Ten best literary tear-jerkers

Hallie Ephron is an award-winning mystery reviewer for the Boston Globe. Her books include Come and Find Me, Never Tell a Lie, which was a finalist for the Mary Higgins Clark Award and was made into the film And Baby Will Fall for the Lifetime Movie Network, and Writing and Selling Your Mystery, which was nominated for both an Edgar and an Anthony Award.

One of her ten best books for a good cry, as told to the Christian Science Monitor:

Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham

Maugham creates a loveable protagonist in the orphaned Philip, whose journey from childhood to manhood includes various manifestations of the bondage that the novel’s title refers to. Growing up with a clubbed foot, Philip suffers from feelings of inferiority. As a young man, he is brought to destitution by his inability to relinquish his unrequited love for a Parisian waitress. Maugham’s saga of personal development is at times tragic, at others triumphant.

Read about another book on the list.

Of Human Bondage is one of Tad Friend's five best novels about success.

Also see: Top ten literary tear jerkers.

--Marshal Zeringue