Imaginary

Visual Arts

• Gustave Caillebotte, Portrait of Henri Cordier, Teacher at the School of Oriental Languages (1883)

Film and Stage

• You Can Count On Me: The brother and sister whose lives are at the center of this story have lost their parents during their childhood to an automobile collision. The older sibling, the girl, has become a sing mother struggling to support her child. Her younger brother, who “has been drifting around the country barely making ends meet,” provides life lessons to her son that she is too damaged to provide. Both siblings wish to do what is right but each of them is limited, and gifted, in particular ways.
• Romántico: a man struggles heroically to provide for his family.

Music: Composers, artists, and major works

Haydn, String Quartets, Opus 54 (set 1 of the “Tost” quartets) (1788): these quartets display Haydn’s characteristic sunniness.

• Quartet No. 42 in C major, Op. 54, No. 2, FHE No. 20, Hoboken No. III:57
• Quartet No. 43 in G major, Op. 54, No. 1, FHE No. 19, Hoboken No. III:58
• Quartet No. 44 in E major, Op. 54, No. 3, FHE No. 21, Hoboken No. III:59

Albums:

• Geri Allen, “The Gathering”

From the dark side:

• Stravinsky, The Rake’s Progress: about an irresponsible young man who abandons his truelove and seeks the easy way, with tragic results for himself and all he cares about (performances conducted by Nagano, Gulberg and Stravinsky)

Poetry

Poems:

• William Wordsworth, “The Widow on Windermere Side”

Fictional Narratives

From the dark side:

• Clive James, Always Unreliable (Picador, 2004): “Over there, cabdrivers know who James is: the ebullient man who hosted many comic and erudite television programs over the years. We have no one quite like him over here: Think Johnny Carson combined with Edmund Wilson.” (Always Unreliable combines Unreliable Memoirs, Falling Towards England, and May Week Was in June.)