History BittersweetEnding / Literature

* The end of the Drizzt Do'Urden novel ''The Legacy'' has Drizzt and his friends fighting off the drow and [[HeroicSacrifice Artemis Entreri... and Wulfgar dying]] to save his friends from a demon, the brave dwarven priest who was going to officiate his and Catti-brie's wedding being crushed to death, and a threat of an army of drow coming upon Mithral Hall. Yay?
** ''The Hunter's Blades'' trilogy finishes with Mithral Hall holding out against the newly-founded Kingdom of Dark Arrows long enough and bloodily enough that King Obould decides to halt his advance. Gerti Frostdottir, the frost giant priestess, decides to sever her ties with the orc king. Drizzt and Catti-brie finally get horizontal and then get married. The Companions of the Hall have once again come through alive and mostly well. But the orcs have gained a large foothold in the Silver Marches, Pikel Bouldershoulder has lost an arm; Wulfgar's wife, an allied human mage, several of Drizzt's new friends, dozens if not hundreds of elven warriors, hundreds of humans (including civilians), and hundreds if not thousands of dwarven soldiers are dead; as well as many, many orks but well, they had it coming, and Wulfgar's daughter has been kidnapped. On top of it all, Lady Alustriel, the figurehead of the Silver Marches, is leaning on her people to let the orcs stay, as dislodging them would be far too costly to be worth it.

* Lots and lots of PoulAnderson's stories. ''Especially'' the Dominic Flandry stories from the TechnicHistory series; Flandry succeeds, but [[CartwrightCurse loses any woman he truly loves]], feels guilty about hurting the feelings of the others, and in one story is troubled by the contrast between a number of honest, decent rebels, who are at best going to be locked up for the rest of their lives, and the decadent Emperor. And the prequel novel had a back-cover blurb which summed up:

** ''PlayerPiano'': [[spoiler:Dr. Proteus participates in the initially successful revolution with the Ghost Shirts, but in the end, they realize that they have little hope of changing the society further.]]
** ''TheSirensOfTitan'': [[spoiler:Rumfoord dies (or rather, disappears in space) without making amends with Salo, and Malachi Constant dies. Salo does, however, create illusions that make Malachi's final moments happy.]]

* ''LordOfTheFlies'': Way to go Ralph! You've managed to get the Navy to rescue you and the other survivors on the island!! ...So does this mean we can forget about Simon's and Piggy's deaths, destroying the island, and proving that HumansAreBastards?

* Pretty much all of Black Flame's ''FridayThe13th'', ''ANightmareOnElmStreet'' and ''Jason X'' books end bittersweet (or downright bad).

* The true ending of StephenKing's ''TheDarkTower'' series: ''The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.''

* In DanAbnett's ''{{Warhammer 40000}}: {{Ravenor}}'' series, the title character finally brings the BigBad Molotch and ''two other'' Big Bads to justice, effectively saving the entire Imperium of Man. However, by the time it's all over, his entire retinue has reached the emotional breaking point. Pretty much all of Ravenor's remaining followers are either arrested, leave, or disappear with only one member loyally staying by his side. The last book ends with Ravenor himself having to appear before his peers in order to answer for his actions as a rogue inquisitor.

* ''TheNameOfTheWind'': Kvothe saves the village of Trebon from the rampaging Draccus, finds the titular name of the wind, avoids being expelled from The University and is actually promoted up the ranks, and beards his rival Ambrose yet again while his fame rises. However, in doing so he had to destroy the Tannen Resin he was hoping would provide for his future, the villagers of Trebon bury the remains of the Draccus (costing him and every other researcher the chance for a unique study), and, worse, because he CanNotSpitItOut to Denna he winds up becoming something of her UnluckyChildhoodFriend. Not to mention the seething hatred Ambrose has for him is cranked up yet another notch (and it was already at murderous levels). He himself sums it up best: "Oh, it's just the same thing you've heard [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife a hundred times before]]. Prince Gallant kills the dragon, but loses the treasure and the girl." From the way the FramingDevice is set up, it's implied that his whole adventuring career has been this way.

