Book description
Lolly Willowes is a twenty-eight-year-old spinster when her adored
father dies, leaving her dependent upon her brothers and their wives.
After twenty years of self-effacement as a maiden aunt, she decides to
break free and moves to a small Bedfordshire village. Here, happy and
unfettered, she enjoys her new existence nagged only by the sense of a
secret she has yet to discover. That secret - and her vocation - is
witchcraft, and with her cat and a pact with the Devil, Lolly Willowes
is finally free. An instant success on its publication in 1926, LOLLY
WILLOWES is Sylvia Townsend Warner's first and most magical novel.
Deliciously wry and inviting, it was her piquant plea that single women
find liberty and civility, a theme that would later be explored by
Virginia Woolf in 'A Room of One's Own'. One of our most
idiosyncratic, courageous and versatile writers HERMIONE LEE A novel as
original in its conception as it is subtle and refined in its artistry
... LOLLY WILLOWES retains all of the charm and all of the 'relevance it
owned years ago' TLS 'Witty, eerie, tender' JOHN UPDIKE, NEW YORKER 'She
has a talent amounting to genius' Born in Harrow (1893-1978), Sylvia
Townsend Warner published seven novels, four volumes of poetry, a volume
of essays and eight volumes of short stories. She lived most of her
adult life with her close companion Valentine Ackland in Dorset and
Norfolk.
