# What's your favorite, best-written, thoroughly sad book? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 15, 2006, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-best-written-thoroughly-sad-book/364627 "2006-07-15T17:36:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2006, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-best-written-thoroughly-sad-book/364627/21 "2006-07-15T22:59:48Z")
[QUOTE=vivalostwages] **Under the Skin** , by Michel Faber. [/QUOTE] A terrific book. I’m not so sure about sad but it is thought provoking in the extreme. Anyone interested in animal rights will be impressed by this work. ---
**Author:** ![indecisive1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/41988e/32.png) [@indecisive1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/indecisive1)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2006, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-best-written-thoroughly-sad-book/364627/22 "2006-07-15T23:00:32Z")
A day no pigs would die. ---
**Author:** ![Subway\_Prophet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecb155/32.png) [@Subway\_Prophet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subway_Prophet)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2006, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-best-written-thoroughly-sad-book/364627/23 "2006-07-15T23:18:21Z")
[QUOTE=PunditLisa] I haven’t read it in years, but “Love Story” by Erich Segal was very sad, but good. And then there’s “Flowers for Algernon.” (sob) [/QUOTE] I forgot all about “Flowers for Algernon”. (Short story, I’ve not read the novel.) Makes me hopeful, then happy, then angry, then utterly depressed when I read it. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2006, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-best-written-thoroughly-sad-book/364627/24 "2006-07-15T23:34:00Z")
Nearly anything by Edith Wharton. _House of Mirth_ is one slow slide all the way down for Lily Bart, but I read it at least once every other year. _Age of Innocence_ is also very sad and I love it even more than _House of Mirth_. And Wharton’s novella _False Dawn_ can make me cry no matter how many times I read it. ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2006, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-best-written-thoroughly-sad-book/364627/25 "2006-07-15T23:42:51Z")
_The Unbearable Lightness of Being_ by Milan Kundera always does me in. I cry, and I cry, and then I cry some more. Damn I love that book. (I think I’ve read it about 15 times - every time I find something new to cry about. ) ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2006, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-best-written-thoroughly-sad-book/364627/26 "2006-07-16T05:43:56Z")
Thomas Hardy’s “The Mayor of Casterbridge.” It’s hearbreaking to watch a man fail so miserably in his attempts to atone for earlier sins. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2006, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-best-written-thoroughly-sad-book/364627/27 "2006-07-16T14:21:45Z")
[The Magic Journey](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0805063390/ref=ed_oe_p/002-3142114-4340054?ie=UTF8) by John Nichols ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2006, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-best-written-thoroughly-sad-book/364627/28 "2006-07-16T16:50:14Z")
[A Fan’s Notes by Frederick Exley](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679720766/qid=1153068353/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-9368695-0154268?s=books&v=glance&n=283155) [The Stranger by Albert Camas](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679720200/qid=1153068445/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-9368695-0154268?s=books&v=glance&n=283155) ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2006, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-best-written-thoroughly-sad-book/364627/29 "2006-07-16T17:27:55Z")
[Regeneration](http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0452270073/sr=8-9/qid=1153070782/ref=sr_1_9/701-1220423-3588331?%5Fencoding=UTF8&s=gateway&v=glance), by Pat Barker ---
**Author:** ![Archergal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Archergal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archergal)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2006, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-best-written-thoroughly-sad-book/364627/30 "2006-07-16T22:06:35Z")
It’s not fiction, but [A Snowflake in My Hand](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385297211/qid=1153087481/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-1530566-6190347?s=books&v=glance&n=283155) has reduced me to helpless sobbing every time I’ve ever read it. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2006, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-best-written-thoroughly-sad-book/364627/31 "2006-07-16T22:44:31Z")
[QUOTE=Miss Mapp] Nearly anything by Edith Wharton. _House of Mirth_ is one slow slide all the way down for Lily Bart, but I read it at least once every other year. _Age of Innocence_ is also very sad and I love it even more than _House of Mirth_. And Wharton’s novella _False Dawn_ can make me cry no matter how many times I read it. [/QUOTE] _Ethan Frome_ isn’t exactly a barrel load of laughs either. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2006, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-best-written-thoroughly-sad-book/364627/32 "2006-07-16T22:51:01Z")
1984 The Painted Bird ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2006, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-best-written-thoroughly-sad-book/364627/33 "2006-07-16T23:08:03Z")
[Lamentations](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamentations) ;j ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2006, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-best-written-thoroughly-sad-book/364627/34 "2006-07-17T01:49:27Z")
It’s unfinished, of course, but the version of the “Tale of Turin Turambar” in Tolkien’s _Unfinished Tales_ is perhaps the best writing I’ve ever read. It might be a good idea to read the Silmarillion version first, though, so you know what all fits into the big middle chunk that never made it into the Unfinished version. If there’s a Heaven, I hope there’s a typewriter there, so the good Professor can finish all his writings. ---
**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 17, 2006, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-best-written-thoroughly-sad-book/364627/35 "2006-07-17T01:59:00Z")
**Charlotte’s Web** is one of the best-written books I’ve ever read, and I’ve read a few. \*\*Johnny Got his Gun \*\* always chokes me up, especially the scene where the old man lets the protagonist zork his only daughter, then brings them both breakfast in bed, because he knows what kind of unutterable Hell the kid is going to be walking into. ---
**Author:** ![Amp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Amp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amp)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2006, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-best-written-thoroughly-sad-book/364627/36 "2006-07-17T02:07:05Z")
_Of Mice and Men_ The ending would bring a tear to my eye if I wasn’t such a manly man who didn’t cry. Damnit, all Lennie wanted was some rabbits! ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2006, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-best-written-thoroughly-sad-book/364627/37 "2006-07-17T02:09:30Z")
Valerie Martin’s _A Recent Martyr_ comes quickly to mind. _The Lord of the Rings_ isn’t THOROUGHLY sad, but it comes close. ---
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2006, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-best-written-thoroughly-sad-book/364627/38 "2006-07-17T02:41:11Z")
Charlotte’s Web and similarly, The Trumpet of the Swan, which is melancholy though not sob-out-loud sad. Jude the Obscure for adult fiction. Lord I wanted to hang myself after that book, Sue!! I find most modern lit pretty morose, though. I mean, it’s not as though I felt terribly skippy after Midnight’s Children, A Suitable Boy, The Namesake, Blind Assassin, Alias Grace, Oryx and Crake…(the list goes on to any modern book of “note” I’ve read since the age of 12) ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2006, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-best-written-thoroughly-sad-book/364627/39 "2006-07-17T03:41:35Z")
[QUOTE=anu-la1979] A Suitable Boy [/QUOTE] [hijack] By Vikram Seth, right? (Just to make sure I’m talking about the same one.) just started this one. Do you think I’ll enjoy it? I didn’t know it was a tragic story because it was an impulse buy. (I salivated over the idea of such a big, thick book.) [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2006, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-best-written-thoroughly-sad-book/364627/40 "2006-07-17T04:06:07Z")
It’s not tragic as much as it is melancholy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-best-written-thoroughly-sad-book/364627.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-best-written-thoroughly-sad-book/364627.md?page=3)