* In JamesSwallow's ''{{Warhammer 40000}} HorusHeresy'' novel ''The Flight of the Eisenstein'', of all the loyal Marines who fled, three survive. Their last companions are slaughtered by one of their number's succumbing to Chaos taint. One has become TheAtoner. They are effectively prisoners on the Moon. The Lord Regent himself comes to assure them -- in person, by way of apology -- that there are plans in motion that will have a place for them, but there is no more detail than that. (Although the details of the plan may hint to the readers what will become of them.) Considering that this is a HorusHeresy novel, this is probably as good as it can get.

* At the end of GrahamMcNeill's ''{{Warhammer 40000}} Literature/{{Ultramarines}}'' novel ''The Killing Ground'', the ghosts have been laid, the world is not put under Exterminis, Uriel and Pasanius have been cleared of any taint by the Grey Knights and returned home, but the Unfleshed are all dead -- the Lord of the Unfleshed a MercyKill at Uriel's hands -- and he feels unshakeably melancholy thereafter.
* In JamesSwallow's ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' novel ''[[Literature/BloodAngels Deus Sanguinius]]'', the forces of Chaos have been foiled, and Rafen has even persuaded the Blood Angels to purify rather than [[ReformedButRejected execute]] the repentent ones who had been tricked into following Chaos. But [[spoiler: Rafen [[CainAndAbel has killed his brother Arkio]] with his own hand]] -- though there is a hint that [[spoiler: Arkio]] has [[DiedHappilyEverAfter received afterlife mercy]] -- and he has won the undying [[{{Revenge}} emnity]] of a daemon.

* In Nick Kyme's ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' novel ''[[Literature/{{Salamanders}} Salamander]]'', many of them live, and two have made peace with [[HurtingHero their troubles]], but N'keln has risen to the occasion and is a fine captain -- and is murdered without his Marines even noticing. The Marines Malevolent will be a problem. Dak'ir will be either the doom or the salvation of their chapter and has manifested psychic abilities that put him under a cloud. Iagon [[KarmaHoudini has survived his plots without even being suspected for the murders he committed]], and although he is angry he did not succeed, he is now bent on vengeance.

** Mermaid stories seem prone to these. Take Creator/HansChristianAndersen's ''TheLittleMermaid'': The prince falls for the woman he ''thought'' rescued him. The poor transformed, mute mermaid sadly carries her train at the wedding. When offered a chance to become a mermaid again instead of dying by killing the man she loved, she decides not to take it. She does die physically, but God transforms her into an air spirit. This is because mermaids don't have immortal souls, and in fact the mermaid hoped to gain one by marrying the prince. As an air spirit, she will have the chance to shape a soul for herself, though it is clearly stated it will take centuries. Not surprisingly, many prefer the DisneyAnimatedCanon take on this story.

* ''TheWitches'' by RoaldDahl, although the main characters are very accepting of the ending. In some ways they seem to welcome it. But the boy is unlikely to outlive his grandmother, his only living relative and the only person who seems to care about him. This just makes it worse. It should be noted that the film added a happy ending.

** Mermaid stories seem prone to these. Take HansChristianAndersen's ''TheLittleMermaid'': The prince falls for the woman he ''thought'' rescued him. The poor transformed, mute mermaid sadly carries her train at the wedding. When offered a chance to become a mermaid again instead of dying by killing the man she loved, she decides not to take it. She does die physically, but God transforms her into an air spirit. This is because mermaids don't have immortal souls, and in fact the mermaid hoped to gain one by marrying the prince. As an air spirit, she will have the chance to shape a soul for herself, though it is clearly stated it will take centuries. Not surprisingly, many prefer the DisneyAnimatedCanon take on this story.

** Oh hell, way more than half of King's stuff qualifies for this. ''{{The Green Mile}}'', ''Bag of Bones'', ''{{The Shining}}'', all these and more. It'd probably be easier to find a Stephen King story that's either a {{Happy Ending}} or a full {{Downer Ending}}. The lists would be a helluva lot shorter for sure.

