Wuthering Heights and other books

The Chicago Tribune examines the art of Balthus, who did a series of lithographs inspired by Wuthering Heights in 1935.

The catalog for a Balthus retrospective exhibition in the early 1980s reprinted the essay for his first show, of semi-autobiographical drawings based on "Wuthering Heights." The author was Albert Camus. He wrote: "Balthus has understood that one of the keys of this book, which expresses the anguish and fury of adult love, is the remembrance of the childish love between Cathy and Heathcliff, and the terrible nostalgia that obsessed these two beings until the hour of their final parting." (Alan G. Artner) (Picture Source)

Some of these lithographs can be seen here and here, along with more information on this work.

High Sierra Book Club seems to be reading Wuthering Heights at the moment - with or without lithographs we don't know - and have several questions to ponder on their website. Food for thought.

Zona MDJ has read the book too and reviews it in Spanish.

Wide Sargasso Sea is mentioned in the Jamaica Gleaner.

Students of West Indian literature are familiar with the novel The Wide Sargasso Sea by the creole writer, Jean Rhys. This 1966 post-colonial novel acts as a sequel to Charlotte Bronte's famous 1847 novel Jane Eyre. Two of its major themes are to do with female creole identities and family and racial relationships in post-slavery plantation society. These issues to do with identity, family and race relationships still have vital relevance to us here in Jamaica. (Beverley Anderson -Manley)

Jean Rhys did indeed think so.

La Nouvelle Heloise, who leaves comments on BrontëBlog from time to time, has just read The Things That Matter and writes a short review on it.

Mendelson puts each novel into context and then explores similarities or differences amongst them. For instance, he compares the notions of "control", "unity" and "equality" discussed in, respectively: Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. And he goes further by bringing these superlative classics into parallel with one's personal experiences. This not only helped me find a deeper connection with each novel, but also extract from them valuable lessons and advice.

It's great to see people are picking up books after reading about them here :)

Categories: Art-Exhibitions, Books, Wide Sargasso Sea, Wuthering Heights