Lolly Willowes: or the loving huntsmen (Little Clothbound Classics)

The blurb says 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" and it's everything you'd expect from such a book. It's a fun and heartwarming story, full of pretty words and beautiful descriptions. I loved this book and am surprised I’d never previously heard of Sylvia Townsend Warner.

First published in 1926, this was the debut novel for Sylvia Townsend Warner, and is the first book I have read by her. Our main character is Laura Willowes, the much beloved daughter of Everard Willowes, a wealthy brewer. Laura has two brothers, Henry and James, and an idyllic childhood. Although she is still very young, at twenty eight, when her father dies, in her family’s eyes, she is a spinster and needs to come under the wing of one of her brothers. Thus is is that ‘Aunt Lolly,’ leaves the country and goes to live in London with Henry and his wife, Caroline. This is known as a feminist novel, and it is certainly takes a look at the expectations, and limitations, for unmarried women in this period. Laura becomes the ever helpful aunt, and sister-in-law. Caroline feels sorry for her reduced status, while, eventually, Laura feels too restricted, and confined, by the life she lives. As time passes, she suddenly decides to change her circumstances and moves to Great Mop in the country. However, will she be allowed the peace, and independence she craves? And, if the expectations of family, and society, follow her, how far will she go to retain control over her new life? “Lolly Willowes,” was a huge success when it was first published. Indeed, it was the very first Book of the Month in the USA, as well as having the manuscript displayed in the New York Public Library for many years. Although Laura’s discontent is never too extreme – there is, you feel, a certain dreamlike quality about the story, which means it does not get too serious – the essential plot is still relevant. Our circumstances may not be like Lolly’s, but many of us, at some point of our lives, wish to make a change and, as such, this makes this charming novel still very much worth reading.

Consistent writing style It's not clear about how she became a witch. Much preferred the first part of the book.

This was Townsend Warner's first novel, and it's a striking one, which by all accounts caused quite a stir when it first appeared in 1926. The innocent-sounding title, and the quasi-Victorian, Gilbert-and-Sullivanish subtitle "Or, The Loving Huntsman" are deliberate attempts to lead the reader up the garden path. For the Loving Huntsman is none other than the Devil himself, to whom maiden aunt Lolly Willowes has sold her soul for a bit of peace and quiet. Laura Willowes, known to friends and family as Aunt Lolly, is the youngest child and only daughter of brewery owner and doting father Everard, with whom she lives a happy, bookish existence until his sudden death when she is twenty-eight. She moves in with her brother and sister-in-law in London, who treat her with well-meaning condescension as a sort of unpaid nanny: "Henry and Caroline did all they could to prevent her feeling unhappy. If they had been overlooking some shame of hers they could not have been more tactful, more modulatory." Friends and family are unanimous in considering the Lolly problem settled. A few years later, however, she astonishes them all by renting a cottage in the obscure Bedfordshire village of Great Mop, where she intends to stay alone. But all is not as it seems there: the village community seems strangely closed, and there are odd goings-on by moonlight. None of this greatly troubles Lolly, who relaxes into a gentle nature mysticism. However, when her family begin inviegling for her return to London, she finds that there is no option but to invoke supernatural assistance... Don't be misled into expecting a Gothic tale, however: although the book is undoubtedly quietly subversive (even nowadays), there is never any doubt that Lolly intends no real harm to anyone; and all ends satisfactorily for everyone involved. The Devil is a surprisingly gentle character when he makes his unexpected personal appearance towards the end of the book; really more Pan than Satan. (Townsend Warner was never afraid of bringing big names into her narratives: Queen Victoria has a similarly unexpected cameo role in "The True Heart".) John Updike has succinctly summarised this book as "witty, eerie, tender": like several of Townsend Warner's novels, it is an indefinable, genre-breaking work, and is unlikely to be much like anything you've read before.

An oddball tale, would appeal to those who enjoy historical and mystical novels.

El libro me está gustando muchísimo, pero en la mitad del libro opté por comprar el libro físico publicado por Penguin y devolver este Kindle, porque está lleno de erratas y tarda un poco más en cargarse comparado con otros libros Kindle que he leído. Si no puedes gastar nada, se puede leer este Kindle, pero hay cosas que molestan, por ejemplo que a veces faltan los puntos finales etc.

