The Lady of Shalott - References in Literature

References in Literature

• The poem is alluded to in Oscar Wilde's 1890 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, when Sibyl Vane says, "I have grown sick of shadows."
• Miss Jean Brodie, in Muriel Spark's 1961 novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, reads the poem out loud to her class.
• Agatha Christie used the line "The mirror crack'd from side to side" to title her 1962 novel The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, and the poem plays a large part in the plot.
• The Lady of Shalott is referenced several times in Bel Kaufman's 1965 novel Up the Down Staircase.
• Jessica Anderson uses the line "'Tirra lirra,' by the river" to title her 1978 novel Tirra Lirra by the River.
• Robin Klein uses the line "All in the blue unclouded weather" to title her 1991 short story collection All in the Blue Unclouded Weather.
• In Diana Wynne Jones' 1993 novel Hexwood, one of the main characters, Ann Stavely, compares herself to the Lady of Shalott in that she uses a mirror to look outside her window.
• Patricia A. McKillip uses an adaption of the poem as a primary theme of her 2000 novel The Tower at Stony Wood.
• The poem is discussed and quoted in Libba Bray's 2003 novel A Great and Terrible Beauty.
• A stanza is located at the beginning of each chapter in Meg Cabot's 2005 novel Avalon High.
• The poem is referenced in Jilly Cooper's 2006 novel Wicked! where the phrase The curse is upon me is given a humorous re-interpretation in an English Literature class scene.
• Lisa Ann Sandell's 2007 novel Song of the Sparrow is a retelling of her story.
• In Jasper Fforde's 2011 novel One of our Thursdays Is Missing, the Lady of Shalott possesses a mirror that allows characters in the Book World to see into the real world ("the Outland").
• Alan C. Bradley uses the line "I am half-sick of shadows" to title his book I Am Half-Sick of Shadows.