Lolly Willowes
core novel 1926 Lolly Willowes
Record
| First published | 1926 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.68 (14,846 ratings, collected 2026-09-25) |
| Page count | 222 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780940322165 |
Synopsis
At the turn of the twentieth century, after her father's death, Laura Willowes leaves the family home in Somerset to live with her brother Henry and his family in London, where she becomes "Aunt Lolly", the useful unmarried relative. Twenty years later, stifled by duty and by the city, she buys a guidebook to the Chiltern Hills on an impulse and, against her family's wishes, moves alone to the village of Great Mop. Among the chalk hills and beech woods she finds the freedom she has missed, along with strange noises in the night. When her nephew Titus follows her there and begins to lean on her once more, Laura, walking in the woods, makes a pact with a power she takes to be Satan, and a kitten appears at her lodgings soon after.
Where it sits
- Universe: Lolly Willowes
- Series: not part of a registered series (standalone work within its universe)
- Author: Sylvia Townsend Warner
Awards (verified)
- Prix Femina–Vie Heureuse (English novel), 1927: finalist; Shortlisted as one of the three English novels sent to the French committee; the 1927 prize went to Radclyffe Hall's Adam's Breed.
Notes
- After twenty years as the unmarried aunt in her brother's London household, Laura Willowes moves alone to a Chiltern village, where she discovers her vocation as a witch and a strange bargain with the Devil.
Sources
← Lolly Willowes dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.