# The most depressing novel you ever read **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 6, 2016, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209 "2016-09-06T18:27:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Waltzes\_with\_Cacti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90ced4/32.png) [@Waltzes\_with\_Cacti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waltzes_with_Cacti)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/1 "2016-09-06T18:27:11Z")
What’s the most depressing work of fiction that you ever read? Mine is Dalton Trumbo’s 1939 novel _Johnny Got His Gun_ about a US serviceman who has lost his limbs and his voice in combat but whose mind is fully functioning. He is permanently relegated to a hospital bed, unable to move, unable to speak, his situation the very definition of hell. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/2 "2016-09-06T18:34:13Z")
John Steinbeck’s total oeuvre. Being forced to read _The Pearl_ then _Grapes of Wrath_ in school put me off reading books at all for many years. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/3 "2016-09-06T18:34:40Z")
_Jude the Obscure_. I win. Which is to say I lose :(. Fucking Thomas Hardy. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/4 "2016-09-06T18:35:09Z")
Yeah, _Jude the Obscure_. ---
**Author:** ![DxZero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@DxZero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DxZero)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/5 "2016-09-06T18:49:38Z")
Infinite Jest isn’t exactly a bag of laughs. I’ll have to go with that one. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/6 "2016-09-06T18:53:05Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > John Steinbeck’s total oeuvre. Being forced to read _The Pearl_ then _Grapes of Wrath_ in school put me off reading books at all for many years. I hear you - unfortunately, Steinbeck has that flavor of books. He has the other flavor - fun, whimsical stories like Tortilla Flat, Cannery Row, etc. Wish those were assigned more often in school! I have a few - I tend to call them “everybody dies” books. Hardy, some Dickens, the darker Steinbeck stuff. Oy. ---
**Author:** ![TheInimitableMaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@TheInimitableMaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheInimitableMaven)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/7 "2016-09-06T19:04:06Z")
I wholeheartedly agree that _The Pearl_ was depressing, but I actually liked it…it was among the few things that I was forced to read in school that I did enjoy and found interesting. My nominations would have to be _Great Expectations_ and _Les Miserables_. It’s one thing when the stories themselves are depressing, but when the actual reading is trudging and amplifies that depression, that’s another. Thank gawd I never had to read _Moby Dick_, _Of Mice And Men_, and _Jude The Obscure_… ---
**Author:** ![PaperBlob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/58956e/32.png) [@PaperBlob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PaperBlob)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/8 "2016-09-06T19:05:59Z")
Remains of the Day ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/9 "2016-09-06T19:11:30Z")
Of Human Bondage by Sumerset Maugham. ---
**Author:** ![janis\_and\_c0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janis_and_c0/32/21_2.png) [@janis\_and\_c0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janis_and_c0)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/10 "2016-09-06T19:16:50Z")
\*The Heart is a Lonely Hunter \* by Carson McCullers \*\*AKA \*\*_Life Sucks and Then You Die._ ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/11 "2016-09-06T19:23:17Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > _Jude the Obscure_. > > I win. Which is to say I lose :(. Fucking Thomas Hardy. _Tess of the D’ubervilles_ doesn’t have the greatest ending. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/12 "2016-09-06T19:28:10Z")
_The Road_ is almost completely relentless and grim. It’s a great book, but it ain’t exactly beach reading. ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/13 "2016-09-06T19:37:38Z")
_Night Train_ by Martin Amis. A murder-whodunit. Here’s the setup: A cop has to investigate a suspicious suicide by a woman who had everything going for her - genius astrophysicist, engaged to be married to a golden boy, etc. Turns out the victim had two bullets in her head, so it looks like murder. Here’s the solution, if you don’t want to read it (but think about reading it first!):The two bullets is a red herring - suicides do that, sometimes. The victim committed suicide out of hard-won nihilism based on her research (and other stuff in her life). The book ends with the cop-narrator, an on-the-wagon alcoholic, having been driven off the wagon and probably ready to off herself as well. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/14 "2016-09-06T19:37:38Z")
“The Jungle.” I’m not even sure how it ends, because I never finished it the three times I started it. It was too damn depressing to keep reading. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/15 "2016-09-06T19:45:53Z")
_Ethan Frome._ Fuck that novel so hard. ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/16 "2016-09-06T19:51:17Z")
I can’t recommend the entire book, but _The Passage_ by _Justin Cronin_ (which is a novel, though not literature) has one of the most depressing first Chapters EVER. The entire book is bleak but that first chapter. Damn, I’ve got something in my eye. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/17 "2016-09-06T19:53:24Z")
_Never Let Me Go_ was a real buzz kill. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/18 "2016-09-06T20:23:05Z")
_Atlas Shrugged_: tedious, boring, depressing and pointless. The more I read, the more I wanted to murder Ayn Rand and then shoot myself in the head. That was one fucked up woman. A contender might be _Wuthering Heights_, although I can’t decide if it was depressing or just crushingly boring. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/19 "2016-09-06T20:25:20Z")
“A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows” by Poul Anderson, pretty much the climax of the Dominic Flandry saga. Now, this is a brilliant book! The concepts and development are at the very peak of Anderson’s creativity. But, oh, hades, what a depressing book! He really whales on his protagonist, hurting him in ways I wouldn’t hurt my worst enemy. ---
**Author:** ![brainstall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@brainstall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brainstall)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/20 "2016-09-06T20:31:19Z")
\*We Need to Talk about Kevin \* Made me glad I never had children. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209.md?page=2)