I’ll go with “An American Tragedy” by Theodore Dreiser. The depressing part for me was that at each step, the protagonist kept making things worse and worse and worse not because he’s an evil man, but because he’s weak. I found that really sad, much more than grimdark books like “The Road”.
Beem. It was written in Russia about a Gordon Setter (which happens to be my breed of dog), supposedly a true story. The dog’s owner is hospitalized and Beem escapes his caregiver and goes looking for his owner. The book covers everything that he goes thru, and he is finally on the right track to go home when he is picked up by the dog catcher.
His owner has also just been released and come home and he goes searching for Beem. When he finds him at the pound, Beem is dead. I was in no way expecting that ending; I was reading the book on lunch at work and broke down into a blubbering heap. Will never read it again.
I’ve read several of the novels mentioned above, but none of them is as depressing as We Were the Mulvaneys. An excellent novel, but terribly depressing.
The Scarlet Letter. Damn the sadist english teacher that required it in highschool.
I used to think that Steinbeck was the most depressing author ever. Then I discovered Ray Bradbury. The worst that ever happens in a Steinbeck book is that everyone dies. I don’t think I ever managed to make it more than two chapters into The Martian Chronicles.
Also worthy of mention is Tolkien’s The Children of Hurin. It’s probably the second-most-depressing book I’ve ever read, but the quality of the writing is so amazingly good that you can’t stop yourself from reading it.
If you think Doomsday Book is dark, don’t read Blackout and All Clear.
To Say Nothing of the Dog, on the other hand, is a delight.
I would second Atlas Shrugged. Some of the novels mentioned in this thread – The Grapes of Wrath, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, and Great Expectations, for example – are depressing, but they are great literature.
Ayn Rand is a worse writer than Lester Dent and Edgar Rice Burroughs. It’s even more depressing to think that some people are so delusional as to think the book serves as a model for society.
I know it is just a young adult series but The Hunger Games made me cry a few different times. Just when you think you are about done, Mockingjay casually dumps some more devastation right on you without any warning. I wanted to start my own militia group by the time I finished.
The only other book that bitch-slapped me that hard was A Separate Piece. It moves a lot slower but I could really identify with the characters. I was traumatized for a while after I finished it.
So does the ending of the film Grapes of Wrath.
Damn, I don’t remember that. I’ll search for it.
I recall his capturing Aycharaych, welding their space suits together, although I cannot recall which book that was.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Big fat downer.
I just last month started it…got halfway through…and dropped it. Too depressing! It has a kind of train-wreck or Greek-tragedy inevitability to it.
(Also…I couldn’t believe some of the shenanigans. Arresting Congress on the third day of the new administration? Or how about wrecking the entire economy…but there are still small businesses pretty much going about as normal. Nuh uh! If the monetary system collapses, you go back to barter. I thought the story over-played the predations of the wicked President.)
“And the Ass Saw the Angel,” by Nick Cave (yeah, the Bad Seed).
House of Mirth, Edith Wharton. Poor Liliy Bart couldn’t get out of her own way.
Bradbury is one of my all-time favorite writers.
My first exposure to his work was the short story All Summer in a Day.
Synopsis: A little girl from Earth who lives on Venus is wasting away because she only gets to see the sun once every 7 years. She is bullied. The school children lock her in the closet. The sun comes out, and they all run out to play and bask. Then the sun vanishes once more and the rains come. The children remember they locked the Earth girl in the closet, and somberly open the door.
And scene!
Sleep tight, kids.
“All Summer In A Day” is another outstanding example of yes, it’s depressing, but it’s a terrific story. As well as one of the epitomes of why Bradbury is one of my favorite writers…All Summer In A Day is one of the best anti-bullying stories ever penned. But to be fair and give all personal tastes an equal shake, I’m amazed nobody has said Fahrenheit 451 yet.
Another high school anti-favorite that although wasn’t a novel (but heck, if novellas like The Pearl and short stories like “All Summer” count, then plays should definitely count too), nor the most mind-numbing sludge of a read, it was still quite depressing…Oedipus Rex.
I vote for McTeague by Frank Norris.
It’s about a dim-witted and brutal dentist around the end of the 19th century, whose life falls apart after his new wife wins a $15k lottery. You can read the incredibly depressing plot summary on Wikipedia.
By the end of the book:
The titular character, having fled after murdering his wife, is stranded deep in Death Valley handcuffed to a corpse
That should be A Separate Peace although there is none of that in the novel. Killing your best friend, even unintentionally, is generally frowned upon.
I want to read the trilogy, but I’m like you–haven’t finished the first yet! It got sooooo bleak.
I’ve never read the Gormenghast books, but I saw the TV miniseries, and it was hella depressing. If it was fair to the books, then they must be major-league downers.