How do I improve my self-commiserating?

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte. And then he sighed a qurulous, self-commiserating sigh, as if in pure regret that he, the beloved and courted of so many worshippers, should now be abandoned to the mercy of a harsh, exacting, cold-hearted woman like that, and happy of what kindness she chose to bestow too (Chp. 48,

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte).