Hardy's novels, in my experience (admittedly a long time ago, when I was going through a serious misery-lit phase), are emotional marathons.
Perhaps a serious recognition of the misery of the world is at the heart of her aesthetic purpose.
But Steve Murphy, general secretary of the building workers union Ucatt, said: "This commitment demonstrates that Labour is serious about ending the misery caused by the exploitation of migrant workers and rightly targets the employers who profit through the mistreatment of workers".
For heaven's sakes, he's actually seen serious wreckage and human misery up close.
After all, most of our serious literature is about human misery.
Aside from economic misery, the most serious threat to the bloc so far is growing pressure in Britain for a referendum on whether to pull out of the union.
Opening up a country's markets, the argument went, would increase overall wealth in every country, and policies for internal redistribution would help the inevitable losers or else their personal misery could have serious social consequences for everyone else.
Misery is a good thing if misery is spread,.
But, strangely, none of these miseries really seems serious.
The potential for American military intervention to prolong and exacerbate Venezuelan misery is real and serious.
Serious eczema can lead to profound misery in people who have the condition.
