Reading Charles Dickens books..... ? ... Rick's Astro Photos

Got a ? for you all.... somehow I missed reading Charles Dickens books (besides Christmas Carole, of course) so I decided to read a few of his most famous works. So I read "A Tale of Two Cities" and now I'm reading "Our Mutual Friend". Well, the question is, after (and during) reading "Tale" I found it a depressing sort of read. Now that I'm starting "Friend" I find THAT a depressing read. So I even had to put it down and start something else. Have any of you ever read Dickens? This is probably common knowledge that passed me by over the years, but is he noted for writing a slightly (to extremely) depressing tale? Somehow I always had thought "classics" were more upbeat like Ayn Rand, etc. How 'bout you? Got any comments?

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Do you like the stars? And the night sky? Stop by Rick's blog (See sidebar on left for "Rick's Astro Blog") because he's taken some amazing astro photos lately of beautiful nebulae and other star stuff all from our little old light-polluted driveway in damp humid Michigan! He's got a lot of special filters to filter out the junque light, but stop by his blog, you'll be surprised (and leave a comment while you're at it - that's what bloggers live for).
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See ya, go get some Vitamin D from old sol,
Annie