Lolly Willowes

By Sylvia Townsend Warner and Alison Lurie

“This is the witty, eerie, tender but firm life history of a middle-class Englishwoman who politely declines to make the expected connection with the opposite sex and becomes a witch instead.”—John Updike

Part “family saga,” part supernatural feminist novel, this 1926 debut “tips suddenly into extraordinary, lucid wildness.” (Helen Macdonald, The New York Times)

In Lolly Willowes, Sylvia Townsend Warner tells of an aging spinster's struggle to break way from her controlling family—a classic story that she treats with cool feminist intelligence, while adding a dimension of the supernatural and strange. Warner is one of the outstanding and indispensable mavericks of twentieth-century literature, a writer to set beside Djuna Barnes and Jane Bowles, with a subversive genius that anticipates the fantastic flights of such contemporaries as Angela Carter and Jeanette Winterson.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jun 8, 2011
• ISBN: 9781590174050

Sylvia Townsend Warner

Sylvia Townsend Warner (1892 - 1978) was a novelist, poet and musicologist. The only child of George and Nora Townsend Warner, Sylvia was a precocious child who studied under her father. Beginning with her first novel, Lolly Willowes; Or The Loving Huntsman (1926), Warner embarked on a writing career that embraced themes of subversion, female empowerment and a rejection of Christian practice and philosophies. Inspired by her partner, Valentine Achland—and inspired by fellow author David Garnett, Warner went on to publish several novels including Mr. Fortune’s Maggot (1927), Summer Will Show (1936), and The Corner That Held Them (1948); as well as multiple short story collections and books of poetry. Remembered as a feminist and lesbian icon, her work was influential for a generation of British women writers to come.

Reviews for Lolly Willowes

[whatsmacksaid · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was lovely and delightful and absolutely satisfying. It spoke to me in the quietest and most empathetic ways.

[sigmundfraud · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Lolly Willowes : Or the Loving Huntsman by Sylvia Townsend Warner is sited in rural England at the time of the First World War. I favor the mid century women writers such as Warner. The novel gets off to a great start but Part 2 and Part 3 lost me. The protagonist, a young unmarried woman lives with her brother for about twenty-five years when she decides to go off on her own. She moves to a small nearby village and pursues her life but once she gets to the village and leads a solitudinous life she becomes boring to me. So I recommend this book with reservations.

[jwhenderson_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sylvia Townsend Warner was a feminist author in England who began publishing with her first novel at about the time that Virginia Wool published her seminal essay, "A Room of One's Own"*. Warner ran in different circles and was friendly with a number of the "Bright young things" of the 1920s that were famously satirized by Evelyn Waugh in his short novel Vile Bodies. Warner's first major success was this novel, Lolly Willowes, published in 1926.Lolly Willowes is the story of a middle-aged spinster who moves to a country village to escape her controlling relatives and takes up the practice of witchcraft. The novel opens at the turn of the twentieth century, with Laura (Lolly) Willowes moving from Somerset to London to live with her brother, Henry, and his family. Her move comes in the wake of the death of Laura's father, Everard, with whom she lived with at the family home, Lady Place. Laura's other brother, James, moves into Lady Place with his wife and his young son, Titus, with the intention to continue the family's brewing business. However, James dies suddenly of a heart attack and Lady Place is rented out, with the view that Titus, once grown up, will return to the home and run the business.Laura finds herself feeling increasingly stifled both by the obligations of being a live-in aunt and living in London. When shopping for flowers on the Moscow Road, Laura has an epiphany and realizes she must move to the country. Buying a guide book and map to the area, she decides upon the (fictional) village of Great Mop as her new home. Against the wishes of her extended family, Laura moves to Great Mop and finds herself entranced and overwhelmed by the chalk hills and beech woods. When out walking, she makes a pact with a supernatural force that she takes to be Satan, allowing her to remain in the Chilterns rather than return to her duties as an aunt. In the meantime, Titus, having visited Laura, has decided he wants to move from his lodgings in Bloomsbury to Great Mop and be a writer, rather than inheriting the family business. Laura is frustrated by this but is able to call upon black magic to discourage Titus to the extent that he decides to get married and retreat to London. The denouement of the story leaves Laura acknowledging that the new freedom she has achieved comes at the expense of knowing that she belongs to the 'satisfied but profound indifferent ownership' of Satan.Warner's writing style is sublime. She demonstrates a subtle humor leavened with unexpected turns of phrase that delighted this reader. Her take on this satirical comedy of manners incorporates elements of fantasy that represent, metaphorically, the plight of women in the era before they "have a room" of their own.

