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3.5 

Lolly Willowes

By Sylvia Townsend Warner
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

"This is the witty, eerie, tender but firm life history of a middle-class Englishwoman who politely declines to make the expected connection with the opposite sex and becomes a witch instead." — John Updike

Forty-seven-year-old Lolly Willowes is a conventional maiden aunt, an unpaid companion and babysitter to her brothers' children. After years of submission to her controlling family, she develops a longing for the countryside and dark, wild places that impels her to flee London for a remote village. Lolly soon discovers that her new neighbors are a coven of bohemian witches and eventually encounters Satan himself — a genial country gentleman who's ready to make a pact. 
The first-ever selection of the Book of the Month Club upon its 1926 publication, Lolly Willowes was a surprise international bestseller. This proto-feminist work has since been chosen as one of the Guardian's 100 Best Novels of All Time, and it remains a richly satirical novel that celebrates the joys of self-actualization.

"Revolutionary ... a subtle demand for women's power over their own lives." — Alison Lurie

"Remarkable ... pungent and satisfying." — Saturday Review

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334 Reviews

3.5
“Lolly Willowes è una donna con "un'innata indifferenza al bisogno di trovar marito". Senza marito, è destinata a condurre un'esistenza ai margini della vita domestica del fratello. Poi, la sua prima decisione controcorrente: vuole trasferirsi in campagna alla ricerca di un 'bosco tutto per sé' dove poter condurre un'esistenza libera, in solitudine e in sintonia con la natura. "Lolly Willowes" si divide in 3 parti, che mi sono risultate slegate tra di loro. La prima, la più coinvolgente, mi aveva convinto per le istanze protofemministe pronunciate dalla protagonista. La seconda, estremamente soporifera, vede Lolly condurre un'esistenza modesta, tra passeggiate nel bosco e richiami alla luna. La terza parte è invece allucinatoria e confusionaria, ma anche quella più originale per gli elementi magici e la riflessione sulle donne. Sono streghe quelle che vivono e invecchiano trascurate e si votano al Diavolo per soddisfare il loro amore per l'avventura e per emanciparsi dalla sottomissione maschile (ma non è il Diavolo un altro uomo?). Insomma, Lolly Willowes si pone come un libro con più anime: quella protofemminista, quella contemplativa della natura e quella stregonesca. Ma fallisce nell'unirle insieme in modo credibile e consegna una storia noiosa, con personaggi piatti e indistinguibili tra di loro. In generale, ho provato un generale disinteresse per la storia. Non leggetelo se cercate un libro sulle streghe perché c’é davvero poco. Ma potrebbe piacere a chi ama le atmosfere goticheggianti e i libri no plot just vibes ambientati nella campagna inglese.”
“Really not the type of book that I enjoy. I only read it because I am a member of book of the month and this was the first book that they ever used and I was curious. it was okay and a fast read.”

About Sylvia Townsend Warner

Sylvia Townsend Warner (1893–1978) was a British author who began her self-proclaimed "accidental career" as a poet after she was given paper with a "particularly tempting surface." Originally a musicologist, Warner was one of the editors of the 10-volume Tudor Church Music and was also a contributor to Grove’s Dictionary of Music. Lolly Willowes, her first novel, was the first selection of the Book of the Month Club. In addition to her short stories, 144 of which appeared in the New Yorker, Warner also published many collections of short fiction, novels, volumes of poetry, and works of nonfiction, including Jane Austen: 1775–1817 and the semiautobiographical, posthumously published Scenes of Childhood.

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