Monday, October 17, 2011

Ten of the best appropriate deaths in literature

At the Guardian, John Mullan named ten of the best appropriate deaths in literature.

One item on his list:
Bentley Drummle

The blustering bully of Great Expectations, Drummle is Pip's rival for the hand of Estella. This "deficient, ill-tempered, lowering, stupid fellow" becomes her husband and treats her brutally. But he is kicked to death by a horse that he has been mistreating.
Read about another entry on the list.

Great Expectations appears on John Mullan's lists of ten of the best castles in literature, ten of the best Hamlets, ten of the best card games in literature, and ten best list of fights in fiction. It also made Tony Parsons' list of the top ten troubled males in fiction, David Nicholls' top ten list of literary tear jerkers, and numbers among Kurt Anderson's five most essential books. The novel is #1 on Melissa Katsoulis' list of "twenty-five films that made it from the book shelf to the box office with credibility intact."

--Marshal Zeringue