Best Classic Books For the Lover of Brutality
Maybe you’ve just gone through a breakup after your girlfriend cheated on you with your dad. Maybe you just got hit by a truck and need something to read in the hospital. Whatever your life circumstances, reading can remind you that the brutality of life on earth doesn’t just affect you. And that’s kind of comforting, isn’t it?
It may surprise you to learn, but some of the best books for depressed people haven’t been written in the past twenty years. A lot of them weren’t even written in the past 100 years. Technology may have given us more problems, but things have never been quite as brutal as they were at the end of the Second World War, which, incidentally, I’ve found to be a handy cutoff date for dredging the depths of the human soul.
Here are a few books I that think deserve to be called the best:
Demons / Devils / The Possessed by Fyodor Dostoevsky
This book goes by several names, thanks to ambiguous translations, but no matter what you call it, it is a stunning accomplishment in literature. At the same time, it manages to predict the rise of murderous socialist bureaucrats, question the utility of atheism in society, and demonstrate how naive idealists can be led to perpetrate unthinkable deeds.
The story follows a few complex characters with contrasting qualities. Stepan Trofimovich is a naive academic who unwittingly brings calamity to his town. Nikolai Vsevolodovich Stavrogin is an abnormally handsome man who finds satisfaction in torturing his own conscience by behaving reprehensibly. Pyotr Stepanovich Verkhovensky is a psychopathic socialist revolutionary who exploits the idealism of the historical moment to his advantage. Alexei Nilych Kirillov is a reclusive idealist who has decided that the ultimate act of freedom from determinism is to take one’s own life.
I won’t ruin the book, but Dostoevsky masterfully weaves together the paths of each character in the town until everything sort of blends into destruction. Definitely read if you’re in the mood. If not, there are always books like Harry Potter or The Alchemist.
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
It’s no coincidence that four of the books on this list take place primarily in Russia. There’s always been something about Russia that brings out the most extreme human experiences. Maybe it’s the fact that only the hardiest of men would dare to eke out an existence in such a frozen wasteland. Or maybe it’s the fact that the great steppe has been a revolving door of brutal leaders for as long as anyone can remember.
Tolstoy wrote his Napoleonic historical fiction epic, War and Peace, in a time when you could still get paid per word to publish a full manuscript. It’s long, but it’s also surprisingly readable. It might seem odd that a book written so long ago was considered historical fiction even then, but the setting works great and doesn’t feel overdone. As with any of the Game of Thrones series, try not to get too attached to the most likable characters. While the ending certainly doesn’t come close to the brutality of a Dostoevsky novel, there’s plenty of classical turmoil along the way.
Blood Red Snow by Günter K. Koschorrek
Because World War II involved more people than any other conflict, there are a ton of memoirs about it. In America, the most famous memoirs are written by soldiers of the western front and marines of the pacific. These engagements were historically terrible, of course, but, fortunately for many, the American leadership was never so recklessly irresponsible with human lives as the Germans or Russians.
Blood Red Snow is the compiled memoir of a German soldier following the battle of Stalingrad. As you read through the book for the first time, you’ll find yourself thinking, “how in the hell is this guy still alive?” I don’t think I’m spoiling anything by telling you that things don’t exactly go well for the Germans, but you can't say they go particularly well for the Russians either.
After finishing, if you’re anything like me, you’ll find yourself with a new appreciation for all of the good things in life. Even if you did time overseas, you’ve likely never seen anything like what Koschorrek describes. It’s been a while, but I think I remember Dan Carlin saying once that Stalingrad might be one of the worst places to be ever in history. This book definitely lends credibility to that theory.
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
There’s nothing like a good old-fashioned revenge story. In this one, the protagonist retains an almost-psychotic level of spite as he deals with his enemies, which becomes increasingly hilarious as you realize how truly ridiculous it is. Even if you’ve seen the movie, you probably have a pretty vague impression of the book’s full storyline. It’s quite long — the audiobook is something like 60 hours long, but it’s worth it the whole time.
There are times when it’s hard to tell whether Dumas intended his work to be a parody or not. While he seems to know when things become absurd, he also explores revenge sequences with a certain glee. There are also some weird, unfitting elements, that point in different moral directions. Rather progressively, Dumas includes a probable lesbian character. At the same time, however, he throws in a totally content female slave. Of course, these quirks are standard for the time, and they only really serve to make the book more enigmatic.
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostevsky
This book isn’t really brutal in the sense that there are a lot of violent characters taking revenge on each other — it’s more brutal in that everyone in it is driven by their very nature to suffer. While there is a murder, it’s probably the most justifiable one in Dostoevsky’s bibliography.
Unlike Devils, almost every character in The Brothers Karamazov is likable and relatable to some degree. This draws the reader into the story so the events that unfold feel more emotional and important. It’s a surprisingly funny novel and isn’t a complete downer. It does, however, feature plenty of 19th-century Russian angst. Rather annoyingly, Dostoevsky decided to die right after Brothers was published, so we will never know his true roadmap for the story. You might see this as a good thing though, as it ends with an uncharacteristic bit of hope.
My favorite book by far.
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