<p>We read Jude the Obscure in senior English and most of the class liked it.
But I can see the objection to a reading list dominated by dark works. I read Jude again last year and decided to read more Hardy, so I read five more. But they were a bit too depressing to read two in a row, so I alternated with Anthony Trollope novels. A perfect antidote. 
But I sure would not have liked Trollope when I was in high school. </p>
<p>My nomination for “uplifting” classic = Silas Marner
Non-dark classic = A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man</p>