# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/21 "2016-09-06T20:31:55Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > _The Road_ is almost completely relentless and grim. It’s a great book, but it ain’t exactly beach reading. Great book, but one of those where you know it’s not going to end up right. _Atonement_. And the movie’s no lark, either. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/22 "2016-09-06T20:32:37Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > _The Road_ is almost completely relentless and grim. It’s a great book, but it ain’t exactly beach reading. This is what I came in to say. So +1. Also, **Flowers for Algernon** and/or **Of Mice and Men.** ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/23 "2016-09-06T20:34:28Z")
> [@Waltzes\_with\_Cacti](#): > > 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. Isn’t this what Metallica based their song _[One](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM8bTdBs-cw)_ upon? ---
**Author:** ![moojja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@moojja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moojja)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/24 "2016-09-06T20:36:36Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > “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. That book actually has an upbeat ending, if you’re a communist. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/25 "2016-09-06T20:41:19Z")
> [@Waltzes\_with\_Cacti](#): > > 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. This is the novel that popped into my head when I read the thread title. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/26 "2016-09-06T20:43:08Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > _Ethan Frome._ > > Fuck that novel so hard. Lots of people hate it, and I agree it isn’t uplifting. However, Ethan’s quiet shy, hopeless and almost desperate affection spoke to nerdy shy teenage Sitnam. For all the strong feelings Ethan has almost nothing happens in the book, just like real life. I found comfort in not being the only one in a J. Alfred Prufrock-like existence. Now, something like _The Road_, that’ll make you slit your wrists. ---
**Author:** ![Eclipse\_Chaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Eclipse\_Chaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eclipse_Chaser)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/27 "2016-09-06T20:47:59Z")
On the Beach by Neville Shute. Humanity is wiped out by a nuclear conflict. Can’t get much more depressing than that! ---
**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, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/28 "2016-09-06T20:49:05Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > A contender might be _Wuthering Heights_, although I can’t decide if it was depressing or just crushingly boring. I couldn’t care about the characters enough to be depressed by their predicament. Another book for the trash heap. I’d nominate _Crime and Punishment_, which I loved but never finished because it made me want to shoot myself. _The Confusions of Young Torless_ is another one, loosely based on the personal experience of the author. I liked it quite a bit when I read it, but it’s basically about some boys who physically and sexually torture a weaker boy, and the protagonist’s (bystander participant’s) struggle to understand what he’s done through the lens of existentialism. When I had a course on existentialism in college, my professor said, ‘‘If you have clinical depression, do not take this course.’’ I took it anyway. Those were my more masochistic days. _Nausea, The Stranger, Heart of Darkness_, etc. etc. I eat that stuff up when I can stomach it. I did have to withdraw from the course, though, because prof was absolutely right. It was too much for an already depressed person to handle. If we’re talking about stuff I’ve recently read, _Ender’s Game_ is almost intolerably depressing to me right now. He’s just a boy. [QUOTE=Sitnam] Lots of people hate it, and I agree it isn’t uplifting. However, Ethan’s quiet shy, hopeless and almost desperate affection spoke to nerdy shy teenage Sitnam. For all the strong feelings Ethan has almost nothing happens in the book, just like real life. I found comfort in not being the only one in a J. Alfred Prufrock-like existence. [/QUOTE] It’s okay, I understand what it’s like to love books people hate. One of my favorites is _Catcher in the Rye_, for a similar reason. Holden was a traumatized kid expected to act like everything was fine. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/29 "2016-09-06T20:51:33Z")
I’ll add **The Long Walk** by Stephen King to the list, despite thinking its one of the best American novels ever written. ---
**Author:** ![Chingon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chingon/32/17645_2.png) [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/30 "2016-09-06T20:58:01Z")
Seeing by Saramago (especially if you read Blindness) 2666 by Bolaño ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/31 "2016-09-06T20:59:09Z")
Mine’s a little bizarre. It’s hard to explain why, but a potboiler sado-romance named _Two_ sent me into such a rage that I tried to tear the book in half. It was around the house, half-tear across it, for years. It might have been that it was button-pushing crap (think Fifty Shades, forty years ago), or that I was really too young to have read it, but something about the mildly sadistic “get away closer” romance at the heart of the story made me angry-sick. I’ve never been able to find it since; it must have been from a very minor genre publisher. Other novels have left me depressed, but not more than they should have, if you know what I mean. That one still bothers me, and I don’t think I can recall a specific paragraph from it now. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/32 "2016-09-06T21:01:03Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > Isn’t this what Metallica based their song _[One](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM8bTdBs-cw)_ upon? Yes. For me it was _The Bell Jar_, which I read when I moved to college, alone for the first time, in a dorm room with no roommate. It was not a happy time. ---
**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, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/33 "2016-09-06T21:02:31Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > I’ll add **The Long Walk** by Stephen King to the list, despite thinking its one of the best American novels ever written. Agreed, and agreed. It was originally published under the pen name Richard Bachman, though I see there are more recent publishings under King’s name. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/34 "2016-09-06T21:02:43Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > Also, **Flowers for Algernon** Probably this one; I didn’t much care for “Tess of the d’Urbervilles”, but I kind of saw the ending coming, and pretty much loathed the book anyway, so it didn’t bug me much. But “Flowers for Algernon” really hit home when I was in high school. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/35 "2016-09-06T21:05:26Z")
I know the question is subjective (the most depressing novel _you_ have read), but objectively … _The Sorrows of Young Werther_. Allegedly, its publication lead to a rash of suicides, leading to the coining of a term: the “Werther Effect”. > [@](#): > > One of the earliest known associations between the media and suicide arose from Goethe’s novel Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (The Sorrows of Young Werther). Soon after its publication in 1774, young men began to mimic the main character by dressing in yellow pants and blue jackets. In the novel, Werther shoots himself with a pistol after he is rejected by the woman he loves, and shortly after its publication there were many reports of young men using the same method to kill themselves in an act of hopelessness.[5] > > This resulted in the book being banned in several places. Hence the term “Werther effect”, used in the technical literature to designate copycat suicides.[6] The term was coined by researcher David Phillips in 1974.[7] > **[Copycat suicide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copycat_suicide)** > > A copycat suicide is defined as an emulation of another suicide that the person attempting suicide knows about either from local knowledge or due to accounts or depictions of the original suicide on television and in other media. The publicized suicide serves as a trigger, in the absence of protective factors, for the next suicide by a susceptible or suggestible person. This is referred to as suicide contagion. > A spike in emulation suicides after a widely publicized suicide is known as the Werth... Hard to get more depressing than that - the novel gives its name to _causing people to kill themselves_. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/36 "2016-09-06T21:31:28Z")
> [@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 haven’t read any Steinbeck at all except for The Pearl, being forced to read it as well, in high school. It was such a downer it put me off of the author completely. > [@TheInimitableMaven](#): > > 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_… I also haven’t read Dickens since I had to read Great Expectations in high school. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/37 "2016-09-06T21:38:01Z")
Seconding _Never Let Me Go._ ---
**Author:** ![PrimalEnvy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/85f322/32.png) [@PrimalEnvy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PrimalEnvy)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/38 "2016-09-06T21:39:19Z")
_A Clockwork Orange_ and _Of Mice and Men_ are definitely up there. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/39 "2016-09-06T21:46:27Z")
Connie Willis **Doomsday Book.** ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209/40 "2016-09-06T22:24:22Z")
“It Can’t Happen Here” by Sinclair Lewis. Published in 1935, and it could potentially happen here. I read it a few months ago. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-depressing-novel-you-ever-read/765209.md?page=3)