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I'll second that. Dreiser was truly gifted in writing a depressing piece. His American Tragedy does justice to its title.Quote:
Originally Posted by LoveToFreeRead
Besides Dreiser's works, I found Native Son by R. Wright to be a very saddening story.
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by carson mccullers.
I admit that I almost cried at the end of Gone with the wind. :blush:
The Bell jar by Sylvia Plath and Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse were also quite depressing at some moments. :(
The end of Crime and Punishment was quite sad, but still not that much as some of you say.
Some of them:
The counterfeiters by Andre Gide
Light in August by Faulkner
Most of Emile Zola's novels
Despair by Coetzee
the list goes on and on!
"Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Kundera is a tear-jerker, especially with all the death in it. "Sophie's Choice," too.
Sadako Wants To Live. Very sad.
While I ultimately find their description of the human condition as well as the forces (both man-made and other) that destroy it to be uplifting, I would say Emile Zola's novels.
It is often the most sympathetic charcters that have the worst things happen to them at the end.
L'Assomir, L'Terre, The Masterpiece, Germinal, and L'Bete Humaine are all examples of this.
Zola is a great, great, great writer though.
Most things I have read by Thomas Hardy was depressing. ;)
But it his books can put you to sleep, he uses way too many words, when sometimes one word would have exsplain it just as well. XP
I immediately thought of 3 books and bizarrely they all involve birds…
Storm boy – Colin Thiele. It’s a kids book so while it is unbelievably sad, it does have a slight ray of hope at the end
The Snow Goose - Paul Gallico. Some manage to find some hope in the end, I don’t know where
A Kestrel for a Knave – Barry Hines. This book received the ultimate affirmation of depression- it was made into a film by Ken Loach (Kes).
The aforementioned miserable stories had been told by others,and I perceive they are literally miserable as I had read some before.
There is this book,named P.S I love you.
I wander if anyone read this book's introduction,the introduction had apparently grieved me and I have convulsive spasms.This book is chiefly about grief of losing a loved one.
Remains of the Day sad, tearfully sad and hits a mark agree that McEwan's amst. did not merit.
This one isn't a classic, like I usually read, nor did it even make it onto my favorites list, but 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close' was really profound; it's weeks later and I'm still dreaming about it.
If you want a quick read, the original fairy tales by HC Andersen can be found on here, and they're superb, and very tear-worthy. My personal favorites are The Little Match Girl, The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, The Brave Tin Soldier, Story of a Mother and The Happy Family.
Another really great short story is Barrie's 'The Inconsiderate Waiter' You can find it on here, too. It actually wrenches 2x the tears the second time around!
Who's it by? there are apparently several books by that titleQuote:
Originally Posted by wilbur lim
A Farewell to Arms is probably the most directly depressing novel I have read. The Sound and the Fury also depresses me, but it requires a bit of imagination on my part.
Speaking of which, in keeping with Hardy - "Drummer Hodge" is also fascinatingly depressing.
It is ultimately by Cecelia Ahern.Quote:
Originally Posted by mercymyqueen
a thousand splendid suns by khaled hosseini- definitely sad
also jude the obscure by thomas hardy
both big tearjerkers
:bawling:
Vanity Fair. So depressingly imperfect characters who keep sabotaging their own chances at happiness. I still can't think about it without getting angry at the characters, that's how sad/depressing it is.
The ones that spring to mind for me are
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
The Silent Cry by Kenzaburo Oe
The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal
Interesting. Read this one only two weeks ago and thought it was one of the worst books I had ever read. It was full of cliches, banking highly on readers' feelings of sympathy and the characters were lacking depth. It was a very, very, very poor read for me!Quote:
Originally Posted by wilbur lim
The Idiot
The Good Soldier
The Ballad of the Sad Cafe
The only correct answer to this question is "Journey to the End of the Night" by L.F. Celine. Well, ok. It might not be the ONLY correct answer, but the fact that it hasn't been mentioned yet and we're on page four of the thread is nothing short of cardinal sin.
A distant second would be "Miss Lonelyhearts" by Nathaniel West.
Yup.
I second that. If I were a cynical person, I might suggest that one of the reasons that book was ever published was because Cecilia Ahern is the daughter of our former Prime Minister (Taoiseach), Bertie Ahern. :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Scheherazade
My vote for biggest tearjerker is Jude the Obscure and most recently, Half of a Yellow Sun's poignancy brought tears to my eyes.
Hardy books generally make me sad:
"Jude the Obscure" - several scenes are hard to take.
"The Woodlanders" - I always cry actual tears and for the film version.
"The Mayor of Casterbridge" - the ending simply tears me appart no matter how many times I revisit it. I cry at that point in the minseries and I recall crying while reading the novel. It is mostly the ending that upsets me so.
