April 6, 1849: John William Waterhouse is born.

After doing a puzzle of his Lady of Shalott last year, I have my eye on all things Waterhouse. Partly because so many of his paintings have literary themes, but also because that puzzle WAS THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE, and even now, months later, when I look at it, I still cringe a tiny bit. (I realize that it doesn't look all that hard, but it really was brutal. THOSE STUPID REEDS. Erm... moving on.)

Anyway, of the two YA books that deal with Elaine*, Lady of Shalott, I've only written about Avalon High:

I liked Will, too. (He's the Arthur figure—that is really, really not a spoiler, considering his girlfriend is named Jenny, his best friend's name is Lance and they're having an affair. Plus he's just... Arthur-y.) Lance was kind of a doofus, which I thought was appropriate—never been much of a Lancelot fan—and Jenny was shallow but nice. Marco (Mordred) was suitably bonkers.

Each chapter was headed by a bit from the Tennyson, so of course I kept flashing back to Anne Shirley floating down the river in her sinking boat—"Fishing. For. Lake. Trout."—which never fails to put me in a good mood.

I'll have to bump the other one, Song of the Sparrow, up on my list.

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*Those are the two that I'm aware of, anyway. Are there others that you know of? Did Gerald Morris cover her story?

Comments

[rockinlibrarian]

The first thing the Lady of Shalott always makes me think of is Anne of Green Gables, but I don't know if that would count as a whole BOOK's worth of reference...

[Leila]

Oh, me too! I even mentioned it in my Avalon High review. (And I've used far more tenuous connections in the past!)

[Lindsey Carmichael]

I LOVE the "Fishing for lake trout" scene. The romantic tension between Anne and Gilbert in that movie is right up there with Maria and Captain von Trap for me.

[Leila]

Megan Follows' delivery of that line is so priceless. And 20+ years later, I still have a crush on Jonathan Crombie.