So what are some good biographies of people whose love lives are miserable.
People who can’t get a date
People who only get dates with shitty, incompatible people
People who are in miserable relationships
etc. I need to feel better about myself.
Much of Charles Bukowski’s work (that I’ve read) is, I think, autobiographical in nature. Shitty lives and shitty relationships, punctuated by a lot of drinking and vomit.
Addendum: do the biographies have to be about real people? If not, Tess of the d’Urbervilles will definitely do the job.
Clergymen and -women? No love lives to speak of, 'cept with the Lord.
I seem to recall that Nietzsche’s love life wasn’t a bed of roses.
It’s generally believed that Isaac Newton died a virgin, though whether or not he was miserable about that supposed fact I couldn’t say…
A lot of famous people (like a lot of non-famous people) have gone through divorces, and divorces are generally pretty miserable.
Richard Ellmann’s bio of Oscar Wilde is considered the definitive one (at least to date). Or, you can go autobiographical and read De Profundis (wiki with link to full text). Or you can see the Stephen Fry/Jude Law movie.
Summer of Deliverance is Christopher Dickey’s biography of his father, James Dickey and exceptionally depressing (I couldn’t read it all- had to start skimming). Dickey’s life and most of his relationships were miserable due to his own alcoholism and other issues and to his much younger final wife’s cocaine addiction (Dickey essentially kidnapped his much younger half-sister to get her out of the household- he later received custody).
Agreed. Fascinating, compelling, maddening, and very depressing.
Any of Henry VIII’s wives.