What is the most depressing novel you've ever read?

The Russian Concubine is pretty darn depressing. I see the other books the author has written, and I’m almost afraid to read them…I don’t usually go for depressing novels and had no clue it would be that way.

“Jude the Obscure” by Tom Hardy

(this one’s a play sorry but I read it) Long Day’s Journey into Night by Eugene O’Neill

“Candide” by Voltaire (partly because it was a pain in the ass to read and I was expecting a satisfied ending but boy was I WRONG)

And then there’s the novel I wrote when I was 12 (mini novel)...100 pages, size 10 font. The 2 main characters die after a spiritual transformation.

I haven’t read it but I hear A child called it is pretty depressing

Probably Johnny Got His Gun.

Norwegian Wood was really sad but I would necessarily call it depressing. Perhaps this because I enjoyed it so much; depressing’ seems to have a negative connotation.

Definitely “We have to talk about Kevin” – Lionel Shriver.

Tideland. I know it’s sort of a Southern Gothic/fantastic novel, but still. Oh, Bob, it was depressing.

1984 – George Orwell

“The Cancer Ward” by Solzhenitsyn

The Grapes of Wrath and The Virgin Suicides.

Independent People by Halldor Laxness made me cry. I’ve never cried at a book before or since. It wasn’t exactly depressing, it was just beautiful and sad. Easily the saddest book i’ve ever read.

The Invention of Morel – Casares

Morel is a name, I didn’t spell moral wrong.

Jane Eyre.

Tess of the D’Ubervilles was pretty depressing.

@lilgiraffe Yes! I was gonna say We Need to Talk About Kevin. I could talk for hours about the many ways that book depressed and angered me.

I would say ’“a child called it:”, very sad.

“Of Mice and Men” was pretty depressing. That’s the one that comes to mind with me.

The Fixer by Bernard Malamud.

1984, Of Mice and Men

@seekingwolf Why was Candide a pain in the ass to read? and I thought the ending was good…

Johnny Got His Gun is one of my favorite books of all time. It is pretty depressing, though. And A Child Called ‘It’ is downright soul-crushing.

There’s a movie adaptation coming out of it this autumn, but Push, oh, no, ACK! Just so depressing.

“The Girl Next Door” was more disturbing than depressing, but still fits the bill for me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_Next_Door_(novel)

The Stand by Stephen King. I quit after a few hundred pages.

Pretty much all of them. I don’t read via impulse.