"Sophie's Choice" and "Remains of the Day" I have only seen in film versions, but both I find to be so totally depressing. The first depresses me the most, but the second makes me cry bucketfulls.
I love both these books but find them totally depressing:
"Wuthering Heights"
"The Scarlet Letter"
I read:
"Grapes of Wrath" in high school and felt that was pretty depressing also.
I agree with one poster who said that "Othello" is depressing. I think that ending also touches me more than the other plays, although I am a big "Hamlet" fan and I have to say that I find the whole of "King Lear" training and depressing. "MacBeth" is depressing to me as well. Of course, I have seen the film verion, done by Orson Wells, and it is a very dark and depressing film indeed and left me with that lasting impression. The play is pretty depressing though, with all the people being killed, even the children; you have to admit that is downright depressing and lacks any mirth.
I would have to say "Geek Love". The entire story is quite depressing just from the subject manner and the tragedy of the character's existance. I actually stopped and started reading it several times before finishing it because it always made me so down while reading it.
A Tale of Two Cities... it came close to making me cry... I was affected.
A far second is A Thousand Splendid Suns (K. Hossieni) It was just depressing, made me angry, filled me with indignation, and I was deeply saddened. I think it is a must read out of most newer books.
Every time this thread pops up I'm always reminded of The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford. The opnning sentence is "This is the saddest story I have ever heard." This is a great novel by the way and has nothing to do with war or soldiers. I highly recommend it. Actually here's the openning paragraph:
Quote:
THIS IS THE SADDEST STORY I have ever heard. We had known the
Ashburnhams for nine seasons of the town of Nauheim with an
extreme intimacy—or, rather with an acquaintanceship as loose
and easy and yet as close as a good glove’s with your hand. My wife
and I knew Captain and Mrs Ashburnham as well as it was possible
to know anybody, and yet, in another sense, we knew nothing at all
about them. This is, I believe, a state of things only possible with
English people of whom, till today, when I sit down to puzzle out
what I know of this sad affair, I knew nothing whatever. Six months
ago I had never been to England, and, certainly, I had never sounded
the depths of an English heart. I had known the shallows.
I don’t mean to say that we were not acquainted with many English
people. Living, as we perforce lived, in Europe, and being, as
we perforce were, leisured Americans, which is as much as to say
that we were un-American, we were thrown very much into the
society of the nicer English. Paris, you see, was our home. Somewhere
between Nice and Bordighera provided yearly winter quarters
for us, and Nauheim always received us from July to September.
You will gather from this statement that one of us had, as the
saying is, a “heart”, and, from the statement that my wife is dead,
that she was the sufferer.
I just started that book. I'm only on page 50 or something so it hasn't been too bad, I mean, it's war and it's horribly bleak but I don't think I have been hit with the full force yet.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jordon
Virgil, I really loved that book, The Good Soldier and I've always thought I should get more books by that author.
Oh yes I agree, Journey to the End of the Night, is simply, crushing.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jordon
someone surely has to say steinbeck's "of mice and men"!
there...i just did....
I have just finished reading " The House of Mirth" by Edith Wharton. I think it is one of the sad movie which reflect the materialistic society during the roaring twenties. Lily Bart is considered one of the girl who is obsessed with the materialism but equally important is she is like a decorative object of men that time. Sadly, she has to face the failure when she must work like the labourer in the millinery although she used to despise those who are in the working class. Finally, she is dead because of overdosing because of the insomnia.
In my opinion,from the beginning to the end,Lily hardly finds happiness in her life. For example, she is orphan and adopted by her aunt who barely leaves her property, then she is disappointed in her love.
Everybody who has read this novel,what do you think about it ?
:yawnb:
The main thing about it is that it just never lets you up for air. four to five hundred pages of bad experiences with humanity, non stop, no rays of sunshine. As DeadAsDreams put it, the book is simply "crushing".Quote:
Originally Posted by Idril
I know, I just finished it. Great, isn't it? Seems more recent than 1910s.Quote:
Originally Posted by Virgil
"Night" by Eli Weisel - devastating, although hopeful in some respect.
Yes. I wish we could read it here on lit net as a book forum read.Quote:
Originally Posted by kelby_lake
Boll's The Silent Angel and Harrison's Signs of Life are respectively the two saddest and most depressing novels I've personally ever read.
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is one of the saddest books I have read.
Lord of the Flies is one of the most depressing (and I love it because of it!)
couldnt agree with you more!Quote:
Originally Posted by Scheherazade
My thoughts exactly!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Cailin
I love most books and have rarely found one that I couldn't enjoy for some reason or another but I thought that We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates was just so depressing that I could barely continue to live after I read it.
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. It's the kind of book that leaves you with no hope whatsoever. I read it about a year ago and it still makes me sad.
Knut Hamsun's Hunger