Lolly Willowes - (Modern Library Torchbearers) by Sylvia Townsend Warner (Paperback)

About the Book

"Laura 'Lolly' Willowes is an unmarried, middle-aged woman in early-twentieth-century London--a spinster who has lived with, and in service of, her brother's overbearing family for the past twenty years. With her brother's children now grown and out of the house, Lolly shocks her family by making a choice for herself: to move, alone, to the English countryside. Once she arrives, Lolly carves out a life in this lush and wild land, finding independence and peace that she has never before experienced. Unfortunately, the family can't quite let go of Lolly, and her nephew shows up unannounced to move in with her. So long ruled by her family's wishes, Lolly makes a rash decision, turning to the Devil himself to solve her problems. With a subversive wit, Sylvia Townsend Warner poses the question: What would a woman do to ensure her freedom?"--

Book Synopsis

A satirical feminist classic about a woman who leaves her stifling place in her brother's London home for the wilds of the English countryside, where she meets and makes a deal with the devil himself--with an introduction by Mona Awad, author of Bunny

"Lolly Willowes calls for 'a life of one's own' three years before Virginia Woolf's impassioned cry for a room. . . . An elegantly enchanting tale that transcends its era."--The Guardian

Laura "Lolly" Willowes is an unmarried, middle-aged woman in early-twentieth-century London--a spinster who has lived with, and in service of, her brother's overbearing family for the past twenty years. With her brother's children now grown and out of the house, Lolly shocks her family by making a choice for herself: to move, alone, to the English countryside.

Once she arrives, Lolly carves out a life in this lush and wild land, finding independence and peace that she has never before experienced. Unfortunately, the family can't quite let go of Lolly, and her nephew shows up unannounced to move in with her. So long ruled by her family's wishes, Lolly makes a rash decision, turning to the Devil himself to solve her problems. With a subversive wit, Sylvia Townsend Warner poses the question: What would a woman do to ensure her freedom?

The Modern Library Torchbearers series features women who wrote on their own terms, with boldness, creativity, and a spirit of resistance.

Review Quotes

"A nearly perfect novel . . . Lolly Willowes presents itself to the reader with all the placid charm of a comic English country novel. . . . Yet its pleasantly arch, witty voice is hiding a deep well of fury."--Vox

"Starting as a straightforward, albeit beautifully written family saga, [Lolly Willowes] tips suddenly into extraordinary, lucid wildness."--Helen Macdonald, The New York Times Book Review's "By the Book"

"Lolly Willowes calls for 'a life of one's own' three years before Virginia Woolf's impassioned cry for a room. . . . With its clear feminist agenda, Lolly Willowes holds its own among Townsend Warner's historical fiction, but it's also an elegantly enchanting tale that transcends its era."--The Guardian

About the Author

Sylvia Townsend Warner (1893-1978) was an English writer and musicologist. Raised in the academic world, she began her career as a researcher of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century music. Townsend Warner wrote seven novels, eight poetry collections, and sixteen short story collections and contributed short stories to The New Yorker for over forty years.