skygiants | (no subject)

For years now I've been getting Lolly Willowes out of the library on ebook as a backup every time I go on a trip and then not getting around to it and thinking 'well, next time,' but the time finally came! What a strange and evocative little book. I knew 'Sylvia Townsend Warner' and 'about witches' and it turns out that did not in any way give me a correct impression of what it would be like.

Laura, the protagonist of Lolly Willowes, is a bit odd and dreamy and extremely Uninterested In Marriage; when her father dies and she can no longer live comfortably in a big country house with him doing as she likes, she goes to live with her brother and sister-in-law and their children. The children grow up; WWI occurs; her brother and sister-in-law give up on her marrying; nothing meaningfully changes for a full half of the book, until, suddenly, twenty years later, she is struck by a sudden profound and desperate conviction that she herself must make it change, picks a random remote location, and, to the bewilderment and disapproval of her entire family, settles in the town of Great Mop, in the Chilterns, Pop. 227.

Alone for the first time in decades, she goes for long rambles and cautiously befriends her landlady and assists with physical labor and is largely unbothered by the occasional strangeness of the village. Then her nephew -- of whom she has always been quite fond -- decides it would be lovely to come stay in her little town and experience her lovely little cottagecore lifestyle and attempt to write a book, and in his presence she finds that she is somehow trapped into being Aunt Lolly again, and all the great wonder and self-discovery of her escape has become small and domesticated.

Fortunately, Satan is there to help! and so Lolly makes a deal, and becomes a witch, which sounds quite dramatic, but isn't really any more than the rest of the book; Satan is exactly part and parcel of Laura's quiet freedom in Great Mop, bounded about by all the pettiness and silliness of the rest of the world, (including a great deal of the worship of Satan). Almost certainly Sylvia Townsend Warner wasn't the first to put into words the idea that if a woman isn't what society expects then she must become a witch [laudatory] but even to this date very few I think have expressed it with such -- prosaic isn't the word, because her writing is anything but that -- let's say close attention and interest to life in attentive, miniaturized, undramatic, and often quite funny detail.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

pauraque

It is comforting to think that in these troubled times, Satan will always be there for me.

From:

skygiants

If there's one thing you can count on!

From:

rigormorphis

I have such a fondness for this book, though it's been at least 10 years since I read it. I should see if my own library has it!

From:

skygiants

I'm so glad I finally got around to it! though now I need to figure out what the next Sylvia Townsend Warner book is that I should spend several years meaning to get around to ...

If the library doesn't have it, it also seems to be on Gutenberg!

From:

sovay

though now I need to figure out what the next Sylvia Townsend Warner book is that I should spend several years meaning to get around to ...

I very highly recommend Kingdoms of Elfin (1977), which is a collection rather than a novel, although it forms a strong mosaic; it may still be my favorite thing of hers. I officially discovered her with a then-uncollected Elfin story which can since be found in Of Cats and Elfins (2020), for which Greer did the foreword. I also love The Flint Anchor (1954), for which I recommend this essay by Matthew Cheney even if I disagree with him about the frustration of the novel. I haven't actually disliked anything of hers except for After the Death of Don Juan (1938) which I bounced off so badly I can't even remember why and should try again when I get it out of storage one of these days.

From:

luzula

Oh, I love this book--it's so odd and so entirely itself.

(Also, may I link to my Lolly Willowes/Travel Light crossover?)

From:

skygiants

oh WONDERFUL, thank you for linking!

From:

sophia_sol

oh my god?! lolly willowes has been on my tbr list forever but I never actually got a good sense of what it's about, and this sounds AMAZING

From:

skygiants

frankly I think you'd love it (and it's a quick little read, too!)

From:

movingfinger

It's one of those sui-generis books.

I blinked at your getting it from the library---isn't it out of copyright, I thought? And indeed Lolly Willowes (1926) is out of copyright and available on Project Gutenberg.

From:

skygiants

oh it is! tbh I never thought to check because it's literally always available in ebook from the library, never once has anyone else had it checked out, and 'check out to library app' is a very slightly less effortful process than 'download Gutenberg file to e-reader' ...

From:

marginaliana

Fortunately, Satan is there to help!

Oh good, it's always nice when that happens.

From:

skygiants

at least he's good for something!

From:

coffeeandink

I love some of Sylvia Townsend Warner's novels more than others, but I appreciate than none of them are much like the others, except for the quality of the prose and the keen observation.

From:

skygiants

I've only read this one and Summer Will Show so far, and it feels like the two of them are both trying to make similar points about the contraction and expansion of womens' lives in vastly different ways. (Do you have any particular favorites? I'd like to read more of her stuff but I don't have a clear idea where my next one ought to be from here.)

From:

coffeeandink

My absolute favorite is The Corner That Held Them, which is this sort of vast plotless thing about several decades of characters in a medieval nunnery, which nevertheless went so fast for me I read it in two days. It does indeed have a lot to say about the contraction and expansion of women's lives.

If you are going into things besides the novels, I highly recommend the short stories in Kingdoms of Elfin and her collected correspondence with New Yorker editor William Maxwell, The Element of Lavishness, which is flat-out the most charming thing I have ever read.

