I read almost all of Thomas Hardy's novels (including Tess) when I was in high school and loved all of them, but I do not think I am part of the target audience for 50 Shades of Grey although I have been hearing a lot about it. I found it easy to identify with Thomas Hardy's characters (especially the tragic heroines) because of the rural settings. Tess was probably my favorite Hardy novel, and I like the movie they made of it, but the book is much better IMO. I also read a lot of William Faulkner in high school but did not identify with his characters as easily, even though they were Southern and rural. My other favorite novelist in high school was D.H. Lawrence, and I could identify with his characters also, which is a bit strange because I am not in any way English in heritage! I started reading German novels in college and found characters that were even easier to relate to, especially the ones from around 1800, although before 1800 most of what I read were plays. I still like to read plays. Lars

Not sure how dark you want. But do check out Gray Owl and also Nimbus. (not Nimbus Gray). Baltic gray was another winner in the last house. Didn't work in this one. I needed to pick one color when we built. As you know, lighting and the room's exposure really makes a difference. For us the Gray Owl worked in every room. It' light, but you can see the contrast with the woodwork. Here's the dining room, before we painted in Velvet Cloak.

just helped my mom pick cab colors for her hew house---she is doing BM white dove on all her outer cabs, and SW Classic French Gray as her island color. Its a darker gray that has just a hint of blue undertone. For reference, her granite is antique white and backsplash is a soft white porcelain and marble tile--so that's what we were matching to. cabs won't be installed for a couple more weeks, so no pics yet to share. she also played with SW dovetail, but it has a warm/brown undertone. If you want something that leans more blue, check SW African Gray. **no clue how any of those grays will play with repose though since it has so much tan in it.

Not sure why everybody keeps saying it’s going out when we keep seeing it a new builds. Have you tried to buy something that isn't gray lately? A builder working with mass market materials doesn't have a whole lot of choice because gray has reached saturation. Even the colors that are cropping up are greyed...grayed pinks, blues, greens...I guess so they will work with all the gray seemingly everyone is immersed in at home. There's whole new subdivision near me. Every last exterior on every last house is shades of gray. Like it has been writ somewhere: Thou shalt be gray. Last summer, I was looking for an aqua paint for my laundry room floor. Every aqua in the book was muddied with gray. I finally asked the clerk if there was a clean pure aqua. She pulled a whole other book of paint colors, clean colors, off the bottom of the stack and I found what I was looking for.