Death from not enough pillows
February 16, 2021 6:15 AM   Subscribe

A list of things women in literature have died from. I don't recognise all of them, except maybe Madame Bovary and The Yellow Wallpaper.
posted by antihistameme (46 comments total) 26 users marked this as a favorite
 
Perhaps "too many pillows" refers to Quiroga's supremely creepy "The Feather Pillow".
posted by phooky at 6:23 AM on February 16, 2021 [5 favorites]


I love the Toast and every bit of Daniel Lavery's work.
posted by Braeburn at 6:34 AM on February 16, 2021 [5 favorites]


I think "Going outside at night in Italy" is from Edith Wharton's short story "Roman Fever." Beautiful face could be a lot of stories! However, "The Birth-mark" by Hawthorne comes to mind.
posted by pangolin party at 6:44 AM on February 16, 2021 [4 favorites]


Too Many Novels is an entire subgenre of terrible Victorian literature. I remember one fondly where they combined the novel reading with a drastic brain fever that killed one sister off in 24 hours. The other, who had not read novels, married the hero thanks to her superior education in non fiction.it was awesome.
posted by lesbiassparrow at 6:58 AM on February 16, 2021 [7 favorites]


For some reason the novel had been reprinted by a feminist press as a lost classic of approving of women's education.
posted by lesbiassparrow at 6:59 AM on February 16, 2021 [2 favorites]


Garden troubles could be "Rappaccini's Daughter" by Hawthorne.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 7:01 AM on February 16, 2021 [4 favorites]


"looked directly at a bloke", as Tennyson's version of the Lady of Shalott / Elaine of Astolat story goes.
posted by scruss at 7:03 AM on February 16, 2021 [7 favorites]


I thought General Bummers was a character in an Evelyn Waugh novel.
posted by kinnakeet at 7:15 AM on February 16, 2021 [6 favorites]


"Knitting needles too heavy" might be a reference to Beth's death in Little Women, although my memory is that she complained that the sewing needle was too heavy. And really, it reads as a symptom not a cause. Still, it's always good to have a list of dangers to watch out for.
posted by ALeaflikeStructure at 7:21 AM on February 16, 2021 [4 favorites]


I kind of wish Edward Gorey were around to tackle this.

A is for Alice, snuffed out by stale airs
B is for Brunhilde, overcome by harsh stares
posted by phooky at 7:29 AM on February 16, 2021 [63 favorites]


Padme Amidala, Sith Sadness
posted by Jacen at 7:34 AM on February 16, 2021 [16 favorites]


Could "The Unplesantness" be "The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club"?
There's death and intrigue, but I don't recall what exactly "the unplesantness" is. If it were the death of old dame who supplied the motivation for the intrigue, the ensuing intrigue (and poisoning of men), or if it wasn't just the gentlemens' club "Schrodinger's"-like members, in some superposition in which the dead members cannot be differentiated from the living.
posted by rubatan at 7:41 AM on February 16, 2021 [1 favorite]


I think "Going outside at night in Italy" is from Edith Wharton's short story "Roman Fever."

Daisy Miller.

Some of these are obviously (and hilariously) made up, though.
posted by praemunire at 7:44 AM on February 16, 2021 [2 favorites]


Reminds me of that possibly fake list of reasons people in the 19th century were committed to insane asylums.
posted by scratch at 7:54 AM on February 16, 2021 [1 favorite]


pls to not be spoiling seasons 2-7 of bridgerton thanks
posted by Huffy Puffy at 7:56 AM on February 16, 2021 [21 favorites]


The cold hands thing, in my experience, means they could be already.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 7:56 AM on February 16, 2021 [1 favorite]


I'm sorry, I can't, I have wrist fevers.
posted by BoscosMom at 8:24 AM on February 16, 2021 [11 favorites]


I like to imagine that "Pony exhaustion" is a reference to "Wildfire," although calling that song "literature" is maybe a bit much.
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:35 AM on February 16, 2021 [4 favorites]


"Cold Hands And Wrist Fevers" sounds like an oddly Victorian blues lyric, like something you'd expect an embustled Bessie Smith to be belting into a brass-and-wax contraption, about the river of unhappiness that flows from a life of night brain and cold sherry.
posted by mhoye at 8:37 AM on February 16, 2021 [7 favorites]


the narrator of the yellow wallpaper doesn't die
posted by brujita at 8:59 AM on February 16, 2021 [3 favorites]


Ah, Quiroga's "The Feather Pillow." I used to assign that to my Gothic lit students as our first reading. "Read it late at night," I recommended.

The reactions in the next class were always interesting.
posted by doctornemo at 9:15 AM on February 16, 2021 [4 favorites]


Ah, brujita, you're right. In my head she dies and becomes a Ring-esque ghost that crawls over her husband, but that is not cannon.
posted by antihistameme at 9:30 AM on February 16, 2021 [6 favorites]


"Someone said 'no' very loudly" - Fantine in Les Misérables? She was on her deathbed, but the final blow was hearing a discussion that someone insisted on having out loud and in earshot.
posted by mersen at 9:32 AM on February 16, 2021 [1 favorite]


Some of these are obviously (and hilariously) made up

The real joy of this genre of literature is that for every outlandish made up cause of death, you can probably find a book that matches it anyway
posted by phooky at 9:44 AM on February 16, 2021 [8 favorites]


What, no "(picnic, lightning)"?
posted by chavenet at 10:39 AM on February 16, 2021 [4 favorites]


As Mad Magazine put it (the parody of Love Story IIRC), "movie star disease".

Where the perishing victim keeps getting better looking.
posted by BWA at 10:55 AM on February 16, 2021 [2 favorites]


Tuberculosis, phthisis, consumption, wasting, the hectic flush, Shelley...
posted by clew at 11:24 AM on February 16, 2021 [1 favorite]


Ah, brujita, you're right. In my head she dies and becomes a Ring-esque ghost that crawls over her husband, but that is not cannon.

Thank you, antihistameme - now you've got me thinking of one of my favorite Pete Seeger songs, Lady Margaret. She may have died of a broken heart, more or less (which fits right in the list), but she does have a great recurring role afterwards, when she returns to have a post-mortem fling with the man who spurned her in life:
https://songs.2quakers.net/lady-margaret
posted by Flight Hardware, do not touch at 11:42 AM on February 16, 2021 [1 favorite]


Surprised "the vapours" hasn't come up yet.
posted by mhoye at 12:22 PM on February 16, 2021 [6 favorites]


Surprised "the vapours" hasn't come up yet.

Is turning Japanese fatal?
posted by maxwelton at 1:05 PM on February 16, 2021 [5 favorites]


David Sylvain found it stifling.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 1:42 PM on February 16, 2021


maxwelton: "Is turning Japanese fatal?"

I really think so.
posted by chavenet at 2:06 PM on February 16, 2021 [14 favorites]


I kind of wish Edward Gorey were around to tackle this.

A is for Alice, snuffed out by stale airs
B is for Brunhilde, overcome by harsh stares


C is for Camilla, left coughing from vapors,
D is for Dierdre, felled reading some papers
posted by SinAesthetic at 2:46 PM on February 16, 2021 [9 favorites]


E is for Ellen, who encountered a ghost
F is for Flora, too much jam on her toast
posted by praemunire at 2:54 PM on February 16, 2021 [9 favorites]


G is for Georgiana, who succumbed to wrist fevers
H is for Hortense, felled by ravenous beavers
posted by profreader at 3:11 PM on February 16, 2021 [10 favorites]


I is for Ida, stayed up past eleven one night,
J is for Jenny, noticed Tom's pants were quite tight
posted by maxwelton at 3:16 PM on February 16, 2021 [10 favorites]


K is for Katelyn, hair blown into knots,
L is for Laura, with political thoughts
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 3:30 PM on February 16, 2021 [8 favorites]


M is for Meg, who stepped out in the rain,
N is for Nell, slain by math in the brain
posted by kyrademon at 3:56 PM on February 16, 2021 [9 favorites]


O is for Olive, her tea was too sweet.
P is for Prudie, who read the wrong tweet
posted by Sauce Trough at 4:12 PM on February 16, 2021 [7 favorites]


Q is for Quinta, bought fruit for her sister;
R for Romola, went off with a Mr.
posted by clew at 4:17 PM on February 16, 2021 [8 favorites]


R is for Roxanne, who put out that red light
S is for Scheherazade, who made it for 1001 nights.
posted by basalganglia at 4:17 PM on February 16, 2021 [8 favorites]


(oops I forgot Q!)
posted by basalganglia at 4:21 PM on February 16, 2021


T is for Trudy, her toilette disorder'd
U is for Una. Everyone ignored her.
posted by Sauce Trough at 8:25 PM on February 16, 2021 [7 favorites]


V is for Verity, who under-baked strudel,
W is for Willa, cut direct by her poodle.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 9:14 PM on February 16, 2021 [9 favorites]


Xenia got a little too close to her horse
Yvonne disappeared after suggesting divorce
Zelda is frozen till Link finds the triforce
posted by Arctic Circle at 9:50 PM on February 16, 2021 [6 favorites]


They missed 'being mom of a future Disney princess'. If you try to lie on the form after giving birth, you get shipped off to Hanna Barbera
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:17 AM on February 17, 2021 [1 favorite]


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