sad stories about life

[Veva]

Hi, I am looking for some short stories or novels that deal with depression or tragic way of looking at life, so if you have any suggestions, please I really need this..... thanks for anything

[islandclimber]

A Fine Balance by ROhinton Mistry is an overwhelmingly tragic and depressing novel and quite a good one at that..

many Chekhov short sotries would fall under this category.. a few would be:

Misery
Vanka
Sleepy
Ward 6

Pessoa's The Book of Disquiet is rather depressing in its own way..

Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure and Tess of the D'Urbervilles are both exceedingly tragic and depressing.. Jude has one of the most depressing moments in all of literature in it in my opinion..

[DeadAsDreams]

Journey To The End of The Night by Louis Ferdinand Celine

[mayneverhave]

The misanthropy of Hamlet, the nihilism of King Lear, the absurdity of Waiting for Godot and Kafka, plus countless other writers whose works have just a mood or undertone of despair - Dostoevsky, Camus, Faulkner, Tolstoy, Eliot, etc.

Usually pessimism, at least to me, tends to be more moving than something positive - but this is not always true, obviously. Take a look at Keats's "On first looking into Chapman's Homer", but then look at "Ode to a Nightingale", for a return to the depressed.

[andave_ya]

how about Crime and Punishment?

[crystalmoonshin]

I'd like to recommend Natsume Soseki's "Kokoro", as well as Yukio Mishima's "Thirst for Love".

[mona amon]

Villette- A neurotic protagonist who is depressed quite a bit of the time.

[kelby_lake]

Long Day's Journey Into Night
The Good Soldier

[Cailin]

I second Jude the Obscure and would also suggest Death of a Salesman even though it's a play and you specified a novel or short story

[subterranean]

Both Beneath the Wheel and Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse are tragic stories for me. Jude the Obscure is one of the finest ones when it comes to tragedy, I think

[aeroport]

If you want something modern, Raymond Carver would probably suit your needs. Basically all of his stories, from what I understand, but try 'A Small Good Thing'.

[ev105]

I would say "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy