Lolly Willowes

"The story of a woman who rejects the life that society has fixed for her in favor of freedom and the most unexpected of alliances." - The New York Times Book Review
In her acclaimed debut novel, the twentieth-century English writer "moves with somber confidence into the realm of the supernatural, and her prose, in its simple, abrupt evocations, has something preternatural about it. 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).
When Laura Willowes's beloved father dies, she is absorbed in the household of her brother and his family. There, she leaves behind "Laura" and enters into the state of "Aunt Lolly," a genteel spinster indispensable to the upbringing of her nieces. For twenty years, Lolly is neither indulgent nor impulsive, until one day when she decides to move to a village in the Chilterns, much to her family's chagrin.
But it's in the countryside, among nature, where Lolly has her first taste of freedom. Duty-bound to no one except herself, she revels in the solitary life. When her nephew moves there, and Lolly feels once again thrust into her old familial role, she reaches out to the otherworldly, to the darkness, to the unheeded power within the hearts of women to feel at peace once more...
"A great shout of life and individuality." - The Guardian

Sylvia Townsend Warner was an English musicologist, novelist, and poet. Her debut novel, Lolly Willowes, was published in 1926. Her focus was subverting societal norms, and her work heavily rejects the Church and embraces female empowerment and independence. Her romantic relationship with fellow poet Valentine Ackland influenced her own writing, and they collaborated on the collection Whether a Dove or a Seagull in 1933. The two were active in the Communist Party, and Marxist ideals appear in Warner's later works.