Sylvia Townsend Warner è una di quelle scrittrici a cui dovremmo molto se non ci dimenticassimo puntualmente di onorarle: accade di solito con le anime troppo complesse, con quelle personalità eccentriche, fuori dal coro, che fatichiamo a rincorrere e ad acciuffare. Cancelliamo idealmente ciò che non si lascia ingabbiare e forse è questo ciò che è accaduto a Sylvia. Il pubblico che l’aveva tanto amata quando uscì il suo romanzo d’esordio, “Lolly Willowes o l’amoroso cacciatore” L’ha poi sottovalutata. Poco letta, poco commentata e poco nota direi!! Di certo non è un’autrice di cui si parla in classe ma tra ironia, fantasia, sovrannaturale e realtà l’autrice lancia un messaggio molto chiaro. Lolly, la protagonista, rifiuta in blocco la famiglia di origine e rifiuta soprattutto di essere definita in base alle relazioni con gli uomini: non vi è dipendenza dall’altro sesso, anzi, c’è piuttosto l’intenzione di conquistare il potere con tutti i mezzi a disposizione, legittimi e non, cosa che spinge ancora di più Laura, nella parte finale del romanzo, a mettersi in gioco – anche grazie a un confronto definitivo con Satana in persona ma la protagonista rifiuterà addirittura satana per affermare la propria indipendenza .

This novel is many things; some people say it might be a feminist novel and the author a literary maverick, or this novel is unusual because the main character finally realizes her true vocation as a witch, but _Lolly Willowes_ is so much more beautiful and complex than all that. For one thing, no review that I'd read said anything about this story being about one woman's love of the English countryside. The beauty of the land is on every page. The main character, Laura Willowes, "Aunt Lolly," gets so much pleasure from walking the hills and meadows and woods and woodland paths that I feel sure that author Sylvia Townsend Warner put herself into Lolly. If being passionate about solitary walks in nature is a sign of witchcraft, then let's have more of it. The novel flows beautifully, and has many lines like this: "The bees droned in the motionless lime trees" (38). Sensitive images like that do many things: they show the passion for the countryside (as I mentioned), and also give the reader a sense of time, and place, and mood, and Lolly's interior thoughts. These carefully-crafted sentences are not random poetic lines dropped into the text but part and parcel of this novel's pace and tone of voice. In a pivotal scene, Lolly is in a shop room when she goes into a sort of meditative trance; the room falls quiet like she's alone outdoors: "No sound, except sometimes the soft thud of a riper plum falling into the grass, to lie there a compact shadow among shadows" (80). The novel is 220 pages and divided into three parts of almost equal length, each part mapping out Lolly Willowes's life through her psychological development. Part 1 shows what the wild hill country meant to Lolly, as she goes from birth through childhood in the care of her loving father, whose nurturing of her is truly a touching portrait of fatherhood. This opening section also shows the social environment in which Lolly is embedded; we see the development of her two brothers and their wives and children, how they are well-off--but perhaps not typically middle-class--and how the "spinster aunt" Lolly plays a useful social role. The Willowes stalwart Englishness is characterized by steadfast values, often predictable, but what society depends upon. Though Lolly seems stuck in one position (the maiden Aunt), it is a comfortable prison. This early portrait of Laura Willowes is necessary to show her later development and how her streak of creativity finds expression when she breaks away from her brother and the Willowes's stable and secure existence. Also of note is that this novel was originally published in 1926 and now has a kind of sociological or non-fiction quality. I'm not spoiling the novel for you if I suggest that the turning point is in Part 1 around the topic of how the Willowes family holds up during World War I, or the Great War, during which they have been confined to London: During the immediate aftermath of the war, Lolly becomes aware that she is hungry for change in life: "She [Lolly] saw how admirable it was for Henry and Caroline [ her brother and his wife ] to have stayed where they were [in London]." The narrator continues, "But she was conscious, more conscious than they were, that the younger members of the family had somehow moved into new positions. And she herself, had she not slightly strained against her moorings, fast and far sunk as they were?" (66). Again, the key to Lolly/Laura's happiness is the countryside--but in an unusual expression of creative energy and self-consciousness, which you'll find out when you read. There is an understated sensuality at work all through this novel, one that male readers can appreciate, too, since Warner knew that there were men like Lolly Willowes, who wanted to break away from their masculine social roles in the 1920s.

Very dated - not a children’s book - I’m over 80!