Lolly Willowes

Lolly Willowes

Or, The Loving Huntsman

About the Book

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.
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Praise for Lolly Willowes

“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
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Modern Library Torchbearers Series

Plum Bun
The House of Madelaine
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
I Am Clarence
Lolly Willowes
The Princess of 72nd Street
Quicksand
Regiment of Women
The Goodness of St. Rocque
A Daughter of the Samurai
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About the Author

Sylvia Townsend Warner
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About the Author

Mona Awad
MONA AWAD is the author of Bunny, named a Best Book of 2019 by Time, Vogue, and the New York Public Library. It was a finalist for the New England Book Award and a Goodreads Choice Award for Best Horror. It is currently under option for film with Bad Robot Productions. Awad’s first novel, 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and winner of the Colorado Book Award. Her third novel, All’s Well, was longlisted for the International Dublin Award and was a finalist for a Goodreads Choice Award for Best Horror. Rouge is currently optioned for film by Fremantle and Sinestra. She teaches in the creative writing program at Syracuse University and is based in Boston. More by Mona Awad
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