* Brooks' ''{{World War Z}}'': We make it, but the whales don't. Also, the death count's stratospheric.

* {{Neil Gaiman}}'s ''Literature/{{Stardust}}'' has a VERY bittersweet ending. Not what TheFilmOfTheBook tells you. The ending is as follows: Tristran and Yvaine can't have children, but [[HappilyMarried live together happily]], until he eventually dies of old age. Yvaine [[MayflyDecemberRomance lives on more or less perpetually]] without him, trapped on Earth away from her family. Bittersweet was the ''point'' of Neil's ending. It's what made the book meaningful. Avoiding it did make the movie more enjoyable though.

** ''Literature/TheGraveyardBook'' is heavily inspired by RudyardKipling's ''[[Literature/TheJungleBook Jungle Books]]'', which also have bittersweet endings. In ''The Jungle Book'' Mowgli succeeds in killing Shere Khan but manages to alienate both the wolf pack and the human village in the process. In ''The Second Jungle Book'' Mowgli is reunited with his human mother but is forced to give up his life in the jungle.

* {{Forgotten Realms}}' ''Starlight and Shadows'' trilogy: Most participants who managed to stay alive [[CharacterDevelopment grew wiser]]. Part of damages from the Times of Troubles is repaired. Liriel survives and finds some friends, but Fyodor is dead and not to be resurrected. Products of drow radiation magic works on surface without deterioration - mixed blessing at best (though may be Weave repair).

** Pretty much ''every single book'' in {{Dan Abnett}}'s ''GauntsGhosts'' series have bittersweet endings. The Ghosts usually come out victorious over the forces of Chaos, but at the cost of horrendous casualties. In the more recent books, [[AnyoneCanDie handfuls of plot-important characters start getting killed off]].

* ''{{The Name of The Wind}}'': Kvothe saves the village of Trebon from the rampaging Draccus, finds the titular name of the wind, avoids being expelled from The University and is actually promoted up the ranks, and beards his rival Ambrose yet again while his fame rises. However, in doing so he had to destroy the Tannen Resin he was hoping would provide for his future, the villagers of Trebon bury the remains of the Draccus (costing him and every other researcher the chance for a unique study), and, worse, because he CanNotSpitItOut to Denna he winds up becoming something of her UnluckyChildhoodFriend. Not to mention the seething hatred Ambrose has for him is cranked up yet another notch (and it was already at murderous levels). He himself sums it up best: "Oh, it's just the same thing you've heard [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife a hundred times before]]. Prince Gallant kills the dragon, but loses the treasure and the girl." From the way the FramingDevice is set up, it's implied that his whole adventuring career has been this way.

* This is about the best you can hope for with anything by {{Harry Turtledove}}. If it's not a straight-out {{Downer Ending}}, it typically goes like this: There's an overall victory for the good guys, but the world is irreperably changed, a lot of good people died or have their lives ruined, and a lot of bad guys are no worse off.

* One of the {{Trope Codifier}}s, Creator/CharlesDickens's ''{{A Tale of Two Cities}}''.
* Pretty much all of Black Flame's ''{{Friday the 13th}}'', ''{{A Nightmare on Elm Street}}'' and ''Jason X'' books end bittersweet (or downright bad).

** In a similar vein ''The Sight'', (also by David Clement-Davis) ends with a ''huge'' amount of the main characters dead, Larka dying, even though she tried to save herself whilst [[TakingYouWithMe killing Morgra in the process]], and Fell leaving the pack and becoming a ''kerl'' -- a lone wolf. Kar meanwhile, beigns to slowly lose the will to live before Larka comes to him a dream, and tells him to snap out of it. On a happier note though, Huttser and Palla have some more cubs, and name them after the dead members of the pack, and the final line is a rather {{What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic}} one.

* Reginald Hill's ''{{Dalziel and Pascoe}}'' novels do this fairly frequently.

