The Lady of Shallot by Alfred Lord Tennyson, Genevieve Cote

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The Lady of Shallot
Alfred Lord Tennyson, Genevieve Cote

I came across this book at the library last week. I love this poem, so I wanted to give it a read. I'd read a more modernized version of the Highwayman, which is apparently the second book in this publisher's line of classic poetry illustrated by contemporary artists. As with the Highwayman, this one had horses replaced by motorcycles. However, there were also horses. In fact, I had a difficult time quite getting a grip on when and where it was. At times, it seemed like the turn of the century, other times the roaring twenties, other times well into the world wars, other times classic timelessness. It occurred to me how clever it might be to set a modern retelling in the US in the 1960s during the presidency of JFK (i.e. Camelot).

Apart from being a bit confused about the time frame and location, I enjoyed the soft colors in the illustrations. The art was lovely, and sometimes it matched the poem in very clever ways. Other times it wasn't all that close, just a lovely illustration that was sort of part of the narrative. The images rely heavily on the poem to paint the narrative, the images serving as merely nice accompaniments. At the end, the Lady of Shalott turns into a butterfly and flies away. This was an interesting metaphorical transformation, giving a note of beauty and hope that the poem doesn't end with. It's nice that now, after all this time, she gets this chance. And it makes sense, given her weaving and her cocoon-like boat. But it's also seems that the cleverness takes away a little from the powerful emotion of the poem. Creative and pretty though this book is, I think I prefer the John William Waterhouse version of the Lady of Shalott art.

I look forward to tracking down the third book (The Jabberwocky) in this series.