[jruel_3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A pleasant enough story at the beginning, but ending in a mystico-psychological way that annoyed me.

[rainpebble_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I think you all know the story of this little book by Sylvia Townsend Warner. The spinster aunt who goes to live with brother & wife and after helping to raise their children, goes out on her own. I enjoyed it greatly and I am sure will return to it again. I thought the writing brilliant and loved walking through the wood with Laura. I totally related to her. The family irritated me as I think they were meant to. Warner is wonderful. Four stars and recommended.

[scroeser_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Surprising and comforting.

[riverwillow · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was an interesting read. Townsend Warner's prose is beautiful and magical and this was a lovely allegorical tale of a woman's journey towards independence.

[wyvernfriend · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Lolly Willowes is the maiden aunt living hn her brothers house. She eventually tires of this and decides to move to a small Bedfordshire village where she finds her own place in the village. She also finds witchcraft and a place of her own. IIt's a gentle story, an exploration of finding your self and finding a role within the world. This is a time just after world war I, when some people still lived off small inheritances.It's an interesting look at that life and a woman's life then. I've read a fair number of books based in this period but from a man's point of view so this was an interesting change.

[alexthehunn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What a surprising and delightful book. This is about a woman who does not conform, does not fit the respectable mold, and who manages to persevere and even flourish as a result. This is not a typical "be true to yourself and everything will work out alright" tale, even though there are certainly strong elements of that sentiment to be derived. The supernatural aspects of this novel caught me completely by surprise and were, therefore, more effective.

[wrichard_22 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A spinster sells her soul to the devil for kicks

[petroglyph_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Published in 1926, a few years before Virginia Woolf would deliver her "A room of one's own" lecture, this book charts the life of Laura Willowes, a sedate spinster well in her forties, who's spent all her life in the service of first her father and then her brother, wearing her independence uncomfortably but too apathetic to care much. An epiphany in a park leads her to leave all of that behind and move to a small rural village somewhat serendipitously selected from a guidebook. Here she can finally focus on her own happiness, aware as she's become that that possibility even exists. There she also explores different roles that are open to her as a middle-aged spinster of the years immediately after the first World War. Laura Willowes is an elegantly inviting character, drawn with precise observations and well-chosen obstacles; pity never became the main reason I was rooting for her. The plot is fairly sparse in this one, and many pages go by between those events and decisions that make the plot move forward. Instead Warner relies on a hypnotic style to convey the constrained emotional life of her main character. She more or less succeeded in making the journey a pleasant one, but at times I found the story slow going and caught myself wanting to read other books instead. But once I was well into part three, the story picked up again, with enough external stimuli on Laura's mental life to compensate for a fairly slow first two thirds. I also enjoyed the overall absurdity of that final third.The story slowly builds up to Laura's big monologue at the end, and even though this section could easily have devolved into a preachy tract, Warner keeps things deftly within Laura's voice, and it brings the whole of Laura's tale to a satisfying ending. At three stars, I've deducted a star for those parts where I felt bored. But I'm glad I persevered, since this novel develops a bizarrish yet rewarding ending to a sweet character.

[paperloverevolution · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Not to spoil you or anything, but "the Loving Huntsman" is Satan. This should give you a clue as to what you're in for with this book: a sly, sweet, subversive, and magical ride.

[mahallett · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

really enjoyed this. disappointing ending.

[lisapeet · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wonderful writing and a great 1926 feminist take on witches, the devil, a woman's life of drudgery and obscurity—not outdated in the least, unfortunately, but we're fortunate to have this fabulous novel.

[pitcherbooks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Beautiful dream-like writing. Lolly, one of the 'invisible women,' a forgettable middle-aged spinster, is grateful Satan (who doesn't seem a bad sort really) finds her and women like her interesting and worth "the hunt."

[k6gst · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Laura Willowes is a spinster aunt who stuns her family by fleeing their home to move to the remote Chiltern Hills village of Great Mop for no apparent reason other than that she was captivated by the smell of some beech leaves in a London florist shop, redolent of “dark rustling woods,” that came from the region. When she settles into a place there she learns that she is a witch.I loved it, beginning to end. On the other hand, my wife, to whom I read it aloud, declared it “the most boring book I have ever read.” Superlative, any way you slice it.

[jennybeast · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Oddly satisfying period read about a woman drifting through life until she doesn't. Very chill book given that she ends in a town with a satanic cult -- but very vibrant and pleasing to read.

