Weltschmerz

Weltschmerz (German: [ˈvɛltʃmɛɐ̯ts] ⓘ; literally "world-pain") is a literary concept describing the feeling experienced by an individual who believes that reality can never satisfy the expectations of the mind,[1][2] resulting in "a mood of weariness or sadness about life arising from the acute awareness of evil and suffering".

[3] The term was coined by the German Romantic author Jean Paul in his 1827 novel Selina,[1] and in its original definition in the Deutsches Wörterbuch by the Brothers Grimm, it denotes a deep sadness about the insufficiency of the world ("tiefe Traurigkeit über die Unzulänglichkeit der Welt").

[7] In Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller describes an acquaintance, "Moldorf", who has prescriptions for Weltschmerz on scraps of paper in his pocket.

In John D. MacDonald's novel Free Fall in Crimson, Travis McGee describes Weltschmerz as "homesickness for a place you have never seen".

In Edward Abbey's novel the Fool's Progress, page 243 discusses protagonist Henry Lightcap's despair and "the Weltschmerz of Europe", amongst other depressing and gloomy states of the world.