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Annotated Award-Winning Titles
The poem "The Lady of Shalott" tells the story of the impossible love between Elaine, the Fair Maid of Astolat, and Sir Lancelot, of Arthurian legend. Upon discovering that Lancelot is secretly in love with Queen Guinevere, Elaine is broken-hearted and leaves on her own for the Island of Shalott where she dies of sadness. The poem, published for the first time in 1833 by Tennyson, is considered his most beautiful and mysterious work. Geneviève Côté gives us a modern interpretation of this classic of the Victorian era without sacrificing any of the romantic imagery in the poem. Her flowing and oblique watercolours give the characters a whimisical appearance that complements the gentle, melancholy tone of the poem. The rich symbolism of the work is brought to life through spellbinding metaphors. The image of the fair lady turning into a butterfly and leaving her chrysalis behind to fly away from the tower of Shalott dispels the myth of a woman's doom to an unhappy fate. Instead, the work of Geneviève Côté offers the reader a hymn to freedom and love. –DSH |
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