[thedivineoomba · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is one of those books that was mentioned as in an offhand remark in book discussion I was reading. It seemed intriguing enough, so I had it ordered though inter-library loan by my local library.On initial thoughts - its very British. Which is to be expected from a book written in 1926 for a British Audience. This isn't a difficult read, but it can be hard to follow if you aren't very knowledgeable about middle class life in Britain in the first part of the 20th century. But here's the thing - Day to day tasks don't really matter. This is a book about woman taking her freedom, in a life where she has always been kept. Does it matter if you know what Laura is doing on this specific task - not really, just as long that the reader understands she is always busy, with no time for herself.As for Laura herself, she is mostly an every women- standing in for all the spinsters who find themselves not married and in the care of family. And as a result she is a bit bland, and that is by design. Even at the end of the book, she realizes she wants freedom, from everybody including Satan (who is not quite the deity from the Christian Bible), she still doesn't have much in the way of personality, just that of someone who can do as she wishes without the underlying want. As for reading it, I'm glad I did. It falls under early 20th Feminism and questions what how society keeps a women vs what a women is capable of. And it rings true in the 21st century, even the wrapping of equality, women still don't make the same as men and are expected to do chores & have a job outside the home. In some ways having even less freedom than in the early 20th century.Its a good book and a fast read. But it will leave a person thinking.

[pamelad_570511 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I found the main character to be annoyingly passive, so had minimal interest in how her life would turn out. Laura, called Lolly by her family, is a well-off spinster and could escape her dreary family any time she wants, but it's 1926 and it's hard for a woman to live independently, so she allows herself to become an indispensable maiden aunt, her individuality ignored. Eventually she escapes to a small village where she is happy until her nephew Tobias arrives and takes over her life. To make Tobias move away, Laura accepts help from an unusual source. I found the ending to be ludicrous, and it made me think even less of Laura. No-one likes a manipulative whiner!The points this book makes about women's independence may have been relevant and interesting in 1926 when it was first published.

