History EarnYourHappyEnding / Literature

* Creator/JackChalker: All of the {{Gender Bender}}s, {{Viral Transformation}}s, {{Forced Transformation}}s lations mean that it's a rare Chalker hero or heroine who survives their adventures physically or psychologically intact. There's even a soliloquy to this effect at the end of ''The Messiah Choice'' where a side character tells the hero (who had his genitals ''torn off'' while defeating the BigBad, who may have been the Devil incarnate) that real sacrifices must be horrific by definition and anything that isn't painful, life-altering and above all ''permanent'' doesn't count as a true sacrifice.

* Creator/JackChalker: Probably the second most prominent feature of his works. Though they're often remembered more for their AuthorAppeal, all of the {{Gender Bender}}s, {{Viral Transformation}}s, {{Forced Transformation}}s lations mean that it's a rare Chalker hero or heroine who survives their adventures physically or psychologically intact. There's even a soliloquy to this effect at the end of ''The Messiah Choice'' where a side character tells the hero (who had his genitals ''torn off'' while defeating the BigBad, who may have been the Devil incarnate) that real sacrifices must be horrific by definition and anything that isn't painful, life-altering and above all ''permanent'' doesn't count as a true sacrifice.

* ''Literature/WhiteFang'' loses his pack, is forced to pull sleds with a team of dogs who hate him, then is sold to a dogfighting ring, then is rescued by a sympathetic watcher and given to a judge in California, but then he is almost killed by a burglar. The book ends with him recovering from his injuries in the garden, surrounded by the puppies he sired on a neighboring collie.

* ''Literature/DiaryOfWimpyKid'':

* ''Literature/Timeline191'' has an interesting example of not being a person going through this, but a nation. In this [[AlternateHistory Alternate History]] novel, the UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates is divided in half by losing the Civil War thanks to interventions from Great Britain and France, faces another crushing defeat of a war, getting pulled into two great costly World Wars (which is now on the North American soil in this timeline), and gets nuked in the second world war. But after all of that, the USA comes out on top as one of the three most powerful countries (with the other two being UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan and UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany), has destroyed the Confederacy and finished it off by pushing the British and French out of the Americas, who's involvement caused all of the USA's problems in the first place.
* Many characters in Creator/JRRTolkien's legendarium fall under this trope, especially Beren from ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' and Aragorn from ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. Beren has to go to the BigBad's fortress and take a jewel from his crown [[EngagementChallenge to marry Lúthien]]; [[spoiler:He ends up dying]] just to get this, but [[BackFromTheDead gets better.]] Aragorn has to become king of two kingdoms for Arwen, and it ends up taking decades for it to happen, with a huge war right before it.
** The only person in the entire Silmarillion who gets an actual Happy Ending with no strings attached ''might'' be [[spoiler: Tuor, who gets to sail to Valinor with his wife Idril, and becomes an honorary Elf by the grace of Ilúvatar.]]

* Literature/TrappedOnDraconica: Team Good goes through a lot of hardship, a lot of pain, and a lot of suffering. Each one of them had a moment where they would have given up if not for the encouragement of the group. They all earn a happy ending.

* Richard Literature/{{Sharpe}} has to go through the entirety of UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars and then some, being wounded many times, endlessly suffering the enmity of snobs due to rising from the ranks and losing a great many friends and lovers but eventually he is able to retire to a comfortable life with wife Lucile and (as revealed by another series by the same author) a son he named Patrick after his best friend who, furthermore, ''didn't'' die.

* ''Literature/DiaryOfWimpyKid'': In ''Hard Luck'', Fregley becomes one of the popular kids after demonstrating his ability to chew gum with his belly button.

* ''Literature/TheAbandonTrilogy'': Pierce manages to destroy all the Furies coming after her and John, but she CantStayNormal and has to stay with John having spent the night with him.]] She mentions wanting to get a time-share for them on Isla De los Huesos and wants to raise a family.

** Especially with Archimboldi, who had to fight in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, survive multiple injuries, change his identity, and forge his new career as a writer in post-war Europe. It's never revealed if he won the Nobel Prize, but he certainly earned it.