** Similarly, Dalziel and Pascoe entirely botch the {{serial killer}} case in ''Dialogues of the Dead'', and the murderer is now dating Hat Bowler...

* In Nick Kyme's ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' novel ''[[{{Literature/Salamanders}} Salamander]]'', many of them live, and two have made peace with [[HurtingHero their troubles]], but N'keln has risen to the occasion and is a fine captain -- and is murdered without his Marines even noticing. The Marines Malevolent will be a problem. Dak'ir will be either the doom or the salvation of their chapter and has manifested psychic abilities that put him under a cloud. Iagon [[KarmaHoudini has survived his plots without even being suspected for the murders he committed]], and although he is angry he did not succeed, he is now bent on vengeance.

* In Piers Anthony's ''{{Incarnations of Immortality}} Book 5: Being a Green Mother'', Orb almost destroys the world in a fit of rage after she finds out Natasha is "Ah, Satan" backwards, but then saves the world by fulfilling her prophecy and marrying Evil/Satan so that Chronos will reverse time to before she got mad. But then it turns out [[StockholmSyndrome she ends up falling in love with him]] in the later books.

* ''{{The Time Travelers Wife}}'' has a two parts bitter, one part sweet ending. Bitter #1: Involuntary time traveler Henry dies at the age of 43, when his wife Clare is 35. Sweet: Henry leaves a letter in which he tells Clare that (while living) he time traveled to the future and they see each other again there. Bitter #2: They see each other ''47 years'' in the future ... when Clare is 82 years old. {{The Film Of The Book}} softens this considerably by having them meet again not too long after his death.

* [[HorusHeresy Mechanicum]] is either this or a [[DownerEnding Downer Ending]]. Through the efforts of the loyalist adepts, the Dark Mechanicum have been dealt serious blows, Dhalia has found her place as a guard of the dragon, and the [[TheDragon machine]] that has been stalking the main characters is defeated. [[ItGotWorse On the other hand]], the ''Legio Tempestus'' is annihilated, only two of the Knights of Taranis remain, ''billions'' of lives have been lost, with ''many'' more still to come, along with limitless knowledge and the bright future it could have given mankind with it, and the ''Book of the Dragon'' has been stolen, probably to cause doom and gloom in a galaxy full of it already.

* The ending of the series as a whole was actually pretty happy, but a number of the installments in {{FredSaberhagen}}'s BooksOfSwords series were bittersweet at best. Most notably, ''Mindsword's Story'' was almost just a DownerEnding. Yes, the threat posed by the Mindsword has been repelled, at least for the moment, but it has hardly been defeated altogether. In fact, Vilkata is still at large and in possession of the Mindsword. Murat, [[TragicVillain who started the book with the best of intentions]] is dead along with his son, who really was innocent. On top of which, Princess Kristin is crippled and still in love with Murat, insisting that Mark is no longer her husband. At the end, Mark has won, but he's left standing there in the rain.

* The last book from the {{Inheritance Cycle}} ends in a way that many fans (mostly those who like romance) will NOT like. In the end, even though [[spoiler:Eragon manages to defeat Galbatorix and all ends well in Alagaesia, he end up having to leave the place. Even after Arya and Eragon all but say they loved each other they still end up apart in the end because of their duties(which brings the question: why did Islanzadí died? That made no sense and spoiled her daughter's romance). As if that wasn't enough, poor Nasuada was left alone by Murtagh, when he leaves for his soul-healling trip.]] It can't be called a very happy ending, BUT the fans may yet hope for a fifth book (the author said he's likely to write it one day) that may contain a bit more of romance.

* IsaacAsimov's ''{{Foundation}}'' series. The protagonists find Earth and civilization continues to revive, but the Second Galactic Empire will never come, humanity will probably lose its individuality and become part of a galaxy-wide organism. Also, the fan-favorite robot will die in some centuries, but not before he possesses an innocent Solarian child [[CosmicHorror who has the potential to undo 30,000 years of social engineering on its own.]]

