The Bluest Eye. The most depressing book ever. A necessary book, but depressing.
The Bluest Eye. The most depressing book ever. A necessary book, but depressing.
"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its' own reason for existing." ~ Albert Einstein
"Remember, no matter where you go, there you are." Buckaroo Bonzai "Some people say I done alright for a girl." Melanie Safka
The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It grips you by the throat and never lets up. The prose are beautiful, at times, but mainly, the plot is driven by the coldness of the never-ending white winter sky. I am not sure if there is any hope to be found in this book, but the reader may still yearn. It is a depressing book that will captivate you until he end.
Most of Thomas Hardy's novels are depressing
True, though how developed a character could a person become who really inhabited the world in that book? For this reason, for me he rings fairly true.Originally Posted by Paulclem
I'm a huge fan of Hardy's (as you can tell from my signature). The Mayor of Casterbridge ranks up there with the more depressing masterpieces. When the main character, Michael Henchard dies, his daughter Elizabeth-Jane finds his will. It still gives me chills:
MICHAEL HENCHARD'S WILL
"That Elizabeth-Jane Farfrae be not told of my death, or
made to grieve on account of me.
"& that I be not bury'd in consecrated ground.
"& that no sexton be asked to toll the bell.
"& that nobody is wished to see my dead body.
"& that no murners walk behind me at my funeral.
"& that no flours be planted on my grave,
"& that no man remember me.
"To this I put my name.
MICHAEL HENCHARD
A just conception of life is too large a thing to grasp during the short interval of passing through it.
Thomas Hardy
Crime and Punishment is pretty depressing. I remember while reading it and for a few weeks after I was a "little off".
Orwell provides enough time for development and closure as opposed to Ernest Hemingway in A Farewell to Arms. I had no problem with 1984. In fact, it was the second half of the book that got me interested in it.
It's a very depressing book, but I think that's why it's so memorable. If the end had been happy, I don't think it would have left such a huge impact in literature. As for what book depresses me, I think Great Expectations was pretty depressing - if only because of the whole wedding that never happened thing. I mean, why would someone waste their lives sitting in a wedding dress waiting for the guy that she never got to marry? Move on, meet someone else. I hated that book.
But I love 1984 and Animal Farm so I guess the depressing theme evens out.
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes is a book I found to be very depressing. Funny thing is that the book talks about the process of depression in an unintentional way.
If you want a truly depressing book try the '120 days of Sodom' by the Marquis De Sade.
After a while the depression sets in when you have to read another tale about 'he ate what ???'
Those who have survived the book will know....
A truly sick writer, that de Sade.
But you, cloudless girl, question of smoke, corn tassel
You were what the wind was making with illuminated leaves.
ah, I can say nothing! You were made of everything.
_Pablo Neruda
It is presumptuous for readers to expect a book to make them "feel good."
Yeah I was pretty bummed about Winston's fate, I didn't think they could break him at first, he resisted it like a champ until he literally broke and at the end when he saw Julia, that was depressing. It just wasn't a hero conquers all kind of story, it was more realistic that way.
Well, that book had to be what it was, but it is a dark, dark book. Thought provoking I can take, but its just hard to watch people's souls destroyed in a novel.
"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its' own reason for existing." ~ Albert Einstein
"Remember, no matter where you go, there you are." Buckaroo Bonzai "Some people say I done alright for a girl." Melanie Safka
Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler is a depressing book about Communism, a system that appears to tick all the right boxes and invariably ends up ticking none. Set in an unnamed USSR it's the story of Rubashov, a revolutionary who is eventually executed by the society he was instrumental in creating. Unlike Orwell's allegorical 1984, Koestler's book tells it straight and is ranked eighth on the Modern Library list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.
"L'art de la statistique est de tirer des conclusions erronèes a partir de chiffres exacts." Napoléon Bonaparte.
"Je crois que beaucoup de gens sont dans cet état d’esprit: au fond, ils ne sentent pas concernés par l’Histoire. Mais pourtant, de temps à autre, l’Histoire pose sa main sur eux." Michel Houellebecq.
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