Comments on: Saddest Books Revisited

By: Frank McDevitt

Frank McDevitt — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:14:01 +0000

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro is also an incredibly sad book. I cried the first time I read it.

By: Kelsey

Kelsey — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 03:24:04 +0000

Oh god, so many books have made me cry like a little kid, even if they were hilarious all other times. I only have a couple, but BOY were they great!

A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
Phantom by Susan Kay
Phantom of Manhattan (I forget the author)

And probobly more that I’ve forgotten
Now, if your talking movies, that’s a whooooole other list

By: Joseph

Joseph — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:16:30 +0000

How about the Notebook or The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. My personal favourite is Of Mice and Men. It is a beautiful book. Stunningly written. George is such a strong characterr

By: Mara

Mara — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 22:04:12 +0000

This list is fabulous. Thanks John. There isn’t much better than a sad book. I would like to add “My Sister’s Keeper” by Jodi Picault. It’s not the usual type of book I would read – a friend lent it to me while we were on a very, very long train ride after I had read all of the books I had brought with me – but it had me in tears, and thinking about it for days after. It raises some great questions and really makes you think, although the ending is a little disappointing. Don’t let the fact that it has been made into a movie with Cameron Diaz ruin it for you, it really is a good book!

jb says: Hi Mara. Another one I didn’t know about. Keep them coming, folks.

By: Marianne

Marianne — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 19:11:03 +0000

Ah, I also add Mayor of Casterbridge, and Jude the Obscure, both by hardy. Since you seem to have read Jude the Obscure, I find the saddest part when Jude is dying, with neither his love, Sue, or his “wife” Arabella, and he dies, alone, while his wife is courting the doctor. I also suggest Mayor of Casterbridge if you haven’t read it, because it’s ending is sad enough to rival even Jude the Obscure’s. It takes a pretty sad book to do that!

jb says: Hi Marianne. I think I’ve read most of Thomas Hardy, way back, though, so I don’t remember the specifics any more, only the tone. Sad stuff indeed.

By: Marianne

Marianne — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 18:26:41 +0000

Wow, I think I should go buy all these books now! My ALL TIME favourite book, and one of the saddest I’ve read is Les Miserables. Funnily enough, I don’t think the saddest ending is the end, but rather, the Revolutionary scenes. And also, Catch 22. Anna Karenina too (Though, not a favourite I’m afraid) and Wuthering Heights. However, my all time favourite is still, Les Miserables

jb says: Hi Marianne. I also never entirely got on with Anna Kerenina. Don’t know why, because I loved some of the others, especially War and Peace.

By: john baker

john baker — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 11:41:06 +0000

This from Allen Mathews:
The word “hap” means luck or fortune. Happy is tethered to fortune then, rather superficial, and the leash is quite tentative for most of us as life can be tempestuous, capricious, and fleeting. As Houston noted as well, feelings themselves blow across the surface of the psyche too and our reactions to them, as well as to circumstance depend upon our temperaments, anchoring in the moment, choosing. Yet, there is something universal about suffering, while those things that make us happy are rather peculiar to the individual, and one’s personal history and predicament. Literature is thinking with feeling about life. Both moods are necessary, but the sad seems so much more profound.

By: Houston

Houston — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 17:18:55 +0000

Among the saddest 5 books, I read one of the book. How should I say, it is only that once I will read that book because I feel that to be sad or happy, all depends on oneself, you yourself choose to be sad or happy, nobody can control it for you.

Being sad or happy, is only separated by a thin line and it’s so easy to change it, if you want too, always remember that.

jb says: I was never impressed by happiness. It always seems to me to be a spurious ambition. I don’t think people want to be happy, not really. They want miracles or they want excitement or meaning in their lives. Happiness is something invented by the movies. Always remember that.