* PGWodehouse's Regger Pepper story ''Absent Treatment''. Reggie manages to get his best friend and his wife back together, but the wife grossly misinterprets his actions and they become much more distant from Reggie. He closes by stating that he wants the following to be engraved on his tombstone: "Here was a man who acted from the best motives. There is one born every minute."

* JRRTolkien loves this trope; any endings that aren't bittersweet are almost always [[DownerEnding downers]].

* One of the {{Trope Codifier}}s, CharlesDickens's ''{{A Tale of Two Cities}}''.

** The end of ''Ghost Story'': [[spoiler:Turns out that he was NotQuiteDead...but that means he's ''still'' the Winter Knight.]]

* ''WarriorCats'': ''Sunrise''. Hollyleaf is presumed dead, and almost everyone's lives have been ruined (it's implied that Leafpool is suicidal), but the prophecy still hasen't been completely fulfilled, and there's going to be another series. From Jayfeather's point of view, the continuation of the series preventing this ending from being final apparantly makes all of this less sad. I mean, things can only get better from here, right? ''[[TemptingFate Right]]''!?

* In ''{{The Three Musketeers}}'', The title heroes (plus d'Artagnan) win out against Milady and Richelieu, but at the cost of the death of Madame Bonacieux, d'Artagnan's love interest, not to mention how the trial of Milady has soiled the soldier's life for his three friends, leaving him alone within the Musketeers by book's end.

* [[HorusHeresy Mechanicum]] is either this or a [[DownerEnding Downer Ending]]. Through the efforts of the loyalist adepts, the Dark Mechanicum have been dealt serious blows, Dhalia has found her place as a guard of the dragon ([[YourMilageMayVary Though, wether this is a good thing or not...]]), and the [[TheDragon machine]] that has been stalking the main characters is defeated. [[ItGotWorse On the other hand]], the ''Legio Tempestus'' is annihilated, only two of the Knights of Taranis remain, ''billions'' of lives have been lost, with ''many'' more still to come, along with limitless knowledge and the bright future it could have given mankind with it, and the ''Book of the Dragon'' has been stolen, probably to cause doom and gloom in a galaxy full of it already.

* ''The Golden Age'' by JohnCWright. Phaethon wins, the Golden Oecumene is warned of danger, the [[CoolStarship Phoenix Exultant]] sets sail for the stars with all Phaethon's family on board...but the age of utopia is finished: [[AStormIsComing war is coming]]; and the last scenes of the book are the Oecumene's oligarch governors, discredited by Phaethon, wearily preparing to FaceDeathWithDignity.

* ''TheGreatEscape''. One or two guys escape successfully. Most of them die in the attempt.
** Well, it's based on a true story so I think going with a happy ending would be a tad disrespectful.

* At the end of GrahamMcNeill's ''{{Warhammer 40000}} {{Ultramarines}}'' novel ''The Killing Ground'', the ghosts have been laid, the world is not put under Exterminis, Uriel and Pasanius have been cleared of any taint by the Grey Knights and returned home, but the Unfleshed are all dead -- the Lord of the Unfleshed a MercyKill at Uriel's hands -- and he feels unshakeably melancholy thereafter.

* In Nick Kyme's ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' {{Salamanders}} novel ''Salamander'', many of them live, and two have made peace with [[HurtingHero their troubles]], but N'keln has risen to the occasion and is a fine captain -- and is murdered without his Marines even noticing. The Marines Malevolent will be a problem. Dak'ir will be either the doom or the salvation of their chapter and has manifested psychic abilities that put him under a cloud. Iagon [[KarmaHoudini has survived his plots without even being suspected for the murders he committed]], and although he is angry he did not succeed, he is now bent on vengeance.

* At the end of GrahamMcNeill's ''{{Warhammer 40000}} {{Ultramarines}}'' novel ''The Killing Ground'', the ghosts have been laid, the world is not put under Exterminis, Uriel and Pasanius have been cleared of any taint by the GreyKnights and returned home, but the Unfleshed are all dead -- the Lord of the Unfleshed a MercyKill at Uriel's hands -- and he feels unshakeably melancholy thereafter.

