@izzythepush,
I suppose just about any Charles Dickens novel would be considered bleak.
I read Hardy's Tess of the d'urbervilles and saw the Masterpiece Theater production.
I wouldn't call it bleak, but severly tragic. The life of this poor girl, Tess that is, could be graphed. There is a long slow elevation and then a precipitous drop followed by another slow elevation followed by another precipitous drop, etc., elevation and a final precipitous drop. Horribly tragic, but, still, a wonderful novel.