I feel like Lolly Willowes, or The Loving Huntsman is a solid 3.5; I did quite like it and I liked
what author Sylvia Townsend Warner was going for, but I'm not sure I'm totally on
board.
Honestly, I would've enjoyed this had it been a more...let's say typical story. Laura Willowes is born toward the end of the 19th century; she has two older brothers and her mother dies while she's very young, so Laura becomes her supportive father's hostess. But when he dies, she gets shuffled off to live with one of her brothers in London. So moves from her father's house to her brother's, where she becomes Aunt Lolly and loses her identity. She lives a very quiet, regimented life and only very belated understands how unhappy she's been. So she leaves! She goes to a village and honestly, that's all I needed. I didn't need her to become a witch and literally meet and converse with Satan.
I realized after reading some Barbara Pym books that I find the stories of women's quiet lives in England, written in the interwar period entertaining. Townsend Warner's writing style is excellent; I was delighted throughout the book:
Honestly, I would've enjoyed this had it been a more...let's say typical story. Laura Willowes is born toward the end of the 19th century; she has two older brothers and her mother dies while she's very young, so Laura becomes her supportive father's hostess. But when he dies, she gets shuffled off to live with one of her brothers in London. So moves from her father's house to her brother's, where she becomes Aunt Lolly and loses her identity. She lives a very quiet, regimented life and only very belated understands how unhappy she's been. So she leaves! She goes to a village and honestly, that's all I needed. I didn't need her to become a witch and literally meet and converse with Satan.
I realized after reading some Barbara Pym books that I find the stories of women's quiet lives in England, written in the interwar period entertaining. Townsend Warner's writing style is excellent; I was delighted throughout the book:
Mourning [clothing] was never satisfactory if one bought it in a country town. (p. 2)
It was a decent family boast that great-great-aunt Salome's puff paste has been commended by King George III (p. 5)
During the last few years of her life Mrs. Willowes grew continually more skilled in evading responsibilities, and her death seemed but the final perfected expression of this skill (p. 12)
and so on.
The book ultimately comes down to this:
The book ultimately comes down to this:
One doesn’t become a witch to run around being harmful, or to run around being helpful either, a district visitor on a broomstick. It’s to escape all that - to have a life of one’s own, not an existence doled out to by others.
That was one of the advantages of dealing with witches; they do not mind if you are a little odd in your ways, frown if you are late for meals, fret if you are out all night, pry and commiserate when at length you return. Lovely to be with people who prefer their thoughts to yours, lovely to live at your own sweet will, lovely to sleep out all night!
Laura
finds freedom by fleeing the constraints of society and her family and I
feel like that can be done without saying "I'm a witch! In a town of
them!" Simply the juxtaposition of her life in Great Mop with that of
her life with her brother is enough to show her freedom. But I guess in
that world, being a witch is the only way to have those freedoms.
I like what Townsend Warner was saying and I liked her writing, but I wound up slightly aggravated by the book as well. It's still great to get this perspective from that period of time.
I like what Townsend Warner was saying and I liked her writing, but I wound up slightly aggravated by the book as well. It's still great to get this perspective from that period of time.
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