** ''{{The Lord of the Rings}}'': The good guys win. Aragorn takes his rightful place as king. Sauron is defeated permanently, and the Ring destroyed... but this also destroys the power of the Three Rings that has sustained Lothlorien and Rivendell, and the Elves leave. Frodo, unable to bear the weight of all he lost to save the world, leaves with them, as does Gandalf, and magic begins to go out of the world.

** ''TheSilmarillion'': Morgoth is defeated and permanently banished from the world until the end of time. The two Silmarils remaining in his crown are stolen and then LostForever. The continent is mostly destroyed and many of the Elves sail to the West.

**** In ''TheHobbit'', Bilbo returns home rich, but ostracized as a weirdo by his fellow hobbits. Nevertheless, "he remained very happy to the end of his days, and those were extraordinarily long."

** ''[[PrydainChronicles The Chronicles of Prydain]]'' end with Taran essentially making the opposite of Frodo's decision in ''{{Lord of the Rings}}''. While his friends and companions go off to a paradise across the sea to spend eternity in happiness, Taran chooses to remain behind to attempt to restore Prydain. Sure he gets to be High King as part of the deal, but that doesn't take the sting out of never seeing your friends again. At least Princess Eilonwy decides to stay with him too. The ending gets extra bitter points as Taran tries to rebuild Prydain because he made promises to comrades, [[HeroicSacrifice often over their graves]], to finish their work for them. His WorldOfCardboardSpeech to the other companions, explaining why he cannot go with them, drives home for everyone just how much it cost to win peace for Prydain.

* In ''{{The Three Musketeers}}'', The titular heroes (plus d'Artagnan) win out against Milady and Richelieu, but at the cost of the death of Madame Bonacieux, d'Artagnan's love interest, not to mention how the trial of Milady has soiled the soldier's life for his three friends, leaving him alone within the Musketeers by book's end.

* LordOfTheFlies: Way to go Ralph! You've managed to get the Navy to rescue you and the other survivors on the island!! ...So does this mean we can forget about Simon's and Piggy's deaths, destroying the island, and proving that HumansAreBastards?

* In JamesSwallow's ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' novel ''[[Literature/BloodAngels Deus Sanguinius]]'', the forces of Chaos have been foiled, and Rafen has even persuaded the BloodAngels to purify rather than [[ReformedButRejected execute]] the repentent ones who had been tricked into following Chaos. But [[spoiler: Rafen [[CainAndAbel has killed his brother Arkio]] with his own hand]] -- though there is a hint that [[spoiler: Arkio]] has [[DiedHappilyEverAfter received afterlife mercy]] -- and he has won the undying [[{{Revenge}} emnity]] of a daemon.

* In JamesSwallow's ''{{Warhammer 40000}} BloodAngels'' novel ''Deus Sanguinius'', the forces of Chaos have been foiled, and Rafen has even persuaded the BloodAngels to purify rather than [[ReformedButRejected execute]] the repentent ones who had been tricked into following Chaos. But [[spoiler: Rafen [[CainAndAbel has killed his brother Arkio]] with his own hand]] -- though there is a hint that [[spoiler: Arkio]] has [[DiedHappilyEverAfter received afterlife mercy]] -- and he has won the undying [[{{Revenge}} emnity]] of a daemon.

* {{Neil Gaiman}}'s ''{{Stardust}}'' has a VERY bittersweet ending. Not what TheFilmOfTheBook tells you. The ending is as follows: Tristran and Yvaine can't have children, but [[HappilyMarried live together happily]], until he eventually dies of old age. Yvaine [[MayflyDecemberRomance lives on more or less perpetually]] without him, trapped on Earth away from her family. Bittersweet was the ''point'' of Neil's ending. It's what made the book meaningful. Avoiding it did make the movie more enjoyable though.