"All I wanted was to say honestly to people: 'Have a look at yourselves and see how bad and dreary your lives are!' The important thing is that people realize that, for when they do, they will most certainly create another and better life for themselves." Here we find the very essence of Chekhov

Absurd, Dark, Ironic, Melancholy, Pathos, Realist theater

American poet Anne Sexton could tell a story that would elicit tears. And yet, her words hold the ring of truth as well as the hollow toll of misery and despair. Just when the sense of her lines seems unbearable, the poetry of them hooks into the reader's veins and persists there. Sexton, a Confessio

Anxiety, Confessional poetry, Dark, Death, Feminine, Melancholy, Moody, Visceral, Women's literature

Considered one of the most important Modernist writers, William Faulkner is known for his searing excavations into the core of the pain, pride, and prejudices of the antebellum South. His novels explore many subjects in many voices. His narrators range from children to murderers, the insane, and the

Contemplative, Dark, Enigmatic, Religious, Southern gothic, Surreal, Visceral

The work of Philip K. Dick represents some of the most influential writing to come out of the 1950s and 1960s. His explorations into the tenuous nature of reality have influenced thinkers across disciplines and genres. Recognizing that reality is a construct -- he disturbingly called it a "consensual

Agitated, Cyberpunk fiction, Dark, Distorted, Dystopic, Fantastic, Layered, Machinistic, Noir / pulp fiction, Religious, Trippy