Saddest/Most Depressing Novel You've Ever Read

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Originally Posted by virginiawang

Notes From the Underground is a novel written by Fyodor Dostosevsky. I read the book for many times, and each time I read it, I felt really sad and wondered again and again why the main character, a sick man, did not accept the girl, who lighted up his life almost immediately at the moment he fell in love with her. By the end of the novel, this man turned the girl out of his house and returned to his corner of darkness forever. He would stay in gloom and loneliness forever.
I would suggest anyone who has a wish to experiece a truly sad story to read the novel, but patience is needed here because the sick man grumbled quite a lot in the story. However the way he addressed people in general from his corner did reveal true feelings and elicit profound response from the readers.

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I agree- this was very sad, but it makes me want to read more of Dostoevsky- he is a wonderfully compassionate and smart writer. Notes from Underground was sad because of the ending. He chased after the girl, but it was too late when he changed his mind. Dostoevsky had a lot of insight into to mentally ill due to living next to a mental institution. He liked to visit the patients, and he treated them with respect. He also had a tragic life himself. I'd like to read something, but I won't read Crime and Punishment.

I must say Chinhua Achebe's 'Things Fall Apart'. British imperialism was bad but you never know how bad until you read a novel like that. Did you all know that the British smashed President Barak Obama's grandfather's testicles with iron bars when they imprisoned him in Kenya? It's no wonder our president sent back the bust of the warpig Churchill that was defiling the White House. It was Churchill who authorized that brutality.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.
It is a fiction related to some history on Nazi
The realism of their situation is very heartbreaking and sad
It is quite modernalised and i reccommend it very much
it is happy in some parts too ;))

The Road, by McCarthy. It has to be the single most depressing novel I have ever read. I also found it utterly pointless. I usually get something out of every good book I read, but I took nothing from this, except a burning hope that if an asteroid ever strikes earth it takes me with it.

Although Hardy has the bleaker world view, I would say Conrad is the more depressing. No matter how great the writer, their personality colours the prose. Conrad was not a happy man, and it shows. There is a dark, gloomy, clinically depressed presence looming over (or under or behind) his novels.

I also find Evelyn Waugh a bit depressing. His prose is sublime and he is very, very funny, yet there is a coldness, a lack of empathy and feeling, which borders on sadism.

As an antidote I would suggest P G Wodehouse.

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Originally Posted by crazefest456

I loved the way The Road was written but I think McCarthy could've done better with the ending...It seemed less bleak and more cute because of the father and the son; I would start forgetting that it's post-apocalypse..

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I agree about the ending. It is also not in the least believeable: the son wanders straight into the arms of a kind and protective family. The reality, as any reader knows, is that he would have starved to death or fallen into the hands of one of the roaming gangs of cannibals.

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Originally Posted by WICKES

The Road, by McCarthy. It has to be the single most depressing novel I have ever read. I also found it utterly pointless. I usually get something out of every good book I read, but I took nothing from this, except a burning hope that if an asteroid ever strikes earth it takes me with it.

Although Hardy has the bleaker world view, I would say Conrad is the more depressing. No matter how great the writer, their personality colours the prose. Conrad was not a happy man, and it shows. There is a dark, gloomy, clinically depressed presence looming over (or under or behind) his novels.

I also find Evelyn Waugh a bit depressing. His prose is sublime and he is very, very funny, yet there is a coldness, a lack of empathy and feeling, which borders on sadism.

As an antidote I would suggest P G Wodehouse.

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There has been much discussion of The Road on this forum and I have come to the same conclusion. It seems a pointless story that I have no intention of reading. As for Waugh, he was terribly cut up about his wife leaving him for another man and this coloured his writing to the extent that he includes a similar event in 'A Handful of Dust' and 'Sword of Honour' but that he is the funniest writer in English literature is hardly to be doubted. If there are doubts then a reading of 'Scoop' will dispel them.

Of mice and men- Steinbeck

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Originally Posted by Emil Miller

There has been much discussion of The Road on this forum and I have come to the same conclusion. It seems a pointless story that I have no intention of reading. As for Waugh, he was terribly cut up about his wife leaving him for another man and this coloured his writing to the extent that he includes a similar event in 'A Handful of Dust' and 'Sword of Honour' but that he is the funniest writer in English literature is hardly to be doubted. If there are doubts then a reading of 'Scoop' will dispel them.

