I have one, and only one:
The final pages of John Irving’s “A Prayer For Owen Meany”.
mmm
yes and
with me it’s when she is first sick and she almost dies but then the fever breaks.
and I cannot re-read Animal Farm, it’s too sad
Yes, to the scene in Chrlotte’s Web and I get choked up when Leslie dies in A Bridge to Terabithia. I was reading it aloud to a class one time and the kids kept asking if I was ok.
Mine is also a Bujold. “Aftermaths” at the end of Shards of Honour, where they’re gathering the bodies from the battle. The bit with the wedding dress…
Honourable mention to Gillian Bradshaw’s “In Winter’s Shadow”, where the dying Gwalchmai is dictating a letter to Bedwyr through Gwynhwyfar, forgiving him for killing his son.
I don’t typically re-read books but I think the last one that made me cry was near the end of “The Art of Racing in the Rain”. I loved that book.
I’ve read Frindle and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever to my classes numerous times, and I still get teary at the end of both books. I got a lump in my throat just typing about them. My students always look at me like I’m a little weird. I just see it as a triumph that they haven’t made me cry yet.
Sidney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities
Rab in Johnny Termaine
Beth in Little Women
Before there was a series of movies, before there was a Wonderful World of Disney adaptation, there was a book called The Incredible Journey, by Scottish author Sheila Burnford. I defy anyone to read it, then read the last three-four pages without crying a bucketful. Hell, I’m tearing up now as I think about it (and yes, the Disney and Movie adaptations also bring on the tears, but the book is the best of them all).
The lonely death of Michael Henchard in Hardy’s "The Mayor of Casterbridge. "
“I shall be writing tonight for the last time.”
There is an excellent animated film version, which, if possible, is even sadder.
Well ya’ll are prolly gonna laugh at me for the cliche of this, but in the novel Gone With the Wind when Scarlett finally makes it home to Tara, after enduring a brutal journey in a rickety wagon with Prissy, Melanie and her newborn, and a half-dead horse, and is elated to see it hasn’t been burned down, hoping to be in the comforting arms of her mother at last, only to find her mother is dead and her father is teetering on the brink of insanity. She realizes how much of the weight of the world is now resting on her shoulders…everyone is looking to her for answers, for directions on what to do and when to do it, well the movie, as wonderful as it is, doesn’t capture it and make you feel it nearly as well as the novel.
When I first read it as a 16 year-old girl, well you can only imagine how this made me sob! I have since re-read it about 3 times, and I still mist up at how well-written it is.
The part when Scarlett kills the Yankee deserter and Melanie helps her clean up the mess has a passage that reveals how jealous Scarlett is of Melanie, but NOT about Ashley, she is jealous of Melanie’s inner strength, that is like “spun steel”. It is a characteristic Scarlett feels she lacks. Melanie survives everything that Scarlett does, yet she is thought of as the “weak” one, and yet Scarlett is really jealous of her inner strength. That makes me cry.
Yes. One of the most moving lines in literature.
Another scene that never loses its impact for me is in Lolita, when Humbert merrily recounts their first journey across America, and then brings the reader to a dead stop by ending with the words “and her sobs in the night–every night, every night–the moment I feigned sleep.” Devastating.
Where the Red Fern Grows.
spoilers
No one prepared me for that one, I was maybe 8 or so? I teared up when the first one died (it’s been so long I don’t remember who was first). I thought the second one would be OK – but then it died of a broken heart and I was bawling. My mom thought something was wrong. Yes, something’s wrong! The dogs died!
And I just remember crying my way through the pages of the 7th Harry Potter book, my copy is probably tear stained.
The Harry Potter scene that gets me is not in Book 7 at all. It’s the visit to St. Mungo’s Hospital in Order of the Phoenix, where we meet Neville’s parents, who have been tortured into insanity by the Cruciatus Curse. Neville’s mother constantly gives Neville used candy wrappers every time he visits. Even though she doesn’t really recognize him, on some level she knows that she’s supposed to be giving him things, and these candy wrappers are all she has to give. And of course, Neville for his part cherishes them, because they’re the only gifts his mother will ever give him.
Gets me every time.
Unfortunately, I don’t have my copy of the book with me, but the scene where he’s watching her just sit quietly in the living room and says he feels as though he’s in the presence of “a small ghost”—I found that one pretty moving as well.
Nitpick:
It was Stu who had Christmas with Tom Cullen (and LoJack!). It was on their way back to Boulder. Glenn died in Vegas with Larry and everyone else.
Mark Twain’s short story The Death Disk is a guaranteed tearjerker.
I’ve told this story before, but I think it’s pretty funny (though traumatic).
When I was in fifth grade, the teacher was reading The Bridge to Terabithia to the class. I got sick and missed the last day. When I got back, I turned to my friend Matt who had a seat right next to mine and said “Did you finish the book?”
His reply, FOREVER ETCHED ON MY MEMORY: “Yup. She died.”
I was in my 30s when I finally read it. I spent the whole time hoping Matt was a lying liar. That bastard.
I read this book out loud to my kids and could hardly get this sentence past my vocal cords. Then we all cried.