For the former as well. In Carrie, directed by William Wyler, Lawrence Olivier gives one of his finest performances as Hurstwood.
I agree…Thomas Hardy makesyou want to shoot yourself! TESS is just about the saddest story ever told. Does anybody know the poem by Hardy (I think it is “THE DARKLING THRUSH”) that was written at the end of the 19th century? It is really depressing…think about it…everybody is getting ready to celebrate a new century, and Hardy is already glooming it up!
You know - Cicada probably hit a big part of it for me. TH writes so beautifully (IMO) that I find joy in reading him.
Perhaps analogous to Richard Pryor being able to joke about a heart attack…
There is Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. Haven’t read it for years, but I don’t remember it as being the most uplifting experience.
(Tess, beautiful prose. Would have rather flogged myself. Only Hardy I’ve read.)
George Orwell is pretty depressing. Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm both end on depressing notes (1984 especially because he wrote it while he was dying of TB). Keep the Aspidistra Flying is depressing too.
Try Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome. Well before the end, you’ll find yourself wondering if he or you will be the first to kill himself and end both of your miseries.