Which classic author has the highest body count?

[KEV67]

I wonder if it's Mrs Gaskell. I don't think she is the most miserable of the Victorian authors, but her mortality rate is similar to a World War I novel.

[Raven]

HG Wells? The War of the Worlds has to have a pretty high body count!

[frankie]

That's a really interesting question! I wonder if anyone's done actual research on it. 

[KEV67]

On 05/08/2017 at 3:30 PM, Raven said:

HG Wells? The War of the Worlds has to have a pretty high body count!

 

That's a bit different. Those people weren't named characters on the whole. There was the curate and one or two scientific types at the start. Otherwise the victims were just part of an anonymous mass.

[ian]

It has to be Shakespeare, right?

[willoyd]

Thomas Hardy has to be in there somewhere.  Dickens's body count is not insubstantial either!

 

(I find it hard to think of Shakespeare as an 'author', simply because he wrote plays. I know, I know, but for me author smacks of prose and books).

Edited October 1, 2017 by willoyd

[ian]

14 hours ago, willoyd said:

Thomas Hardy has to be in there somewhere.  Dickens's body count is not insubstantial either!

 

(I find it hard to think of Shakespeare as an 'author', simply because he wrote plays. I know, I know, but for me author smacks of prose and books).

 

Actually, I'd agree with that, but he was the first person I thought of when it came to body count.  I'm actually quite surprised that the internet couldn't immediately answer this question for us. There appears to be lots of websites that tell me the body count in films.

[willoyd]

8 hours ago, ian said:

 

Actually, I'd agree with that, but he was the first person I thought of when it came to body count.  I'm actually quite surprised that the internet couldn't immediately answer this question for us. There appears to be lots of websites that tell me the body count in films.

 

You're so right - his body count stats must be pretty good (or do I mean 'bad'?!).