Most harrowing chapter in a novel

[Fieldy]

Although, Im currently reading Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky and have not finished. I have just read an early chapter when a horse gets flogged to death in front of a young child.

Such is the mastery of Dostoyevsky's writing (so great I have to refer to him with a capital letter) I felt I was physically their through the eyes of the child as the emotional intensity rebounded of every word. Simply amazing.

I felt sorry for the horse, and felt a little down as it died just as Nietzsche must of felt when he went insane seeing a horse flogged in the street. Ironic or co-incedence that two adherents of adversity through nilhism have an epi-phenomenon experience?

Just wondering other people's view on this chapter, and other novels with chapters they find especially harrowing

 

[Peronel]

I have not read any Dostoyevsky (which is always capitalised; it is a name), but there are a few stories that have affected me n some deep level. Some of them:

- the scenes following Gandalf's "death" in LOTR (I am not spoiler tagging that. If anyone hasn't read it by now, they deserve to have it spoiled)
- a group of university students being mowed down by the military, and a radio dj suffering the same fat in "The Stand".
- all of "One Flew Over the Cockoo's Nest"
- the final chapter of HBP (I know, I know..)
- parts of "Angela's Ashes"
- the final parts of "The last Battle" of the Chronicles of Narnia

 

[veniqe]

Now you make me want to reread the book.. I can't remember the chapter (I read the book 8 years ago) but know how you feel. You almost feel powerless.

I get that a lot of times. I got it when reading The Outsider and Stepford Wives, to an extent.