Book Review: Lolly Willowes
Oct. 4th, 2024 09:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerA couple months ago skygiants posted about Sylvia Townsend Warner’s Lolly Willowes, and in the comments both littlerhymes confessed that we had meant to read the book for ages, and so of course we instantly popped it on our list as our next buddy read.
It’s a slim book, and we finished it a couple weeks ago, and I’ve been procrastinating on writing a review of it because it’s just such an odd book and I’m not sure what to say.
First: this book has long been grouped in my mind with Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, for no better reason than “mid-twentieth century books dealing with witchcraft??” They are, indeed, both mid-twentieth century books dealing with witchcraft. This comparison is both wildly misleading and sometimes curiously apt, in that they both posit witchcraft and Satan as a potential solution to the repression of Society/the State.
Second: there is no witchcraft at all for the first two thirds of this book. The first section is “This is Laura’s life hitherto,” in which nothing happens despite the fact that there are multiple marriages, births, deaths, and the entirety of World War I, because Laura herself remains completely stationary. The second section is “And then Laura moves to the village of Great Mop! She spends her days wandering the countryside, blissfully happy in her solitude. Still no magic.”
Third: in part three, witchcraft arrives! In the form of a kitten whom Laura decides is Satan. To be honest this worried me, as it seemed more indicative of mental breakdown than magic, but no, Laura is correct and the kitten IS (a messenger of) Satan, and Laura is invited to the witch’s Sabbath.
Another book I had been comparing this to is The Blue Castle. They are similar in that both heroines abandon their oppressive families, but unlike Valancy, Laura is emphatically not in search of new social connections. At the witch’s Sabbath, where you might expect Laura to finally find Her People, she instead discovers that she hates parties just as much as ever after selling her soul to the devil.
And then we wrap up with a section where Laura has a conversation with the devil, wherein she spells out the point of the book, that sometimes witchcraft is the only option for women who fall outside society’s norms, really. The devil listens politely and then walks off. He is the loving huntsman because he makes every effort to win you, and then, having won, leaves you alone, which is all Laura wants anyway.
skygiants posted about Sylvia Townsend Warner’s Lolly Willowes, and in the comments both littlerhymes confessed that we had meant to read the book for ages, and so of course we instantly popped it on our list as our next buddy read. It’s a slim book, and we finished it a couple weeks ago, and I’ve been procrastinating on writing a review of it because it’s just such an odd book and I’m not sure what to say.
First: this book has long been grouped in my mind with Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, for no better reason than “mid-twentieth century books dealing with witchcraft??” They are, indeed, both mid-twentieth century books dealing with witchcraft. This comparison is both wildly misleading and sometimes curiously apt, in that they both posit witchcraft and Satan as a potential solution to the repression of Society/the State.
Second: there is no witchcraft at all for the first two thirds of this book. The first section is “This is Laura’s life hitherto,” in which nothing happens despite the fact that there are multiple marriages, births, deaths, and the entirety of World War I, because Laura herself remains completely stationary. The second section is “And then Laura moves to the village of Great Mop! She spends her days wandering the countryside, blissfully happy in her solitude. Still no magic.”
Third: in part three, witchcraft arrives! In the form of a kitten whom Laura decides is Satan. To be honest this worried me, as it seemed more indicative of mental breakdown than magic, but no, Laura is correct and the kitten IS (a messenger of) Satan, and Laura is invited to the witch’s Sabbath.
Another book I had been comparing this to is The Blue Castle. They are similar in that both heroines abandon their oppressive families, but unlike Valancy, Laura is emphatically not in search of new social connections. At the witch’s Sabbath, where you might expect Laura to finally find Her People, she instead discovers that she hates parties just as much as ever after selling her soul to the devil.
And then we wrap up with a section where Laura has a conversation with the devil, wherein she spells out the point of the book, that sometimes witchcraft is the only option for women who fall outside society’s norms, really. The devil listens politely and then walks off. He is the loving huntsman because he makes every effort to win you, and then, having won, leaves you alone, which is all Laura wants anyway.
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Date: 2024-10-04 06:02 pm (UTC)Lolly's feelings about parties are very relatable.