From:

qian

I second both of the fiction recommendations! I think they plus Lolly Willowes make up all the STW books I've finished to date, but I must check out The Element of Lavishness. (I'm reading Summer Will Show just now, largely on the strength of Becca's review.)

From:

sovay

Almost certainly Sylvia Townsend Warner wasn't the first to put into words the idea that if a woman isn't what society expects then she must become a witch [laudatory] but even to this date very few I think have expressed it with such -- prosaic isn't the word, because her writing is anything but that -- let's say close attention and interest to life in attentive, miniaturized, undramatic, and often quite funny detail.

Yay!

From:

skygiants

It was really a delightful experience!

From:

rushthatspeaks

It's a book I find hard to believe is coming up fast on its century, because it's still so quietly radical. I've described it to people as The Blue Castle, but with witchcraft instead of a man, and I stand by that.

At Scintillation, a small con in Montreal, earlier this summer, I ran a book club panel on it, and Greer brought her first edition, which has beautiful witch-on-broom silhouettes all over the cover. Noted by various were things such as how very little Christianity there actually is in the book, and how thoroughly obvious it becomes even that her good and pleasant relatives are not people Lolly can live with or near (go for it, that one niece who became an ambulance driver in the war and is probably off in a Mary Renault!), and how obnoxious the man who plays Satan is versus how obnoxious Satan isn't, and how some of the other witches are worthwhile even if the overall coven has... issues. And of course the cat is perfect, Sylvia Townsend Warner always has perfect cats.

Just, so radical... the drift towards Satan is not particularly a moral decision; it has nothing to do with sin. It's about what she can live with, and what she can't, which is a completely different matter, no question of morals about it at all. That's not an attitude towards witchcraft that other things take, and it is not an attitude towards women's lives that other things take anywhere nearly as often as I would like.

I hope Naomi Mitchison read this one, but I can't find proof either way.

From:

skygiants

You know I've never read The Blue Castle, and I have been aware for a long time that I ought to, but this pushes it higher up the list than anything else ever has.

That sounds like a wonderful discussion, I wish I'd been there for it! THE CAT IS INDEED PERFECT. The way that the silly pageantry of the coven is clearly all wrong for Lolly whatever it's bringing to the rest of the village is also perfect; Lolly's Satan is not a public Satan, the way that Lolly shrinks from any aspect of her life being a public thing. It's all private, quiet, personal and individual to her.

I would also really love to read Naomi Mitchison's thoughts about it.

From:

qian

I would love to know what you thought of The Blue Castle! I love it.

From:

sovay

(go for it, that one niece who became an ambulance driver in the war and is probably off in a Mary Renault!)

Headcanon accepted.

From:

deemoyza

Oh, I love The Blue Castle, and I can definitely see the parallels here! Definitely food for thought.

From:

littlerhymes

This has been on my kindle for YEARS ok maybe I finally get around to it lol.

Fortunately, Satan is there to help!

In the nick of time!

From:

osprey_archer

Buddy read??

From:

littlerhymes

Let's go!!!

From:

osprey_archer

After we finish Cooper? Little break before we read A Place of Greater Safety.

From:

bloodygranuaile

I feel like this has come up in conversation during my past few Readercons and I therefore MUST read it before the next Readercon. But I had no idea what it was about, and this helped!

From:

skygiants

Conversely, despite reading it before Readercon for the express purpose of discussing it at Readercon I somehow did not manage to end up in any Readercon conversations about it! Next year hopefully ...

From:

osprey_archer

Like you, I keep saying "I really have to read Lolly Willows someday," and now I must simply repeat it: I really have to read Lolly Willowes someday!" I had vaguely classed the book in my mind with The Master and Margarita (because witches), but obviously it's a completely different take on witches.

From:

skygiants

Meanwhile you have just reminded me that I really have to read The Master and Margarita!

From:

thedivinegoat

I read this sometime ago, and wanted to re-read it, but could not remember the name, and now I know it and can reread it, so thank you!

From:

skygiants

Extremely happy to help :D

From:

lirazel

I feel like this is one of those I need to revisit. I absolutely loved the style and then when literal Satan shows up, I felt jolted out of the story because I just was not expecting that. I think if I reread it, knowing what's coming, I would understand it a lot better this time around!

From:

skygiants

Meanwhile, the one thing I did know was that Satan was going to be showing up and I spent the first half of the book like "well ... I guess it'll happen eventually but this I admit is not the pacing I expected ...."

From:

chestnut_pod

"Fortunately, Satan is there to help!" -- having heard even less than you about this book, this sentence gave me quite a pleasant start!

From:

skygiants

Sorry to ruin the surprise for if you ever read the book!

From:

deemoyza

I came across this post on my Network page, and thank you for introducing me to this story! I read it in one sitting and found it incredibly satisfying.

I was pleasantly surprised with the quiet ending of the story; contrary to typical connotations of witchcraft and dealings with the devil, the sense of peace and sheer relief Lolly eventually finds is lovely, even a bit enviable (who among us hasn't considered selling our soul for a moment's peace, at least once? ;)).