Best Drinking Scenes In Books (PHOTOS)

In "Macbeth," Macduff famously asks, "What three things does drink especially provoke?" To which the porter replies, "Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes and unprovokes. It provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance. Therefore, much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery. It makes him, and it mars him; it sets him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him, and disheartens him; makes him stand to and not stand to; in conclusion, equivocates him in a sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him."

There are countless drinking scenes in literature. We asked you for your favorite scenes and here's what you've said so far.

Did we miss one of your favorites? Let us know in the comments!

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"The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway

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Pretty much the whole book is a drinking scene, and there are so many great ones from this novel. The bullfighting scene is a particularly good one. Brett's quote sums up drinking in this novel: "This wine is too good for toast-drinking, my dear. You don't want to mix emotions up with a wine like that. You lose the taste." - Brett, Chapter 7

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Pretty much the whole book is a drinking scene, and there are so many great ones from this novel. The bullfighting scene is a particularly good one. Brett's quote sums up drinking in this novel:
"This wine is too good for toast-drinking, my dear. You don't want to mix emotions up with a wine like that. You lose the taste."
- Brett, Chapter 7

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This Drinking Scene

Rank #2  |  Average: 4

I'd need to be drunk to appreciate this I'll drink to that!

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Comments

[Blubud08]

03:57 PM on 03/10/2011

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaimen. Aziraphale, an angel, and Crowley, a demon who was the snake that tricked Eve, get drunk discussing heaven and hell. First time a book actually made me laugh out loud while riding the bus. Such a great book, I wasn't even embaressed by the looks.

[Nancy Barwick Ordway]

09:16 AM on 03/10/2011

War and Peace. The young princes of St. Petersburg get so drunk that they tie a policeman to a bear and throw them in the river, then are so disgraced that they must leave town.

[macgyver51]

10:41 AM on 03/08/2011

Another Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls when they are drinking in the cave and the tension in thinking that Jordan is going to kill Pablo as they drink.

[algomajoker]

12:51 PM on 03/07/2011

The Thin Man. Cover to cover.

[TrotskyMemo]

11:29 AM on 03/07/2011

I know, here comes another "I can't believe they left out..." moment, but no Bukowski? The scene, in what I believe was Factotum, where Henry and his girlfriend are completely broke and they're drinking off of wine that THEY even consider too rancid, or the one from Ham on Rye where he outdrinks some gangsters in his teens. I dunno. I'm glad they remembered The Sun Also Rises though.

[freddychef]

03:56 AM on 03/07/2011

almost any book by hunter s thomsom (?) should be here!

[John Dav]

11:25 AM on 03/08/2011

None of us are familiar with Thomsom's work.

[freddychef]

04:48 PM on 03/08/2011

Hunter Stockton Thompson was an American journalist and author who wrote Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1971) and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 (1973).

He is credited as the creator of Gonzo journalism, a style of reporting where reporters involve themselves in the action to such a degree that they become central figures of their stories. He is known also for his unrepentant lifelong use of alcohol, LSD, mescaline, and cocaine (among other substances); his love of firearms; his long-standing hatred of Richard Nixon; and his iconoclastic contempt for authoritarianism. While suffering a bout of health problems, he committed suicide in 2005, at the age of 67.

"We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a saltshaker half-full of cocaine and a whole multicolored collection of uppers, downers, laughers, screamers . . . Also, a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge and I knew we'd get into that rotten stuff pretty soon .

[kerry1962]

03:41 PM on 03/06/2011

Joyce's The Dead, Maughmam's The Razor's Edge - especially the Parisien scenes.

[ErniePyle]

02:39 PM on 03/06/2011

John Dos Passos' U.S.A trilogy.

[Adrian Davidson]

02:37 AM on 03/06/2011

My favorite drinking book has to be The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley. It's a road-buddy type story, where even the bulldog gets drunk. Written with great gusto, humor and style. Drinking well features in much of Crumley's work.

I see the Irish are well represented in the above list, recognition at last.

[kopanko]

12:36 AM on 03/06/2011

"'Scenes' in literature/books"? Is that even correct?

"Scenes" in films/plays, yes. Are developments within the storyline in non-theatrical literature still actually referred to as "scenes"? Never heard that.

[John Dav]

07:07 PM on 03/06/2011

Point taken, but t's sort of a petty gripe.

[kopanko]

08:56 AM on 03/08/2011

Petty is in the eye of the beholder.

Were one of us to say that in conversation, I wouldn't think twice about it... however I think journalists (or people who publish pieces in journalistic forums) should hold themselves to a certain standard of mastery of the language and correct usage.

Is this in fact correct? I don't even know. It doesn't seem that it is, but I could be wrong. I'm just asking the question.

[levresamant]

10:56 PM on 03/05/2011

Where do these stupid topics come from?

[jkredwine]

10:53 PM on 03/05/2011

How about the final act of Long Days Journey Into Night?

Definitely one of my favorites.

[naschkatze]

10:56 AM on 03/06/2011

And those are real 'scenes'.

[Hstch07]

10:11 PM on 03/05/2011

Wow, who fact-checks these?
Gatsby, as a rule, didn't ever get drunk, even before confronting Tom.
In "Cathedral" the narrator only opens up to Robert after smoking pot. There was drinking, there always is in Carver stories, but it was the pod that did it.

[kerry1962]

03:39 PM on 03/06/2011

Yes, Carver always includes drinking. What we talk about when we talk about love ends with drink running out and the closing darkness. Brilliant. Of course, Carver himself eventually got sober.

[kerry1962]

03:42 PM on 03/06/2011

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love

[John Dav]

07:08 PM on 03/06/2011

Fat-checking? In HuffPo, which now openly wears its in-your-face corporatism on its sleeves? Yeah, right.

[tullydad]

09:24 PM on 03/05/2011

On the Road?

[kerry1962]

03:39 PM on 03/06/2011

Was going to note this one until I say your post.

[kerry1962]

03:44 PM on 03/06/2011

'Saw' your post. God - quitting smoking has affected my ability to spell, formulate full sentences....I feel like some of our better known pols. What's left - drooling?

[tullydad]

09:23 PM on 03/05/2011

Fear and Loathing in Las  Vegas?