Are there any classic novels or books that DON'T end tragically?
By Amber
@AmbiePam (93740)
United States
October 4, 2008 12:09pm CST
I realize that the writers had the intent of making points about the society we lived in, but I can't think of but one classic novel or book that didn't end with a tragedy. I just finished The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I get the whole thing about the statements he made through the book, in commenting on the state of the days he lived in... Even Little Women, although it didn't end horribly, contained the death of a dearly beloved sister. I don't want a sugarcoated classic novel, however...It seems that the more tragic the book, the more famous it was made and the more rave reviews it got.
Now please don't misunderstand me, I don't want to go through life living in a bubble and my own little dream world. I'm just thinking about the standards books seem to have to have to be considered so well loved and respected.
4 people like this
7 responses
@jillhill (37354)
• United States
6 Oct 08
Have you ever wondered why when the ambulance goes out or sirens go flying by that so many people chase them? How about those who live and breath by a scanner so they know what's going on. I think people are more interested in tradgey then
they are by happily ever after. My first book ends with tradgey....and those that have read it say at the end they are reeling and that it's unforgetable....and that is what is called entertainment!
1 person likes this
@irisheyes (4370)
• United States
4 Oct 08
A lot of them do seem to end badly, don't they? I think Vanity Fair ends on a kind of a good note. Try that one if you haven't already read it. I re-read it a couple years back and it definitely stands the test of time. (I also re-read Scott Fitgerald who I think may have been the greatest American writer, but he's also very depressing.)
1 person likes this
@AmbiePam (93740)
• United States
5 Oct 08
When it comes to depressing, I don't know if anyone can beat Ernest Hemingway. I remember in college one professor made us read so many of his works. I wondered if he wanted us to kill ourselves just so he could get out of grading our papers. 
1 person likes this
@irisheyes (4370)
• United States
5 Oct 08
I laughed hard when I read your response. I never liked Hemingway enough to re-read any thing or to read any more than I had to. I actually like Scott Fitzgerald but I've often thought that living with such a depresssing person is what really cost Zelda her sanity.
1 person likes this
@Yestheypayme2dothis (7874)
• United States
4 Oct 08
Hopefully, one of the books I write! :)
1 person likes this
@glords (2614)
• United States
5 Oct 08
It seems to me that Charles Dickens books are tragic all the way through be generally end on a happy note. Like the Christmas Carol and Bleak House. Misery, Misery, Misery, Happiness. Its been awhile though I guess I could be wrong. Im not sure... I dont think great expectations ended happily. That was Dickens wasn't it?
1 person likes this
@bwaybaby (903)
• United States
5 Oct 08
I agree with Austen's works and Shakespeare's comedies. I've been trying to think of another one, but most of the ones I think of, while don't end tragically, have tragic elements in them. To Kill A Mockingbird doesn't end tragically. Neither does A Tree Groes in Brooklyn. But both have their tragic elements.
1 person likes this
@catdla1 (6005)
• United States
5 Oct 08
Here's a few authors who don't end their stories tragically:
Louis May Alcott: Little Women, Little Men, Jo's Boys, etc.
Frank L. Baum: The Wonderful Wizard of OZ
Lewis Carroll: Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass
Robert Louis Stevenson: Treasure Island
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens): The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court, etc.
Jules Verne: A Journey to the Interior of the Earth, Around the World in 80 Days,
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, etc.
H.G. Wells: The Time Machine
@AmbiePam (93740)
• United States
5 Oct 08
Some of those I think of as children's books (but that is only because some of those I've only seen the movies, such as Wizard of Oz, so igmo here (that would be me) can't speak much about them, but that wasn't the intention of the writer. And you named some I've not read (nor seen a movie of it, lol) so I'll have to look them up. I used to read some books on a website that would send parts of classic novels to your e-mail for free, chapters at a time.
@cossacks10 (502)
• Morocco
5 Oct 08
What is a novel? a novel is a small story where we find few people and one subjest, one of the its caracterstic is that it always end by a tragical ending , in my knowledge there is no novel wich ends by happy ending.
@AmbiePam (93740)
• United States
5 Oct 08
Actually by today's standards a novel can be short or very long. So many of the books I see in stores are termed novels, and not all of them have sad endings. Pretty much all of them have strife and suffering, but they don't all end so sadly. But of course I'm thinking back to the classic novels, not so much the modern ones. Today we can terms classic stories novels, even if they are long, but back then they might not have used such terms. Which could explain a lot of how things have changed considering I find American authors spelling tire, 'tyre', still just after the 1900s in their works.