* ''Literature/TheAbandonTrilogy'': Though the first two books make you question how we reach that happy ending in the first place. Pierce manages to destroy all the Furies coming after her and John, but she CantStayNormal and has to stay with John having spent the night with him.]] She mentions wanting to get a time-share for them on Isla De los Huesos and wants to raise a family.

* The two characters who get the happiest endings in the first duology of the ''Literature/ArciaChronicles'' are [[spoiler:Shander Gardani]], the StoicWoobie who performs several {{Last Stand}}s and is magically tortured for months by the BigBad, and [[spoiler:Princess Ilana]], whose ambitions lead her to become the BigBad's personal plaything and to lose everyone she loves. The two end up surprisingly HappilyMarried and found a dynasty that endures uncorrupted for many centuries.

* After betrayals, tumult, reconciliations, kidnapping, deaths, [[InevitableWaterfall waterfalls]], combinations of VirginTension and aversions of STDImmunity, ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'' ends on a wedding and the line
--> Surely, the gods were merciful and loving. [[TemptingFate Surely]] they smiled upon this union, and he and his wives would live happily ever after.

* In ''Literature/CatherineAndHerFate'', Catherine, given the choice between happiness in youth and old age, picked old age. She then finds that her Fate will see to it that she must have a truly abject life until then, but soldiers on.
* Probably the second most prominent feature of the works of Creator/JackChalker. Though they're often remembered more for their AuthorAppeal, all of the [[GenderBender Gender Benders]], [[ViralTransformation Viral Transformations]], {{Forced Transformation}}s lations mean that it's a rare Chalker hero or heroine who survives their adventures physically or psychologically intact. There's even a soliloquy to this effect at the end of ''The Messiah Choice'' where a side character tells the hero (who had his genitals ''torn off'' while defeating the BigBad, who may have been the Devil incarnate) that real sacrifices must be horrific by definition and anything that isn't painful, life-altering and above all ''permanent'' doesn't count as a true sacrifice.
* The ''Literature/ChooseYourOwnAdventure'' series could give this trope a whole new meaning. As it stands now, you ''do'' have to go through a lot to get to even the good endings.

* Exceptionally for an epic, ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'' ends happily with the protagonist having risen above the darkness of Earth, the torments of Hell, and the fires of Purgatory to fully encounter {{God}}. The last canto is taken up with Dante apologizing for his inability to describe how perfect the Love of God is and using every device he can to praise that One who is Three.

* K.A. Applegate's ''Literature/{{Everworld}}'' series. It's set in a world where all the gods and creatures from mythology exist, and as anyone who's read their mythology can tell you, that means horrible deaths and fates worse than death abound. And that's before Everworld is invaded by psychotic, heavily armed Neo-Nazis and an alien horde with their own god that eats other gods. For most of the series, the four teenagers who make up the main cast are barely able to keep themselves from killing each other, let alone staying alive, yet in the last book they actually manage to forge an alliance among the squabbling gods, start an industrial revolution in Everworld, and (while the series ends before the aforementioned Nazis and aliens can be defeated) the prospects for obtaining something close to peace are actually looking up.
* In Brandon Mull's other series, ''{{Literature/Fablehaven}}'', this trope also occurs. The books get worse, and worse, and worse, and ''worse'', culminating in the fifth book where, despite all their efforts otherwise, [[spoiler: the demon prison opens and thousands of demons are released into the world]]. However, thanks to a BatmanGambit by the Fairy Queen, a lot of powerful allies, and some well-placed magic, [[spoiler: the demons are reimprisoned, this time for a much, much longer era, the good guys win, and the ending is completely and utterly happy.]]
* Una from ''Literature/TheFaerieQueene'' has her kingdom attacked by giants, has her true love renounce her for something she never did, and has to wander uncivilized Britain alone fending off monsters and knights before she can come back home safe and sound. But when she does, she is welcomed by her mother and father, is married to the Redcrosse Knights, and is allowed to live the rest of her days in security and happiness.
* ''The Fifth Sacred Thing'' by Starhawk, is about an egalitarian, multi-racial, decentralist, eco-feminist community in near-future UsefulNotes/{{California}}, fighting off an invasion from a fascist, white supremacist, male supremacist regime. The author is unflinching and disturbingly graphic in her depiction of the fascists' brutal repression (a scene late in the book depicts one of the foot soldiers snapping and slaughtering nearly an entire family, the last victim being an eight-year-old), and her protagonists go through immense physical, emotional, and psychological trauma over the course of the story. But they see it through, drive off the fascists, and the book closes with the promise of healing for both the main characters and their community. The message of the book is that humanity's better nature can win out against its worst in the end, but the price of struggle is ''very'' high.
* Subverted in ''Literature/ForeverAfter'', it seems as though the four great artifacts are kept in separate guarded locations so that when there is a great problem that needs the help of mighty heroes to solve they must go on grand quests and become better people for the experience. Actually, the artifacts just tear up the fabric of reality by being together for too long, and anything difficult for heroes to deal with will also be difficult for anyone else who wants the artifacts.

