Two Instances of Prufrock

T S Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", commonly known as "Prufrock" has popped up twice in my reading recently. I hadn't come across it before, having studied no poetry except for Chaucer at school - that I can remember at least.

The first time I noticed it, I didn't realise it was "famous" - and it was on the cover of Ally Condie's Atlantia:

Human Voices Wake Us,

And We Drown

however I'm currently about halfway through The Fault in Our Stars by John Green and lead female character Hazel has been  quoting the whole poem and when she used the lines mentioned above I got googling.

So I've learnt something. Plus I knew Val McDermid had borrowed the title The Mermaids Singing from Eliot but I hadn't realised it was this poem.

Publishing Deal - Ally Condie

Publishers Weekly has news of a publishing deal for Ally Condie (the full article mentions the Meyer and Twilight words):

Last week the Penguin Young Readers Group imprint laid down a seven-figure advance for three books from debut* novelist Ally Condie, in a heated auction featuring seven other houses.


Her first book, Matched, is a dystopian novel that Dutton [Children’s Books] likens to Brave New World and The Handmaid’s Tale. In the novel, a 17-year-old girl, who has waited her entire life to be told by a group known as “the Society” who her soul mate is, has her world upended when she discovers she’s in love with someone other than the group’s pick.

*NB. Ally Condie has published several books already but this may be her debut for Penguin.