I realize this is a late post, but I wanted to share with you a passage from "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" that really stuck out for me. (This is upon the death of Tess' infant child, born out of wedlock).

So passed away Sorrow the Undesired -- that intrusive creature, the bastard gift of shameless Nature who respects not the civil law; a waif to whom eternal Time had been a matter of days merely, who knew not that such things as years and centuries ever were; to whom the cottage interior was the universe, the week's weather climate, new-born babyhood human existence, and the instinct to suck human knowledge.

And I thought that I was melancholy at times. I've got nothing on Hardy. Speaking of which--note to self: Don't read "Tess" late at night ever again. I'd read the cliffs notes but they're probably just as depressing, if not all the more depressing for their brevity and staleness.
...
Good lord, his manner of writing has gotten into my psyche! I think I need bed. Night, all.