He that asks no questions will learn no lies from me.

I was interested in reading a book i found in the library, it was Thomas Hardy; collected short stories.
I like his Novels so I figured I'd see if he wrote as well in shorter form. It was just amazing how many bad endings he thought up for each story. If it wasn't one thing, it was a worse thing, and he just kept getting better and better at it.
They were very interesting, and very good at keeping you guessing just what kind of ending he'd choose to ruin any potential happy plot end.
He was a Naturalist, so if the story didn't end in some form of human misery, I was shocked.
I'm a simple thing, I like happy endings - or at least well wrapped up endings. I began to know and predict accuately the correct ending.
Not all of them went this way, occasionally things ended quite nicely and the people involved joyfully headed toward their happy conclusion.
But for example:
Happy couple wants to get married, but male half goes to war, and is thought of as dead. The woman is inconsoleable, and prepares to marry again because she has a child and it needs a father. The father comes back from the dead and she feels she must marry him instead of the new male half. Heads to an awkward situation:
Potential ending #1: Both men die.
Potential ending #2: The preferable man dies, and the other man lives.

I don't know if it was the times he lived in, or his need to get rid of certain characters quickly and easily, but people died of illnesses often. His favourite dramatic scene was by far the one where people were thought to be dead and yet live to return to ruin another day. I guess what I like is how the characters are always flawed and not perfect.