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I would not recommend it. He writes beautifully and it is a very believeable depiction of what life would be like should there ever be a collapse of civilization. But it is one of the few novels I have taken nothing from. With most good books (and it is very good) I will put a pencil mark around particular passages and then return to them. With The Road I didn't feel that urge at all. In fact I gave the book to a charity shop once I had done with it. It makes Hardy and Conrad seem life-affirming. I know people will say "but you've misunderstood it. It is supposed to be life-affirming. The little boy retains a humanity and compassion in spite of everything". Yes, the child is well-drawn and loveable. But the darkness overpowers everything. Ashes and darkness are all that linger in my mind. Bleak, bleak stuff.

I love Evelyn Waugh. In fact his prose seems pretty much close to perfection. I also think Decline and Fall is the funniest novel I have ever read. But I doubt his wife's infidelity is responsible for that streak of cold, sadistic inhumanity in his novels. Waugh was quite simply a nasty little man with virtually no empathy. He takes real pleasure in killing off his characters in horrific ways.

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Originally Posted by WICKES

I would not recommend it. He writes beautifully and it is a very believeable depiction of what life would be like should there ever be a collapse of civilization. But it is one of the few novels I have taken nothing from. With most good books (and it is very good) I will put a pencil mark around particular passages and then return to them. With The Road I didn't feel that urge at all. In fact I gave the book to a charity shop once I had done with it. It makes Hardy and Conrad seem life-affirming. I know people will say "but you've misunderstood it. It is supposed to be life-affirming. The little boy retains a humanity and compassion in spite of everything". Yes, the child is well-drawn and loveable. But the darkness overpowers everything. Ashes and darkness are all that linger in my mind. Bleak, bleak stuff.

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This book is on my TBR list. But as you say it's bleak enough, I won't spend my money on it. Will borrow it from the library.

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak is a very sad read.

If this is a Man by Primo Levi. But also Notes from Underground and Death of Ivan Ilyich. All fantastic books, but all very sad.

Any tragedy by Shakespeare (in particular King Lear). Toni Morrison's Sula. the Bell Jar by Plath.

Also - a book that needs a special mention - Candide by Voltaire - the plot is really, really, really sad yet he uses a somewhat comedic tone. Black comedy I suppose

And - i forgot to mention - ANY BOOK by William Styron - they will literally dampen even the most optimist person in the world

The Hunchback of Notre Dame! Why have normal deaths when you can have horrible sadistic ones? And why not call the final chapter the most deceptive title ever?

I didn't cry but The Book Thief. A very sweet novel.

One that made me cry but I wouldn't necessarily call it depressing was a Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

I did bawl my eyes out years ago when I read The Bridges of Madison County. Also, Lullabies for Little Criminals.


One that is not a novel but I found to be super depressing and paranoid for months I had cancer was Gilda Radners It's always Something. Also on Borrowed Time, an AIDS memoir. Beautifully written but oh so depressing.

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Originally Posted by WICKES

The Road, by McCarthy. It has to be the single most depressing novel I have ever read.

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Could not agree more.

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Originally Posted by WICKES

The Road, by McCarthy. It has to be the single most depressing novel I have ever read. I also found it utterly pointless. I usually get something out of every good book I read, but I took nothing from this, except a burning hope that if an asteroid ever strikes earth it takes me with it.

Although Hardy has the bleaker world view, I would say Conrad is the more depressing. No matter how great the writer, their personality colours the prose. Conrad was not a happy man, and it shows. There is a dark, gloomy, clinically depressed presence looming over (or under or behind) his novels.

I also find Evelyn Waugh a bit depressing. His prose is sublime and he is very, very funny, yet there is a coldness, a lack of empathy and feeling, which borders on sadism.

As an antidote I would suggest P G Wodehouse.



I agree about the ending. It is also not in the least believeable: the son wanders straight into the arms of a kind and protective family. The reality, as any reader knows, is that he would have starved to death or fallen into the hands of one of the roaming gangs of cannibals.

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I have read three Joseph Conrad books: The Secret Agent, Lord Jim and The Heart of Darkness. They were all miserable. The Heart of Darkness was actually a short story in a collection of three. The other two short stories were miserable too.

Actually, I liked "The Road." I understand what you all are saying about the ending, but I don't really have any problem with that. With a book that deals with such a bleak topic, you have to have a smidgen of hope to leaven it. After all, hope is what gets us out of bed in the morning.