History BungledSuicide / Literature

* In the ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'' series, [[Literature/LastHeraldMageTrilogy Vanyel]] tries to kill himself in the chapel where his dead love Tylendel is laid out pre-burial. Yfandes raises the alarm in time for rescuers to save Vanyel's life, aided by the fact that Vanyel "didn't know the right way to slit his wrists".[[note]]Remember, kids, cut *down*, not across.[[/note]]

* In ''LightNovel/AnotherNote'', Beyond Birthday uses SelfImmolation as part of his MurderSuicide plot. He is stopped by Naomi; she doesn't talk him down, but rather blasts him with the fire extinguisher, and gets him medical attention before placing him under arrest. He survives with horrific burns [[spoiler: only to later die from a Kira-induced heart attack in prison once he recovers from his injuries.]]

* In the ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'' series, [[Literature/LastHeraldMageTrilogy Vanyel]] tries to kill himself in the chapel where his dead love Tylendel is laid out pre-burial. Yfandes raises the alarm in time for rescuers to save Vanyel's life, aided by the fact that Vanyel "didn't know the right way to slit his wrists".[[note]][[ComicBook/TheSandman Remember, kids, cut *down*, not across.]][[/note]]

* It’s revealed in ''Literature/TheDeathCure'' that Newt tried to kill himself by jumping off one of the Walls some time before Thomas’s arrival. He survived but broke his leg, hence his permanent limp.

* The reason why Beth had to enter the parenting rehabilitation program at ''Literature/TheSchoolForGoodMothers'': after attempting suicide, she checked herself into a psychiatric hospital. An ex-boyfriend reported her to the DepartmentOfChildDisservices and it was determined that since she had been a danger to herself, she must obviously be a danger to her child.

* In a very ridiculous scene in Petronius's ''Literature/{{Satyricon}}'', widely considered to be the first modern novel (written in ancient Rome), one character tries to [[HangingAround hang himself]] off of a bedpost. The post being so low, he fails, but another character comes in and sees him lying there, thinks he's dead, and tries to kill himself with the first knife he grabs, which turns out to be a prop. HilarityEnsues.

* In Spenser's ''Literature/TheFaerieQueene'', the character Despair tries to kill himself over and over and it never works. Believe it or not, this is ''really creepy.''

* In ''Literature/SometimesAGreatNotion'', [[EstablishingCharacterMoment Leland is introduced]] with one of these. As he explains later, he was lying in bed waiting for his house to fill with the gas he'd turned on in the kitchen when he suddenly decides to have a cigarette. The house explodes, but Leland is miraculously unharmed, and he finds a letter from his brother (along with an understandably confused postman) on what's left of his front porch and decides that he might as well return home and help his family fill their logging quota.
* In ''Literature/DumaKey'', this is Wireman's story. After his wife and daughter died, he decided to shoot himself in the head and actually went through with it. Instead of killing him, the bullet lodged in his brain, causing him trouble later.
* In Stephen King's story, "Hearts in Atlantis", a college student who is freaking out about the possibility of flunking out and getting drafted tries to OD on baby aspirin.
* ''Literature/AScannerDarkly'': Charles Freck tried to commit suicide by taking a bunch of downers with some wine. He failed and only hallucinated. The hallucination might be a DyingDream - Freck never appears in the story again either way.
* In a very ridiculous scene in Petronius's ''Literature/{{Satyricon}}'', widely considered to be the first modern novel (written in ancient Rome), one character tries to [[HangingAround hang himself]] off of a bedpost. The post being so low, he fails, but another character comes in and sees him lying there, thinks he's dead, and tries to kill himself with the first knife he grabs, which turns out to be a prop. HilarityEnsues.

* In the [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Dresden Files]] novel ''Literature/GhostStory'', the readers find Harry has done this because he feared becoming a monster as Mab's Winter Knight. So this trope is used in a very convoluted way.
* In ''Literature/AClockworkOrange'', the Narrator [[TheSociopath Alex]] can't conventionally kill himself because [[RestrainingBolt the thought of violence makes him cripplingly ill]] - the reason he wants to kill himself in the first place. In a moment of sudden desperation, he leaps from an apartment window, only to break most of his bones and wind up immobile and unable to talk in the hospital instead of dead. Needless to say, he isn't pleased.

* In Jaroslav Hasek's ''Literature/TheGoodSoldierSvejk'' Švejk tells a story about a cadet driven to suicide by uncertainty of cadets' official status.[[note]]Kadett-Stellvertreter -- "cadet officer candidate" -- a graduate of an officer school who has just started service in his regiment. They were neither soldiers, nor officers, nor [=NCOs=], thus nobody knew if they should get what soldiers get, or what officers get. As a result they got nothing: no food in the canteen, no blankets in the hospital and so on.[[/note]] As Švejk puts it:
--> ...one of them jumped into the river Malše [...] [but] was fished out again alive. In his excitement when he jumped into it he had forgotten that he knew how to swim and has passed swimming test with honours.

