Description: "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?"--
Review Quotes: "A nearly perfect novel . . . Lolly Willowes presents itself to the reader with all the placid charm of a comic English country novel. . . . Yet its pleasantly arch, witty voice is hiding a deep well of fury."--Vox
"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