[beyondedenrock · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Laura Willowes was a much loved daughter, she grew up happily in the country, and she became the kind of countrywoman whose life moved with the rhythms of nature in the way that lives had for generations. But when her beloved father died she became a ‘spare woman’ and her life was taken over by her brothers and their wives.Such was the way of the world in the 1920s, when Sylvia Townsend Warner told her story.“Caroline spoke affectionately, but her thoughts were elsewhere. They had already journeyed back to London to buy an eiderdown for the bed in the small spare-room. If the washstand were moved towards the door, would it be possible to fit in a writing-table between it and the fire-place? Perhaps a bureau would be better, because of the extra drawers? Yes, that was it. Lolly could bring the little walnut bureau with the false handles on one side and the top that jumped up when you touched the spring by the ink-well. It had belonged to Lolly’s mother, and Lolly had always used it, so Sibyl could not raise any objections. Sibyl had no claim to it whatever, really. She had only been married to James for two years, and if the bureau had marked the morning-room wall-paper, she could easily put something else in its place. A stand with ferns and potted plants would look very nice.”The world was changing though, I knew it and there was something in the tone, in the rhythm of the words that told me too. There was a wonderful mixture of delicate observation, wry knowingness and love for the story being told; all of that made it feel very special.Laura accepted her family’s decision, accepted it as the natural way of things, and settled into a new life. She was absorbed by her family, and even her name was changed to Lolly, because one of one of her young nieces cannot pronounce “Laura” and that was the name she came out with instead. Nobody thought to as Laura if she minded. She was a wonderful aunt, she was loved, but she wasn’t valued.“Caroline resigned herself to spending the rest of her evenings with Laura beside her. The perpetual company of a sister-in-law was rather more than she had bargained for. Still, there she was, and Henry was right—they had been the proper people to make a home for Laura when her father died, and she was too old now to begin living by herself. It was not as if she had had any experience of life; she had passed from one guardianship to another: it was impossible to imagine Laura fending for herself. A kind of pity for the unused virgin beside her spread through Caroline’s thoughts. She did not attach an inordinate value to her wifehood and maternity; they were her duties, rather than her glories. But for all that she felt emotionally plumper than Laura. It was well to be loved, to be necessary to other people. But Laura too was loved, and Laura was necessary. Caroline did not know what the children would do without their Aunt Lolly.”As her nieces and nephews grew up Laura began to feel the gap in her life, and the country and its traditions began to call her back. All she could do though was fill the house with flowers. Until one magical day when the stars aligned, and Laura realised that she could have the life she wanted, a life of her own.Sylvia Townsend Warner had painted her gradual awakening to the call of the countryside beautifully, and she makes Laura’s final realisation quite glorious:“Laura looked at the bottled fruits, the sliced pears in syrup, the glistening red plums, the greengages. She thought of the woman who had filled those jars and fastened on the bladders. Perhaps the greengrocer’s mother lived in the country. A solitary old woman picking fruit in a darkening orchard, rubbing her rough fingertips over the smooth-skinned plums, a lean wiry old woman, standing with upstretched arms among her fruit trees as though she were a tree herself, growing out of the long grass, with arms stretched up like branches. It grew darker and darker; still she worked on, methodically stripping the quivering taut boughs one after the other.” “As Laura stood waiting she felt a great longing. It weighed upon her like the load of ripened fruit upon a tree. She forgot the shop, the other customers, her own errand. She forgot the winter air outside, the people going by on the wet pavements. She forgot that she was in London, she forgot the whole of her London life. She seemed to be standing alone in a darkening orchard, her feet in the grass, her arms stretched up to the pattern of leaves and fruit, her fingers seeking the rounded ovals of the fruit among the pointed ovals of the leaves. The air about her was cool and moist. There was no sound, for the birds had left off singing and the owls had not yet begun to hoot. No sound, except sometimes the soft thud of a ripe plum falling into the grass, to lie there a compact shadow among shadows. The back of her neck ached a little with the strain of holding up her arms. Her fingers searched among the leaves.”Laura knows then that she must answer the call of the country, and fate guides her to the village of Great Mop, in the heart of Buckinghamshire. He family are astonished, they protest, but she goes anyway. And she finds happiness, she finds her place in the world, in the country.It was lovely to watch her quiet, simple transformation.But then the story changes.When Laura’s family intrude on her new life, when the balance is upset, the mystical thing that had been calling her towards her destiny became rather more tangible. And, for me, it didn’t quite work. The spirit of the story, the direction of the story was right, but it felt heavy-handed. The best books that dabble with things that may be real or may be fantastical are so captivating that I don’t stop to think about what is going on, and which it is. This part of the story didn’t quite catch me, it wasn’t quite subtle enough and I couldn’t love it as I’d loved what came before.I came unstuck near the end the first time I read ‘Lolly Willowes’ but not this timeI realised that I might be judging the book a little unfairly, because I’m comparing it with books that were written so much later, and with many of the books that I love the best of all.I have to cherish a book that, three years before Virginia Woolf published ‘A Room of One’s Own’, said:“One doesn’t become a witch to run around being harmful, or to run around being helpful either, a district visitor on a broom stick. It’s to escape all that, to have a life of one’s own, not an existence doled out to you by others, charitable refuse of their thoughts, so many ounces of stale bread a day ….”And I found so much to love that it was easy to let go of small disappointments.I loved the arc of the story, I loved the telling of the story, and I loved the spirit of the story.

[juliestielstra · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have kind of a thing for British early-to-mid-20th-century women writers: Barbara Pym, Elizabeth Jane Howard, Pamela Hansford Johnson, Jane Gardam, et al. I don't know how Sylvia Townsend Warner escaped me. I did pick up (and enjoyed) The Corner That Held Them owing to my fascination with medieval monasticism, and then her competent and sympathetic biography of T.H. White. Then I kept seeing mentions of this novel, and thought, well, guess I should try it.I loved it. Gentle, sly, quirky, odd, marvelously imagined and written - I kept stopping because I didn't want it to end. The tale is Laura's, a turn-of-the-century young "spinster," whose life is lived by the assumptions of others so smoothly and calmly and easily that she cannot even maintain her own name, let alone realize she has a life that should be hers to live, and not just assigned to the supervision of male relatives and children. Until one day, she has a vision of a ripely fruiting orchard, picks a village off the map, and just...goes. And - as such things should always do in a good story - everything changes. Her new neighbors keep odd hours, she comes and goes as she pleases, exploring her new realm. She meets a lovely fellow who teaches her how to handle chickens - for the first time, she feels "wise and potent" rather than "useful." Gradually she is drawn into the eccentric life of the village - and discovers it is rather more other-wordly than she had understood. And then, a cheery nephew decides he is going to come visit - and even live in - her village. She would once again be "Aunt Lolly," subject to Titus's whims and needs. She kneels in a meadow suddenly filled with cowslips - she had been waiting to see their great blossoming, but:...she had watched the wrong fields.... The weight of all her unhappy years seemed for a moment to weigh her bosom down to the earth; she trembled, understanding for th first time how miserable she had been; and in another moment she was released. It was all gone, it could never be again, and never had been. Tears of thankfulness ran down her face. With every breath she drew, the scent of the cowslips flowed in and absolved her.And now the fairy tale begins: a kitten arrives through the keyhole, strange little mishaps befall the importunate nephew, and Laura makes the acquaintance of a new friend who welcomes her, offers aid, and a place of belonging. Readers can decide for themselves who and what the devil may be, and what bargain is the right one to strike. You only get one life, after all, and it can be hard to see the good and evil thereof.This is one I will reread. A gem.And one last treat: I instantly recognized the cover of the NYRB edition I got from the library: a painting by August Natterer. Natterer is featured in Charlie English's compelling and terrific book about the art of psychiatric inpatients during the Nazi era, The Gallery of Miracles and Madness. An imaginary head formed of woods and waterways, birds and animals, it is the perfect image for this odd and wonderful story.

