Nada by Carmen Laforet

At BrontëBlog we like Spanish writer Carmen Laforet, who wrote the book Nada (Nothingness) in 1944, when she was 23 years old.

When we first read the book we found similarities between the atmosphere in Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights and the atmosphere at the apartment in Aribau street, Barcelona. Perhaps because both authors wrote about universal feelings that come more from the inside than from the outside, the books have been compared endlessly despite the geographical and chronological differences.

However, a few days ago we came across a long post on Erudición with plenty of information about Nada.

La casa de Aribau evoca la claustrofobia de algunos relatos de E. A. Poe, por ejemplo “La caída de la casa Ushar” o la Trushcross Grange de “Cumbres borrascosas” de Emily Brontë. La descripción de los interiores de Aribau está elaborada siguiendo la pauta de los relatos románticos. Román está perfilado como un malvado héroe romántico. No obstante, aunque la crítica ha señalado estas influencias, C. Laforet ha declarado que por entonces no había leído estas obras, ni visionado la película (“Cumbres borrascosas”) de W. Wyler, estrenada en España en 1942.

The house on Aribau brings to mind the claustrophobia of some short stories by E. A. Poe, such as The Fall Of The House Of Ushar, or Thrushcross Grange from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. The description of the interiors of Aribau was made following the pattern of Romantic tales. Román is described as a wicked romantic hero. However, even though these influences have been noticed by the critics, C. Laforet stated that in that time she hadn't read these works or seen the film Wuthering Heights by W. Wyler, which opened in Spain in 1942.

That only goes to show that there are things such as universal feelings and that authors writing in different times, different countries can be very close in their creative work.

If you can get a copy of this book, do. You will find many things in common with Wuthering Heights.

Categories: Books, Wuthering Heights