Agh!
My Honors Humanities class was An Overview of the Early Twentieth Century. Sounded interesting. Art, science, literature…
We started with Hard Times by Dickens and ended with Grapes of Wrath. In between those we read (among other things) A Doll’s House and some of the most depressing or crashingly dull poetry I had ever seen.
I was suicidal by the time it was over.
Another vote for “The Grapes of Wrath,” though for a slightly different reason. I HATED everyone of those whining, snivelling losers. Well, except for the brother who got wise and just wondered the fuck off from the rest of the bunch. Yes, life is fucking tough, but Goddamn it all to hell, shut up about it and get on with things. Quit worrying about keeping the “fambly” together. You’d be better off alone. Shoot that uncle who drinks up your money, and save Rose of Sharon’s milk for yourselves.
Perhaps had I not come from the head of one of Kentucky’s poorest “hollers” I would feel differently, but everyday of my early life I saw the poor and the so-called “disinfranchised,” saw kids a lot worse off than I coming to school (early 70s) with shoes falling apart, wearing hand-me-downs from God knows how many siblings. Most of them got out, went “west” just like the Goads, but as far as I know, never snivelled and whined all the way.
So, did it depress me, nah, just made me angry.
Sir Rhosis
“Elmer Gantry” by Sinclar Lewis–Not only do the bad guys win but the good guys are not even left with self respect.
“The Pearl” by Steinbeck – At least there is hope for man in the “Grapes of Wrath”, but not in the “Pearl”.
I’ve always found Penn Warren’s “All the King’s Men” and Rostand’s “Cyrano” extremely depressing. The first for the confirmation that there are no good men and the second because when I do find one, he has no chance.
Agree with “Of Mice and Men”.
TV
Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare was both depressing and disturbing.
Count another vote for Of Mice and Men, too.
“The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair
“Ape and Essence” by Aldous Huxley
“Johnny Got His Gun” Can’t rememeber the author. You might know it from the Metallica video.
Skin by Kathe Koja. Actually, just about any book by Kathe Koja. They all seem to end with someone dead, someone insane and someone getting ready to self destruct. Skin, however, affected me the most. Bbrrrrr…
Actually, I never found Titus all that depressing – disturbing, yes, but I find it entirely too OTT to be really depressing…
Also, I’ll second Sister Carrie and put in a vote for All Quiet on the Western Front.
Katisha, I think the fact that nearly every one of the characters dies (some in really gruesome ways) and that “wonderful” last act has something to do with my finding it depressing…
Orwell’s 1984 is right up there. A boot stamping on the face of humanity, forever. Brr.
The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy. Made all the more depressing by the fact that it was well-written. I swore I’d never read another McCarthy book after that.
I have to second several suggestions, namely Night by Elie Weisel and ANYTHING by John Irving. He just doesn’t do “happy”.
But it seems that most of the depressing books that I’ve read were read when I was a child. I don’t know why that is, any thoughts? But Bridge to Tarabithia (sp?), Where the Red Fern Grows, Of Mice and Men, and The Pearl just leave you destroyed.
“Back Street,” by Fannie Hurst.
I enjoyed both movie versions (or was it three versions?), a soap opera about a woman who has a lifelong affair with a married man. The Susan Hayward version is High Camp, as she swans about suffering beautifully in her chiffon Jean Louis gowns.
So I saw the novel at the library and took it out, expecting a good light, sudsy read—yikes! It’s a well-written, VERY depressing book, actually had me crying on the subway at one point!
Firstly, I can’t believe someone said Owen Meany was depressing! Yes, I cried my eyes out, it was sad, but good lord, it basically inspired me to be a better, more open minded, selfless person…and I also laughed out LOUD reading that book! It’s one of my favorites of all time.
As for depressing…I took a class in college, senior year, called “Canadian Fiction”. Now I know what I should never, ever read.
All Canadians write about is nature and death…death and nature, the death of nature, natural deaths, deathly nature…or any other combo.
Margaret Atwood found her greatest enemy in me when I took that class. Cat’s Eye might as well have been a pistol shoved in my mouth.
I also read “As For Me And My House” which was depressing “The Painted Door” which was depressing, some Canadian short story about a little kid drowning in a pool while his parents fought about their marriage which was depressing, Robertson Davies novels which were confusing and depressing. Nobody’s happy in Canada, I guess. They’re all just sitting around looking at trees and thinking about death.
Maybe I had senioritis, but good lord, I was ready to commit myself when that class was over.
jarbaby
There was a group of short stories by Spider Robinson that just depressed the heck out of me, but I can’t remember the name. Antimony? Maybe. Also, the full Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Ugh, the first 3 were abysmal and the second 3 were even worse. What tripe!
The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinsky(sp) (I’ll never read another by him)
In Exile From the Land of Snows (Avedon) how depressing is this true story?
Lots of people have mentioned Steinbeck already. After I read The Grapes of Wrath, I wanted to commit suicide. And now my husband, who is an 8th grade English teacher, is rounding off the school year with a reading of The Pearl. Oh yay! What a way to wrap up the year! But it’s required reading for 8th grade …
What I’ve always wondered is how a writer with such depressing themes for his major works came up with Travels With Charley. How’d that get in there?
Cancer Ward by Solzhenitsyn is pretty dang depressing too.
Repeating earlier votes for 1984 and All Quiet on the Western Front. Adding a vote for Fly Away Peter by David Malouf. It’s kinda similar to All Quiet on the Western Front, but it’s about an Aussie.
Also voting for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Technically it’s a movie, I think it’s based on a book though (haven’t read it).
Also the first book of the Canopus in Argos series, Re: Colonised Planet Five, Shikasta. It starts out seeming to be just a weird and mystical sci-fi and ends on a good note, but the whole last section when Johor is incarnate as George Sherban is terribly depressing. Makes you think there’s no hope for the world. I nearly cried when Rachel was killed. The way it was done… she didn’t even get any final words or anything, her diary entries just stopped and then you read a bit later in some cold and impersonal official report that she’s dead.
Actually the 3rd and 5th ones in that series (The Sirian Experiments and The Sentimental Agents in the Volyen Empire) are kinda depressing too, but not quite in the same way (I guess 'cause they’re not about us directly).
Can’t believe I forgot that one. Well, yes I can, I’m repressing it. (Me neither.)
Too true, my friend. I had to read “The Pearl” my freshman year for English class. Absolutley despised it. Why would they make kids read something so depressing, when there are hundreds of other stories out there that could have had the exact opposite effect on them?
Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love.