf-endings-in-classic-books/836972/53 "2019-07-15T01:53:42Z")
It’s been decades since I read it, but (I think it was) _From Russia With Love,_ there was a Russian agent with poisoned daggers in her shoes. She kicked Bond in the shin and he got dosed with a lethal poison, and the book ended with him lying on the floor of the train, dying… ---
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-wtf-endings-in-classic-books/836972/54 "2019-07-15T07:39:11Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > _Outer Dark_ by Cormac McCarthy might be stretching the definition of “classic,” but it’s over 50 years old and his books are destined to be classics, so I’m going with it. > > The entire novel is already WTF, with the main plot of a brother and sister in Appalachia who have a baby together. The brother abandons the baby in the woods after birth, telling his sister it died in childbirth, and the sister eventually learns the truth and goes in search of it. > > After plenty of disturbing and WTF events, it ends with > > the baby being eaten alive by a trio of murderers, who are either real men, manifestations of biblical reapers, or a projection of the brother himself. This is followed by the brother talking to blind man, then watching the man walk into a swamp where he will surely die, and the brother thinking “someone should tell a blind man about a swamp before sending him that way.” A truly unsettling book - McCarthy starting to find his voice with it. Long time since I read it but I recollect the whole book really built tension toward the ending, there was a feeling that something truly horrible was going to happen - the man walking toward the swamp did feel like it had crossed over into the supernatural, which was effective for the book. Heard a few people complain about the ending of _The Road_ - written when McCarthy was famous so far higher readership, a counterpoint to Outer Dark. The ending appears very deus ex machina, a ray of hope appears out of nowhere to shine light on a hellscape of pain and torment. I think, though, that it is consistent with the subtext of the book where the child is holy or like an angel. But if you are just turning the pages of it then it would be like WTF just happened there? ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-wtf-endings-in-classic-books/836972/55 "2019-07-15T15:44:02Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > It’s been decades since I read it, but (I think it was) _From Russia With Love,_ there was a Russian agent with poisoned daggers in her shoes. She kicked Bond in the shin and he got dosed with a lethal poison, and the book ended with him lying on the floor of the train, dying… It’s a hotel in Paris, I believe, rather than the train, with French security there. And if I recall correctly, the next Bond begins with M having a conversation about Bond’s recovery and how lucky it was that there happened to be a doctor who knew and recognized the symptoms of the exact poison used. So it’s a cliffhanger ending, but one that’s resolved in the next book (if a bit quickly and lightly). I guess i don’t see the WTF. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-wtf-endings-in-classic-books/836972/56 "2019-07-15T16:15:11Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Evelyn Waugh’s **A Handful of Dust** certainly contains a WTF ending, but it’s not an annoying one. It’s the most gloriously horrifying ending in all 20th century literature. Yes, I’d say it’s more “holy fuck” than “what the fuck?”. ---
**Author:** ![Snake\_Plissken\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Snake\_Plissken\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snake_Plissken_1)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-wtf-endings-in-classic-books/836972/57 "2019-07-15T19:06:50Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > _Outer Dark_ by Cormac McCarthy might be stretching the definition of “classic,” but it’s over 50 years old and his books are destined to be classics, so I’m going with it. > > The entire novel is already WTF, with the main plot of a brother and sister in Appalachia who have a baby together. The brother abandons the baby in the woods after birth, telling his sister it died in childbirth, and the sister eventually learns the truth and goes in search of it. > > After plenty of disturbing and WTF events, it ends with > > the baby being eaten alive by a trio of murderers, who are either real men, manifestations of biblical reapers, or a projection of the brother himself. This is followed by the brother talking to blind man, then watching the man walk into a swamp where he will surely die, and the brother thinking “someone should tell a blind man about a swamp before sending him that way.” 'Blood Meridian has its own ‘WTF’ ending as well. ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-wtf-endings-in-classic-books/836972/58 "2019-07-18T01:46:21Z")
It’s been a good long while since I read GOW, but isn’t the girl’s name Rose of Sharon? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-wtf-endings-in-classic-books/836972/59 "2019-07-18T02:13:53Z")
> [@Cub\_Mistress](#): > > It’s been a good long while since I read GOW, but isn’t the girl’s name Rose of Sharon? Yes, but Rosasharn is how her name is pronounced in Okie, and is what the family called her. ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-wtf-endings-in-classic-books/836972/60 "2019-07-18T06:04:37Z")
> [@Sefton](#): > > Bernard Malamud’s novel, _The Natural_, has a lot in common with the movie. But in the end of the novel, Hobbs accepts a bribe and throws the last game. Malamud apparently liked the movie, but said that it wasn’t his novel: [When Bernard Malamud saw "The Natural" - SBNation.com](https://www.sbnation.com/2013/2/12/3979468/the-natural-movie-bernard-malamud-author-reaction) The novel’s ending is really sad especially in comparison with the triumphant ending of the film. Roy Hobbs sees a newsboy selling a paper with a headline saying that he might have thrown the game. The boy begs Hobbs to say it isn’t true, but unfortunately, he can’t: _“When Roy looked into the boy’s eyes he wanted to say it wasn’t but couldn’t, and he lifted his hands to his face and wept many bitter tears.”_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-wtf-endings-in-classic-books/836972.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-wtf-endings-in-classic-books/836972.md?page=4)