What was the first novel to unexpectedly kill off the main protagonist part-way through?

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Question inspired while re-reading (for the first time in a long while) Paul Bowles' "The Sheltering Sky"...

― Joe (Joe), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 01:27 (eighteen years ago)

jesus christ

spoiler alert!!

i was reading that!

― wordy rappinghood (roxymuzak), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 01:33 (eighteen years ago)

Wuthering Heights is a good one. Maybe it's expected and obvious to people reading now. But it shocked me, the first time, back in 1847.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 01:34 (eighteen years ago)

The New Testament.

― chap who would dare to welcome our new stingray masters (chap), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 01:35 (eighteen years ago)

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/1846051657.01._SS500_SCLZZZZZZZ_V59214837_.jpg

― dommy p is alright WHICH IS A LOT MORE THAN I CAN SAY ABOUT A LOT OF PEOPLE (Dom, Tuesday, 7 November 2006 01:36 (eighteen years ago)

I was going to say The New Testament. But you can sort of see it coming, really.

― ailsa (ailsa), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 01:39 (eighteen years ago)

Princess Diana's Autobiography (she may as well be alive still she's never out of the fucking papers).

― Darramouss (Darramouss ftw), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 01:40 (eighteen years ago)

Biting satire there, mate.

(also, yeah, autobiography = not much chance of her being dead part-way through)

― ailsa (ailsa), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 01:42 (eighteen years ago)

The New Testament is a cheat, being an anthology. The hero dies at the end of the four gospels, as is expected, usual, and proper (for aesthetic & other reasons.)

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 01:42 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah, but there's other stuff after that. People talking about him, writing letters about him, that sort of thing.

― ailsa (ailsa), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 01:44 (eighteen years ago)

hang on there is a plot twist you are missing somewhat

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 01:46 (eighteen years ago)

Don't spoil it!

― ailsa (ailsa), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 01:46 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah, but they're about him being dead from the beginning, which everyone knew, then.

xpost

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 01:46 (eighteen years ago)

Oops--sorry about the lack of Spoiler alert.

― Joe (Joe), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 02:06 (eighteen years ago)

I would have thought the title of the thread would indicate that spoilers lurk within.

― ailsa (ailsa), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 02:08 (eighteen years ago)

You should have tack on "Do not read this thread if you are reading Paul Bowles' 'The Sheltering Sky'" to the thread title, just to be safe

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Tuesday, 7 November 2006 02:23 (eighteen years ago)

Or, Do not read if you don't want to know that Curtis was caramelised and sucked up through a novelty straw halfway through the thread.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 02:30 (eighteen years ago)

!!!

goddammit

i was READING THIS THREAD

― wordy rappinghood (roxymuzak), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 02:37 (eighteen years ago)

the New Testament?

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 03:27 (eighteen years ago)

Jesus Christ

spoiler alert!!

i was reading that!

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 03:34 (eighteen years ago)

Princess Goddess had to die. Now, she'll live for YOU. In: "Pull My String".

― Joe (Joe), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 03:41 (eighteen years ago)

"The I in the book
cannot die in the book."

-V. Nabokov

― M. V. (M.V.), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 03:58 (eighteen years ago)

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