The World as Will and Idea

Schopenhauer's essays on the suffering of the world, the vanity of existence and suicide, plus the parable of the porcupines. The shortest and most direct way into philosophical pessimism.

Arthur Schopenhauer

The first full history of pessimism in English, from ancient laments to Schopenhauer and Hartmann. Sully explains what the pessimists claimed and then argues against them, so you get both the tradition and its critics.

James Sully

Leopardi's Operette morali, short dialogues where nature, death, fashion and a stray Icelander debate whether life is worth living. Witty, bleak and beautifully written, a classic of 19th-century pessimism in Charles Edwardes' translation.

Giacomo Leopardi