I thought about this after watching a made for television adaptation of The Mayor of Casterbridge on A&E tonight. I read the novel about eight years ago and also Jude, the Obscure and both are easily the biggest downers I’ve ever read. I like both books a lot, but Hardy’s work can ruin your day fast!
Anyone else feel this way about Hardy’s work? I have a copy of Tess of the d’Urbervilles somewhere and I also want to read it, but I’m holding off on it right now in case it’s as tragic as his other stuff that I’ve read.
If you want Hardy that it isn’t quite as heavily-laden with doom and gloom, try The Well-Beloved or A Pair of Blue Eyes.
I was into Hardy when I was a gloomy teenage boy; it’s been quite a while since I read him. As I recall, the darkness is generally lightened with some quite lyrical pieces about the beauty of nature and so on. Sometimes, I think, he gets a little heavy handed with the ‘ironic twist of fate’ theme he has going on, but they’re still impressive books.
Ummm yeah on Tess… I havent read it but I was treated to a n indepth analyses of what happens once. Took care of my desire to read him. Actually I stay away from most “classics” for that very reason.
As far as your subject line goes I nominate John Steinbeck. icky icky icky
Nope, nobody more depressing. Jude the Obscure is the most depressing book I have ever read. I remember a few years ago it was made into the movie Jude, causing the book to be republished and displayed prominently in book stores. I thought “Oh boy, a lot of people really don’t know what they are in for.”
I didn’t find Tess as depressing, but it ain’t a jolly read.
That’s about how I felt about Tess too, but it’s the only Hardy book I ever read.
Anybody more depressing? Sarah Fielding (Tom’s sister) wrote David Simple and made the end utterly tragic… Frances Sheridan (mother of Richard) pretty put Miss Sidney Biddulph through a wring in “Memoirs of Miss Sidney Biddulph”.
But in a modern mode I vote for Connie May Fowler, author of “Before Women Had Wings.” I threw that book across the room about a quarter of the way through yelling “How many more effing depressing things are you going to have this girl go through.” I wanted to give it to the thrift shop with a note inside saying “Don’t actually read this.”
Hardy is mighty depressing. His characters are mercilessly ground down by fate. His characters have no way out of the mire into which they are sinking. Jude cannot rise above his peon state. Tess is forever tainted by her bloodline and her seduction.
Hardy’s character have limited freedom of choice. That’s what make his books so sad.
Good God, I hope there isn’t anything written more relentlessly depressing than Jude the Obscure. Frank Norris kind of tried in McTeague, but if you’ve read Hardy, it’s distinctly minor-league.
Jerzy Kozinski. There’s a wonderful drawing by Edward Sorel of Kozinski trying to cheer up aging, dying Holocaust survivors by giving them personal readings from his novels–with unfortunate results.
Sure, Hardy is a pessimist. But he, at least, has talent and an authentic world view, steeped in HUMAN experience. If you want depressing, just crack open a book by authors like Jay McInerny or Bret Ellis and read one paragraph. That’s TRUE despair.
I like Hardy a lot and don’t want want to find any “happy” books he may have written, I just wondered if I was alone in thinking that his material is sad as hell. I read Jude the Obscure in utter disbelief at the constant suffering Hardy subjected poor Jude to. I mean, he finally gets to be with Sue and things only get worse!
Nanook, I read Bright Lights, Big City and American Psycho…ugh, what crap.
Far from the Madding Crowd is one of my all-time faves, and I love the Mayor of C as well. What is inherently or excessively depressing about Wessex Tales? And I’m currently re-reading all of Greene for at least the 3d time.
So what does that say about me?
Or perhaps you shouldn’t judge an author on the basis of one - or even two works…
Thank you, AG, for your enlightening participation; please be careful not to allow the swinging doors to strike you as you go along your merry way.
Hardy’s pretty depressing, but nobody, in my experience, touches Jim Thompson for sheer unredeemable hopelessness; with the possible exception of Dorothy Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House.
Lighten up! I was just giving my opinion on a book! A bad book at that.
Oh, and I would like to know what relevance your statement had to the thread topic. And as for “please be careful not to allow the swinging doors to strike you as you go along your merry way.” Not exactly original now, was it?
AG, please continue this hijack in this thread, if you’d like to continue it at all. Otherwise, let’s please return this thread to its regular schedule. K?
As soon as I saw the thread title I knew that someone else had watched The Mayor of Casterbridge. I had the same reaction – Hardy sure is depressing, isn’t he.
But I also remembered that at one point I fell in love with the Wessex stories and eagerly read all of them. The only one that truly disturbed me was Jude. They do have a certain lyricism even in the depths of despair. Hardy’s characters all seem to be one with the Wessex landscape, subject to the same seemingly arbitrary natural forces that causes crops to thrive or fail.
Hardy writes dark novels, but they don’t depress me as much as some others, particularly ones which revel in the evil perpetrated by man rather than lamenting it.
His poetry is even more depressing. From a breakup poem: “The smile on her face was the deadest thing alive enough to die.” (Or something like that . . . quoting from memory.) Of course, even in those times I guess breakin’ up was hard to do.
But at least Hardy could write. Truly depressing: Theodore Dreiser. Depressing themes and godawful depressing writing. Driving yourself through Sister Carrie or An American Tragecy–well, for the latter, just see the movie.