* Towards the end of John Marsden's ''Literature/TakeMyWordForIt'', Lisa reveals that, some time before the book started, she attempted suicide by overdose, but ended up waking up twenty-four hours later feeling awful, and soon realised that no one in the house had even noticed.
* At the end of ''Literature/MadameBovary'', Emma decides to kill herself by swallowing arsenic, expecting this to be PerfectPoison. However, reality doesn't work that way, and she doesn't die until much later, remaining in agony the entire time.
* It’s revealed in ''Literature/TheDeathCure'' that Newt tried to kill himself by jumping off one of the Walls some time before Thomas’s arrival. He survived but broke his leg, hence his permanent limp.
* In ''LightNovel/AnotherNote'', Beyond Birthday uses SelfImmolation as part of his MurderSuicide plot. He is stopped by Naomi; she doesn't talk him down, but rather blasts him with the fire extinguisher, and gets him medical attention before placing him under arrest. He survives with horrific burns [[spoiler: only to later die from a Kira-induced heart attack in prison once he recovers from his injuries.]]
* Tedrin, the villain in ''Literature/EdenGreen'', is Patient Zero of an alien needle symbiote that keeps him alive no matter how badly he is hurt. He reveals early on that when he was first infected, he attempted suicide using a gunshot to the head... only to have his brain grow back wrong.
* Creator/DorothyParker:
** Dorothy Parker's 1926 poem "Resumé" alludes to the trope:

** Hazel in ''Literature/BigBlonde'' attempts suicide by taking a bottle of veronal. Due to her weight, she just ends up in a comatose state.
* In ''Literature/AwakenTheStars'', Khodī Som shot himself in the skull after his squad was killed in Iraq. Due to the ETKC-51 drug in his body, he woke up 5 minutes later.

* In ''Literature/TheVampireChronicles'' several vampires including Lestat, Louis, Armand, and Mael attempt to commit SuicideBySunlight. They end up surviving while suffering severe pain since they are simply too old and powerful.
* Creator/SylviaPlath:
** In ''Literature/TheBellJar'', Esther tries to kill herself 3 times (by cutting, [[HangingAround hanging]], and drowning, in order) before she actually attempts to go through with it. She then takes a large amount of [[SuicideByPills sleeping pills]] in a hole in the basement, only for her to be found, sent to the hospital, and end up in an asylum.
** Her poem "Lady Lazarus", about a woman who wakes up from yet another suicide attempt, angry at the doctors for not letting her die.
-->Dying\\
Is an art, like everything else.\\
I do it exceptionally well.\\
I do it so it feels like hell.\\
I do it so it feels real.\\
I guess you could say I've a call.

* ''Literature/TheOutsider2018'': Fred Peterson decides to [[HangingAround hang himself]] after losing his entire family. He hopes that jumping off a footstool with a noose around his neck will snap his neck, thus instant death. It fails and instead he's strangled, which kicks in his survival reflexes and he tries to save himself. Then the branch breaks. He is found unconscious by his elderly neighbor, who gives him mouth on mouth resuscitation till an ambulance arrives. In the end, Peterson ends up in a coma from which he is unlikely to recover.
* Before the beginning of ''Literature/LuckyJim'', Margaret tried unsuccessfully to kill herself with [[SuicideByPills sleeping pills]]. She's still emotionally fragile after the fact.
* In "Literature/AModelLife", James is a maladjusted ex-cop. His depression only made worse while in the model, James attempts to shoot himself. Unfortunately for him, his bullets were replaced with harmless ammo by the staff.
* ''Literature/TheEssexSerpent'': Luke Garrett decides to kill himself by [[HangingAround hanging on a belt]] from a tree. He does it and almost dies but halfway through, he stops because he thinks of his best friend.
* A popular cause of death for [[Literature/TheBible Judas Iscariot]], born of [[Literature/TheFourGospels differing]] [[Literature/ActsOfTheApostles accounts]] of his demise, is his [[HangingAround suicide by hanging]] in Matthew going so horribly wrong that he suffers a terrible fall that results in his innards spilling out, as in the Acts of the Apostles.
* [[RetiredMonster Daylen]] at the beginning of ''Literature/ShadowOfTheConqueror,'' due to having committed [[FinalSolution Hitler-tier crimes]] against humanity throughout his life and then [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone seen the error of his ways]] in his old age. Living on a WorldInTheSky, he elects to jump off the edge. But since this occurs in ''chapter three'', you probably don't need us to tell you that he doesn't get the result he expected.
* Patricia from ''Literature/EyeOfAFly'' has swallowed roach poison twice. Both times, her son Ernest had to spend the night in the hospital while they pumped her stomach.
* ''Literature/AfterTheRevolution'': [[AmnesiacDissonance After unlocking a particularly nasty set of memories]], Roland decides he's too monstrous to live and [[AteHisGun tries blowing his head off]] with a grenade launcher. [[HealingFactor His head regrows itself]], though the loss of his grey matter ends up removing the memories [[LaserGuidedAmnesia alongside mostly everything else]].
* ''Literature/AlmostPerfect'': When trans girl Sage was in sixth grade, she realized that she was going to grow up to be a man no matter what she did. She attempted to slash her wrists, but only scratched herself, and started bawling at the sight of blood. Her parents made her see a psychiatrist, who told her that transition was possible.

* Towards the end of John Marsden's ''Take My Word For It'', Lisa reveals that, some time before the book started, she attempted suicide by overdose, but ended up waking up twenty-four hours later feeling awful, and soon realised that no one in the house had even noticed.