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/lit/ - Literature

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10602787 No.10602787 [Reply] [Original]

rec me some melancholy books, c/lit/

>> No.10602790

metamorphosis by kafka

>> No.10602791

>>10602787
Me and my diary desu

>> No.10602849

>>10602787
Pedro Páramo

>> No.10602901

>>10602787
is that a De Chirico?

>> No.10603021
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10603021

In the Cafe of Lost Youth - Modiano

>> No.10603117

>>10602901
What do you think?

>>10602787
In Search of Lost Time
Anatomy of Melancholy
Book of Disquiet

>> No.10603152

>>10602787

Something Happened, Joseph Heller

As I Lay Dying, Faulkner

Thomas Hardy is famous for making everything go wrong for his main characters:
Most famously:

Tess of the D'Urbevilles - innocent country girl gets seduced by P.O.S. - nobleman, doesn't end happily

Jude the Obscure - humble country boy wants to better himself, doesn't end happily


William Golding is also pretty downbeat most of the time:

Free Fall - famous painter is in prison camp in WW2, thinks back over his life whilst under fear of torture

The Inheritors - Neanderthals were basically kindly, but Homo Sapiens are gonna come along and get genocidal on their asses

The Spire - fanatical head of a medieval church wants to build a huge spire against all the rules of architecture

Lord of the Flies - you know this already

Pincher Martin - sailor gets his ship torpedoed in WW2, swims to tiny island, tries to survive. Doesn't end well.


Short stories
-------------------
John Cheever and Raymond Carver are both very melancholy. Carver is more melancholy and (IMO) better.

Roald Dahl's collection "Over To You" about flying in the RAF in Greece in WW2 is pretty bleak (and pretty good).

Hemingway generally has a melancholy undertone, and usually ends sadly.

e.g.
A Farewell to Arms
Old Man and the Sea
etc

Or try his short stories, especially:

The Snows Of Kilimanjaro
A Clean Well-Lighted Place

>> No.10603174

This guy is an insanely-sad philosopher-aphorist

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Trouble-Being-Born-M-Cioran/dp/1611457408

>> No.10603337

>>10603152
>Jude the Obscure
i was going to say this
i fucking love jude the obscure. it's the most brilliantly bleak book ever

>> No.10603397

What are some bittersweet books in line with the sentence:
"It was fun while it lasted"

>> No.10604156

>>10603397

Something Happened, Joseph Heller

( I already mentioned it above but I plug it any chance I get.)

The narrator is a 40-something man who's pondering obsessively about how miserable he is. One of the memories he keeps returning to is his first job as a teenager as a filing clerk in an insurance office. A girl working there kept teasing him and getting him horny, and looking back he realizes that was the high point of his life, and he misses her basically all the time.

>> No.10604453
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10604453

>> No.10604525

>>10603174
cioran's writing sucks, reads like a pretentious teenager's blog

>> No.10605484

>>10602787
A Little Lumpen Novelita - Bolano

>> No.10605509
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10605509

>>10604156
Thanks I'll check it out.

>> No.10605523

>>10604156
I very rarely see this book mentioned on here. Maybe three times by people other than me in the several years I've been around. Great book though. If you haven't read his Picture This, I would highly suggest you do. It's more similar in style to Catch-22 but closer in substance to Something Happened.

>> No.10605689
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10605689

>>10602787
The Tartar Steppe, by Dino Buzzati, is one of the most melancholic books I have read. It is based around a fictitious version of very early 20th century Italy or Austrian-Hungarian Empire, and chronicles the lives of soldiers at an isolated fortress, on the edge of the desert borders of the land. It is mostly written with Giovanni Drogo's perspective, in mind, as he is the protagonist. Perhaps you are familiar with pic-related Chirico painting? It is the art that inspired either the author Buzzati, or film director Zurlini to base the cover art on. The film of The Desert of the Tartars is also excellent.

>> No.10605834
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10605834

Children of Hurin

>> No.10605843
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10605843

>>10603397
Beren and Luthien.

>> No.10605850

>>10602787
There's a section about, at least in some part, Chirico paintings in Man and His Symbols. I ought to read that again. Thanks for the reminder, OP.

>> No.10606063

Maybe you wouldn't consider it melancholy, but check out Northline by Willy Vlautin, or any of his music if you listen to his kind of style.