Lolly Willowes, by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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Sylvia Townsend Warner
13 min read
The author of Lolly Willowes led a fascinating unconventional life as a poet, novelist, and Communist who lived openly with her female partner Valentine Ackland for decades - her biography illuminates the themes of rebellion and nonconformity central to her novel
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Witch-cult hypothesis
15 min read
The novel was published in 1926 during the height of Margaret Murray's influential theory that European witchcraft represented a surviving pre-Christian pagan religion - this context shapes Warner's sympathetic portrayal of witchcraft as female liberation
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Ecofeminism
18 min read
The article explicitly mentions the novel is 'ripe for ecofeminist readings' and explores Laura's visceral connection to nature against industrial capitalism - understanding ecofeminism as a theoretical framework enriches interpretation of these themes
Sylvia Townsend Warner’s 1926 novel Lolly Willowes is on my mind right now because just a little while ago, Dorian, Frances, and I recorded a One Bright Book episode about it. My experience of discussing books for the podcast is that I always ending up thinking about the book in a new way, which is fun, but I also end up with thoughts running through my mind for hours or days afterward that I wish I could have expressed during the recording. That’s less fun, but inevitable. We don’t want our episodes to go on too long, after all, and I can’t (or won’t) add to them afterward.
So I thought I’d write out some of the thoughts I’ve had here in this newsletter. In this space, I can think about the book at my own pace and say as much as I want to, right? I will be discussing the book as a whole, so expect spoilers below. In fact, this is really aimed at people who have read the book already, although those who haven’t might find something to interest them anyway.
I loved Lolly Willowes even though I went into it concerned because I hadn’t liked Warner’s novel Summer Will Show when I read it a decade or so ago. But Lolly Willowes — the story of a woman who leaves her life as a conventional spinster aunt to live on her own and become a witch — is something else entirely, and I fell under its spell (pun intended!). Lolly — or Laura, which is surely the better name to use — is a wonderful character, and I loved her. One of her best traits is how she stays true to herself — once she knows what that self is at least — even when she’s disappointed by the outcome. She’s so excited and happy to become a witch (or is it that she’s been a witch all along and only now realizes it?), but then she dislikes the Witch’s Sabbath, which is too social, too free and silly for her, and she’s disappointed that she will likely get kicked out of town for not fitting in, but she’s not going to pretend she likes it just to stay.
She meets someone she thinks is the devil at the Sabbath and doesn’t like him, and she’s disappointed when it seems like witchery isn’t going to work
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