Afterlives of the Lady of Shalott and Elaine of Astolat by Ann F. Howey (review)

Afterlives of the Lady of Shalott and Elaine of Astolat by Ann F. Howey takes as the introductory focal point Meg Cabot’s teen novel Avalon High (2006). This novel is loosely based on two early nineteenth-century poems by Alfred Tennyson: The Lady of Shalott and Elaine of Astolat. Howey’s purpose, therefore, is to list other creative writers/artists/musicians, etc., who have treated Tennyson’s story. An extensive Table One presents a timeline from 1805 to 2014, naming editions of Malory/medieval texts and versions of The Lady of Shalott in verse, prosefiction, painting, book illustration, sculpture, music, wall-tiles, tapestry, and cross-stitch. And Howey’s overall approach is ‘feminist’ (p. 3).

Chapter Two focuses on the Lady and Elaine story in medieval literature and its development from Continental sources into English literature (particularly Malory) as summarized by early nineteenth-century scholars before appearing in two Tennyson poems: The Lady of Shalott (1832/1842) and ‘Lancelot and Elaine’ from The Idylls of The King (1859). Howey examines with assiduous precision the extent to which the women in these poems are portrayed as objects without the power of their own voice.

Chapter Three provides another list showing the publication (until 1920) of the musical compositions which were based on Tennyson’s Arthurian poems. It reveals the ‘narrative’ Elaine as clear winner, and it was performed domestically by young middle-class women singing of their own deaths. But the post-1920 list reveals how technology would change that culture and introduce female singers presenting altered material and interpretation, especially of the Lady of Shalott.

Chapter Four switches to the visual interpretations of the poems, covering painting (focusing on William Holman Hunt, Toby Edward Rosenthal, and J.W. Waterhouse), book illustration (Gustave Doré, Julia Margaret Cameron, and George Wooliscroft Rhead), and the example of Teresa Wentzler’s cross-stitch, which reverses the gaze.

Chapter Five shows an increased number of writers in the later twentieth-century handling Arthurian themes. In particular, they examine cultural collisions between eras.

Chapter Six is dedicated to reading for young people. It highlights the evasion of sexual content and later updates the focus on female roles. The latter part challenges the patriarchal assumptions of the original literature.

Chapter Seven presents a major turn of technique. Instead of modern figures looking back at medieval characters and narratives, this chapter presents four examples of the Lady/Elaine herself acting as narrator in either historical or fantasy fiction.

Chapter Eight is a post-script which summarizes Howey’s conclusions on the vast number of interpretations about the Lady by readers and writers. The story is in flux.

Howey has created a very original, far-reaching, closely examined, and intricately argued book. I was very impressed by many aspects of her study, such as the detailed tables listing pre-1920 sheet music of songs based on Tennyson’s Arthurian poems. Also impressive is her own musical expertise in the explanation of the very modern performance techniques of female soloists. I greatly enjoyed the parodic images of Ivy Skinner ‘attempting’ in a film to be the Lady of Shalott and Trevor Neal’s painting of The Lady of Detroit (combining J.W. Waterhouse’s Lady’s boat against a background of cliffs and ruined castle).

Nevertheless, Howey sometimes generalizes too readily. For example, she blurs the different genres of Tennyson’s two poems. The Lady of Shalott is a lyric that stands alone; ‘Elaine’ is a narrative written later and part of a lengthy sequence. This affects how a reader regards Lancelot’s perception of the Lady. He rode past her tower without seeing her, and when he sees her dead face at Camelot, he behaves tenderly. Whereas the other knights fearfully cross themselves, Lancelot is different. His reaction is beautifully shown in D.G. Rossetti’s illustration in the Moxon edition, where...