autumn literature & art guide

on fall nostalgia, beginnings and ends, and literature & art in three stages of fall

There is a certain melancholy, or nostalgia, associated with fall. Fall nostalgia is something that is very visceral; it’s hard to pinpoint the exact cause of it. Perhaps it’s because fall is the wind-down season, the one with cozy sweater weather and mellow evenings lying on your bed rewatching old comfort movies. You’re reminded of an earlier time, maybe a simpler one.

Or perhaps it’s because fall is, naturally, the season of change. When I was young, I always interpreted this in a very literal sense: the season when leaves change color and drop to the ground, when the air becomes clean and crisp, and daylight comes in muted tones. But as I’ve grown up, fall has become something more instinctive for me. It symbolizes all the leaves in our lives that are losing their greenness. There’s a longing, an ache for the pieces of ourselves that have broken off and left us bare. It represents all the beginnings and ends I have gone through and will go through in my life.

I’ve tried to chase such feelings in literature and art. So here are some of my favorite pieces of literature and art that perfectly encapsulate this feeling.

September:

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Crisp air and the smell of earth through your window; autumn hues bleed into the first leaves.

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LITERATURE

1. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

2. Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

4. Lonely City by Olivia Laing

5. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

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ART

1. Claude Monet, Autumn on the Seine at Argenteuil, 1873

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2. Henri Rousseau, Eiffel Tower at Sunset, 1910

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3. Paul Gauguin, Landscape in Arles near the Alyscamps, 1888

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Sweater Weather, The Neighborhood

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4. Gustave Courbet, Forest in Autumn, 1841

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October:

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Still air, lengthening shadows + nights; you wade through seas of foliage. The red, yellow, and orange above look like an outdoor fireplace; you can almost feel the warmth.

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LITERATURE

1. The Secret History by Donna Tartt

2. Northanger Abby by Jane Austen

3. Autumn by Ali Smith

4. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

5. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

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ART

1. Vincent van Gogh, Autumn Landscape with Four Trees, 1885

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2. Edward Hopper, October on Cape Cod, 1946

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Apple Pie, Lizzy McAlpine

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3. Gustav Klimt, Birch Forest I, 1902

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4. Vincent van Gogh, The Harvest, 1888

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Autumn Town Leaves, Iron & Wine

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5. Vincent van Gogh, The Garden of Saint Paul’s Hospital, 1889

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November:

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Chilled air; branches almost stripped bare, muted greys and browns, and first snows.

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LITERATURE

1. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

2. Stoner by John Edward Williams

3. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

4. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

5. Vladivostok circus by Elisa Shua Dusapin

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ART

1. Childe Hassam, Autumn Boulevard, Paris

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evermore, Taylor Swift

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2. John William Waterhouse, The Lady of Shalott, 1888

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Autumn’s Song, Stephen Day

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3. Vincent van Gogh, Apple Orchard with Lime Tree Behind the Mensingh Inn in Zweeloo (Coevorden), 1883

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October Skies, Mumford and Sons

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4. Jackson Pollock, Autumn Rhythm (Number 30), 1950

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Autumn Leaves, Ed Sheeran

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5. Theodor Philipsen, Late Autumn Day in the Jægersborg Deer Park, North of Copenhagen, 1886