[quondame · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The story of a spinster aunt who takes her life out of her siblings' hands and goes of to a small village which is quite pleasantly normal, then, when her nephew comes to write his novel in the village and requires her support, willingly sells her soul to be comfortable rid of him. The final sections are quite strange to one acclimatized to modern Wiccans and tropes of urban fantasy, and lean toward didactic, though the ambiguity of Lolly's Satan is refreshing.

[sanddune_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Laura Willowes (or Lolly as she is now called by all her relatives) has lived at Lady Place in Somerset all her life, but on her fathers’s death it is decided by her relatives that she would be much better going to live with her brother Henry and his wife Caroline in London:‘Lolly ought to come to them. London would be a nice change for her. She would meet nice people, and in London would have a better chance of marrying. Lolly was twenty-eight. She would have to make haste if she were going to find a husband before she was thirty.’But Lolly is never interested in any of the men that are presented to her (or them her). The First World War comes and goes, and her nieces get married and have children of their own, and still Lolly remains in the house of her brother and sister in law, never living the life that she wants to live, or even knowing what life that might be. But at long last a chance encounter in a greengrocer’s shop sends her suddenly to live alone in the village of Great Mop in the Chilterns, much to the consternation of all. And after years of stultifying conventionality ministering to the needs of others, Lolly (or Laura, as she is now able to revert to her proper name) is finally able to focus on herself.Written in 1926, this is a thoughtful book which looks at the options open to an unmarried woman in the first decades of the twentieth century and which comes to a surprising conclusion. It doesn’t end up where you expect it to at all.

[gwendydd · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It seems like the author had something she wanted to say about women's independence, so she wrote a 5-page essay about it, and then realized that the essay needed some context, so she wrote a 200-page novel to build up to the 5-page essay. The rest of this review isn't exactly a spoiler, but since the main events of the book don't happen until the very end, it's impossible to talk about the book without talking about how it ends, so read on with caution.Laura Willowes (called Lolly by her niece and nephews) is a quintessential maiden aunt - after the death of her father, her married brothers and their wives take control of her life. She is cared for and given a place to live and enjoys helping to raise her nieces and nephews, but no one ever asks her what she wants. One day when she is in her middle age, she spontaneously decides to move to a small village in the countryside. The behavior of the villagers is rather strange. Laura soon realizes that they are all witches, and she joins them. And... that's pretty much it. She becomes a witch, meets the devil, gives her feminist speech, and that's the book.I suppose that it's easy to find this book disappointing a hundred years after it is set, knowing that what Laura says at the end about women's right to independence not the controversial statement that it was at the time. I also found the brief dalliance in Satanism to be very underdeveloped. Laura just kind of realizes she's a witch one day, and never stops to think about the implications of Satanism or what it means to give her soul to the devil. In the midst of a feminist screed about women's independence, it seems odd that this monumental decision is just something that happens to her rather than something she chooses to do, and that her form of independence is basically just agreeing to the whims of some man she's never met and whose existence is only theoretical.Despite all of that, the fact that I kept reading despite the fact that there was not really a plot does tell you something about how good the writing is - the book was still engaging.

[elam11 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not quite what I expected -- the much vaunted (in book summary and introduction) deal with the devil doesn't come until the final third of the book, and it's with such a soft touch that I wondered why everyone took Warner at her word that a deal indeed had been made!

Strong feminist message -- circled around for most of the book, then named explicitly at the very end in a monologue from Miss Willowes.

4.5 stars for descriptions of being among nature in the English countryside. A , would imagine I was there.

[boredgames · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

pretty good narrative though i felt a bit disengaged by the end; i wonder if the film "The Witch" is directly inspired by this. written in a lively, anachronistically quite biting and contemporary manner belying its 1926 publication date