©2025 Fable Group Inc.
3.5 

Lolly Willowes

By Sylvia Townsend Warner & Alison Lurie
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner & Alison Lurie digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

THE WITCHY FEMINIST CLASSIC: The “beautifully written . . . extraordinary” story of an English spinster who rejects the life society has given her—and becomes a witch instead (Helen McDonald, New York Times Book Review).
 
“Witty, eerie, tender.” —John Updike
 
In Lolly Willowes, Sylvia Townsend Warner tells of an aging spinster’s struggle to break away from her controlling family—a classic story that she treats with cool feminist intelligence, while adding a dimension of the supernatural and strange.
 
Warner is one of the outstanding and indispensable mavericks of 20th-century literature, a writer to set beside Djuna Barnes and Jane Bowles, with a subversive genius that anticipates the fantastic flights of such contemporaries as Angela Carter and Jeanette Winterson.

Download the free Fable app

app book lists

Stay organized

Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.
app book recommendations

Build a better TBR

Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building tool
app book reviews

Rate and review

Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tags
app comments

Curate your feed

Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities
app book lists

Stay organized

Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.
app book recommendations

Build a better TBR

Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building tool
app book reviews

Rate and review

Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tags
app comments

Curate your feed

Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities

79 Reviews

3.5
Smiling Face with Heart-Eyes“There is so much time that separates my reading of this classic early feminist novel to when it was first published. Yet, I’m touched to see I share the same thoughts, values, and grief that women in 1926 held. We have found value and our freedom in the occult for many lifetimes. No matter how much they tried and try to shame, hide, beat, torture, or worse otherwise it out of us, I can never be ashamed of my love for the strange. It has held me all my life just as it comes to hold Lolly.”
“I see my future and it is bright”

About Sylvia Townsend Warner

Sylvia Townsend Warner (1893–1978) was a poet, short-story writer, and novelist, as well as an authority on early English music and a devoted member of the Communist Party. Her many books include Mr. Fortune’s Maggot and Lolly Willows (both published by NYRB Classics), The Corner that Held Them, andKingdoms of Elfin.

Alison Lurie is a former Professor of English at Cornell. Her most recent novel is Truth and Consequences.

Start a Book Club

Start a public or private book club with this book on the Fable app today!

FAQ

Do I have to buy the ebook to participate in a book club?

Why can’t I buy the ebook on the app?

How is Fable’s reader different from Kindle?

Do you sell physical books too?

Are book clubs free to join on Fable?

How do I start a book club with this book on Fable?

Error Icon
Save to a list
0
/
30
0
/
100
Private List
Private lists are not visible to other Fable users on your public profile.
Notification Icon
Fable uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB