Biblio File

Epic Literary Breakup Lines

“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”

Gone with the Wind won a Pulitzer Prize on May 3, 1937, and it’s inspiring us to come up with other great literary breakups.

(Even though, as one intrepid librarian points out, “frankly” was added for the movie and doesn’t appear in the book! But the sentiment is there...)

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Clark Gable in "Gone with the Wind" from NYPL's Digital Collections. (1949)

So, this week, we asked our book experts here at NYPL to quote spectacular literary breakup scenes, and they came up with some doozies. Tomorrow is another day!

Graphic Novels

pilgrim
Scott Pilgrim

“Um, listen...I think we should break up or whatever.” Classic teenage charm.

(Scott Pilgrim 2: Scott Pilgrim Vs the World by Bryan Lee O’Malley) —Genna Sarnak, Jerome Park

“I’m no one’s little woman, Ian. I’m certainly not yours.”

(Giant Days, Vol. 2 by John Allison, Lissa Treiman, and Max Sarin) —Crystal Chen, Muhlenberg

“You and I are quits now, X-Men. Our paths will cross no more. My destiny lies in the stars.”

(Dark Phoenix from X-Men as quoted in Crazy Love You by Lisa Unger. From The Uncanny X-Men #135, July 1980.) —Jenny Baum, Jefferson Market

Young Adult

handler

“I’m dumping the whole box back into your life Ed, every item of you and me. I’m dumping this box on your porch, Ed, but it’s you, Ed, who is getting dumped.” You go, girl!

(Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler with art by Maira Kalman) —Anne Rouyer, Mulberry Street

Remy breaking up with Dexter (her “casual summer hook-up”): “I know how things end, Dexter. I’ve seen what commitment leads to, and it isn’t pretty. Going in is the easy part. It’s the endings that suck.”

(This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen) —Anne Rouyer, Mulberry Street

Adult Fiction

carver
Raymond Carver

“I’m going out to get cigarettes.” … the classic way out in anything by Raymond Carver. —Billy Parrott, Mid-Manhattan

No one does blasé gentility like Evelyn Waugh:

“I say, Nina,” said Adam after some time, “we shan’t be able to get married after all.” 

“No, I’m afraid not.” 

“It is a bore, isn’t it?”

(Vile Bodies) —Meredith Mann, Electronic Resources

“You have killed me, Kitty.”

(Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters. Victorian lesbian melodrama at its finest.) —Caitlyn Colman-McGaw, Young Adult Programming

“I jumped up and down on my pregnant wife.”

(It Ended Badly by Jennifer Wright.) —Courtney Blossom, Huguenot Park                                   

“How did you get out? I mean, what was the nature of the tragedy that prevented the marriage?” “Jeeves worked it. He thought out the entire scheme.” 

(Carry on, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse) —Virginia Bartow, Special Collections

How about a horrible but humorous marriage proposal?

“Will you marry me, vile and abominable girl that you are?
Yes, but, mind, if only to save my neck from being wrung!” 

(The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer) —Leslie Bernstein, Mott Haven

“I shall be far away when you read these sad lines, for I have wished to flee as quickly as possible to shun the temptation of seeing you again. No weakness! I shall return, and perhaps later on we shall talk together very coldly of our old love. Adieu!” 

(Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert; spoken by Rodolphe, a cowardly cad who chooses to break up in a letter.) —Elizabeth Waters, Mid-Manhattan

Or how about a stage direction? In Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, nothing Nora says to Torvald, as she explains why she is walking out on their marriage, is as resonant as that final stage direction: “From below, the sound of a door slamming shut.”

—Kathie Coblentz, Special Collections

Honorable Mentions in Movies & Music

heathers
Veronica amid the Heathers.

“You know what I want?”

[shoots boyfriend]

“Cool guys like you out of my life.”

(Heathers) —Susie Heimbach, Mulberry Street

“And you can cry all you want to I don’t care how much you invest yourself in me. We’re not working out.”

“Honey, This Mirror Isn’t Big Enough for the Two of Us” by My Chemical Romance, which can be found on their greatest hits album May Death Never Stop You. —Joe Pascullo, Grand Central

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