1. The scene of Stalin's death agony was grotesque.

2. So there you have the “serious” novel, dying in a very long-drawn-out fourteen-volume death-agony, and Absorbedly, childishly interested in the phenomenon “Did I feel a twinge in my little toe, or didn’t I?” asks every character of Mr

3. Agony (n.) late 14c., "mental suffering" (especially that of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane), from Old French agonie, agoine "anguish, terror, death Agony" (14c.), and directly from Late Latin agonia, from Greek agonia "a struggle for victory" (in wrestling, etc.), in a general sense "exercise, gymnastics;" also of mental struggles, "Agony, anguish."