* Literature/HarryPotter goes through hell and loses several friends along the way, but in the end, he is able to defeat Voldemort through ThePowerOfLove.
* Literature/HonorHarrington:

-->''The world was all before them, where to choose''
-->''Their place of rest, & Providence their guide''
-->''They hand in hand, with wadding steps and slow''
-->''Through Eden took their solitarie way.''
** I think I've got something in my eye...
* In ''Literature/{{The Pillars of the Earth}}'', the main characters have to cope with and overcome constant setbacks over the decades the book covers. Phillip spends his life defending against violence and political attacks from his archnemesis as he tries to build a cathedral. Aliena [[spoiler: is raped, loses her noble status, and has her wool business temporarily destroyed, all at the hands of William Hamleigh.]] Jack [[spoiler: loses his adoptive father]] and is hampered at every turn by his tumultuous relationship with his step-brother. Several times throughout the book the situation seems completely hopeless, and a resounding success is often followed by a tragic defeat. Up to the very end, the characters struggle to defend the happy lives they've worked hard for, making the happy ending they earn after years of frustration and tragedy extremely satisfying.
* Nearly every book by Creator/TimPowers runs on this trope, and few of his characters ever survive their arc without making some major sacrifice along the way, be it of blood, love, flesh, or memory.

* Averted, Subverted, and Justified at the same time in Creator/StephenKing's ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'' series. After journeying for untold years to reach the Dark Tower (and consequently losing the greater number of his friends, lovers, and followers along the way) Roland [[spoiler: FINALLY reaches the Dark Tower. However, upon reaching it he finds out that his existence is a cycle; he has made the journey to the tower an unknown number of times before this one. He is made to repeat his journey again and again until he finally learns his lesson (which is up to the reader to decide). He is, literally, sent back to the beginning of the series with no memory of what just happened. The trope is potentially played straight, however, by the fact that Roland may well be able to FINALLY complete his quest this time round.]]
** Creator/StephenKing even warns readers who have reached the last chapter to stop reading if they want to have a conventional happy ending. The real ending [[BrokenBase divided fan opinion...just a little bit...]]

* ''Literature/TwentySixSixtySix'': Especially with Archimboldi, who had to fight in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, survive multiple injuries, change his identity, and forge his new career as a writer in post-war Europe. It's never revealed if he won the Nobel Prize, but he certainly earned it.

* ''Literature/TheActsOfCaine'', to a degree that can neither be safely summarized without spoiling everything nor summarized well in a manner that does the novel justice.

* ''Literature/CatchTwentyTwo'' is an OnlySaneMan story in a CrapsackWorld featuring KillEmAll, but still has a very uplifting ending.

* Probably the second most prominent feature of the works of Creator/JackChalker. Though they're often remembered more for their AuthorAppeal, all of the [[GenderBender Gender Benders]], [[ViralTransformation Viral Transformations]], {{Forceful Transformation}}s and just plain mutilations mean that it's a rare Chalker hero or heroine who survives their adventures physically or psychologically intact. There's even a soliloquy to this effect at the end of ''The Messiah Choice'' where a side character tells the hero (who had his genitals ''torn off'' while defeating the BigBad, who may have been the Devil incarnate) that real sacrifices must be horrific by definition and anything that isn't painful, life-altering and above all ''permanent'' doesn't count as a true sacrifice.