<p>Also missed this thread! and will probably only comment peripherally as so much good stuff has already been said.</p>
<p>First have to say that yeah, that scene in Jude! 
My otherwise well-adjusted H adores Hardy and rereads Jude and Mayor of Casterbridge over and over. I seriously don’t get it.</p>
<p>I have now insisted he read Middlemarch, which I recommend to everyone. He’s working his way through, but dang, it might not be grim enough for him.</p>
<p>I was thinking as I looked here what is meant by “grim.” As opposed to “tragic.” I see grim as essentially nihilistic, positing a lack of meaning in life. But as soon as I say that, I have trouble coming up with something that fits that definition, although I know I’ve read books that struck me that way. I think actually I blank on them on purpose.</p>
<p>I’ll have to muse on that.</p>