the most depressing book you've ever read?

[G L Wilson]

Richard Dawkins's God Delusion. As the Germans say, "The Devil always sh**s on the biggest pile."

[Delta40]

Interesting.
The more depressing a book is the less attractive it is to me.
I work your opposite way I can't stand depressive books.

Then it is merely your personal taste so limit yourself in what you read but literature ought to cover the human condition in all its states and depressing tragedies are certainly one of them and that is why it is justified.

[Gladys]

Now as for Dostoevsky's The Idiot, well now that's a different story altogether... Truly heart wrenching to the point where I was so depressed halfway through the book that I had to put it off and read it all the way from the beginning again to the end.

I found The Idiot inspirational, whereas Crime and Punishment was unremittingly dreadful, including its rather unconvincing ending.

I still get kind of depressed when I think about Shelley's Frankenstein... Poor monster.

Madame Bovary is pretty depressing...

The alienated monster is a tragic indictment of you and me. As for Madame Bovary, the grim ending following the inevitable suicide of Emma was, for me last month, a pleasant surprise. I had fully expected a more pedestrian ending.

George Eliot's The Mill on Floss, and particularly the plight of poor Maggie Tulliver and the hunchback Philip Wakem, was woefully depressing.

[KCurtis]

Of Mice and Men - devastating.

I agree, beautiful story, but I can't read it again. I love Steinbeck, and I'm reading him again.

[FranzS]

I agree about "1984" and "Metamorphosis". And yet they were among the most interesting books I've read.

"Tess" is depressing too, and yet the pace and sense of drama had me gripped.

In fact all the novels I've enjoyed most have been quite depressing. You can't be deep without looking the sadness of existence in the face: most stories in which people are cheerful and happy are pretty boring to read. (Jane Austen and David Lodge manage to buck the trend, but not many others.)

I think insight and a sense of dislocation with the world around you are fundamentally linked. When you're happy, you don't want to think, and when you don't think, you have nothing interesting to say.

Also, part of the appeal of sad books is that they arouse feelings of sympathy in the reader. That's how I feel about "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" and "King Lear". Paradoxically, that feeling of sympathy is a kind of emotional release and almost uplifting.

On the other hand, if I'm feeling really low myself, I can't bear to read sad books. There are limits.

[Kyle]

I'm not too sure if I should post this. The books I have found the most depressing were fairly recent: Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle and Running With Scissors by Augustine Burroughs.

[Shevek]

I still get kind of depressed when I think about Shelley's Frankenstein... Poor monster.

I'll seriously second Frankenstein (the first edition) as the most depressing book I've read. I've always found a glimmer of hope in 'dark' and tragic books; even 1984 had its "place where there is no darkness." But I gleaned no sense of hope by the end of Frankenstein. The monster's persecution was depressing, but Frankenstein's decline just topped off my feeling of utter hopelessness for the human condition.

[tonywalt]

The Pale King by David Foster Wallace is easily the most depressing (and damn long) book I have read, but well written. Of course it was published posthumously - after David took his own life.

Whilst reading the book, I can see his depression, which apparently was quite severe during the last months of his life.

He was arguably the best writer/mind/intellect of the current generation, but if you are looking for his more conventional work you would have to read stuff like "Shipping Out" (published free online by Harpers) which is in my opinion the greatest short non-fiction piece ever written. Damn funny and with piercing intellect and humour.

[PabloQ]

I'll make a distinction between books that were sad (Of Mice and Men, Great Expectations) and depressing. My winner for most depressing is, by far, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

[ralfyman]

Jude the Obscure

Also, Conspiracy Against the Human Race.

[cacian]

Jude the Obscure

I agree on this one.

Also, Conspiracy Against the Human Race.

Never heard of it.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Some of the first books that came to mind were Of Mice and Men (such a great book), Blood Meridian, The Slave Narrative of Fredrick Douglass (it does ha e a redemptive ending, but it's still a depressing book), Night, The Things They Carried, Notes from the Underground, Darkness at Noon, Lord of the Flies, Things Fall Apart, and Heart of Darkness (one of my favorites). Obviously, I don't necessarily find a depressive tone to be a negative aspect.

I haven't read it, but I'm surprised no one has mentioned The Sorrows of Young Werther, a book notorious for depressing people so much they committed suicide.

[Summer M]

The Catcher in the Rye. The thought that so many people like that book depresses me to no end.

[kev67]

Joseph Conrad was pretty depressing. The most depressing of the three I read was Lord Jim. Then most of Orwell's books were depressing too, some only slightly depressing, others very depressing. Burmese Days was my favourite of his fictional works. Even though it was very depressing, more happened than in some of them. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck was very, very depressing.

[caddy_caddy]

I agree on Metamorphosis,
Beloved , king Lear , and Anna Karenina

if u wanna get really depressed and sick read " The Impressive Darkness " by
Tahar Ben Jelloun, a Moroccan poet and writer