Lolly Willowes. Book Review.

Lolly Willowes, Or the Loving Huntsman (New York Review Books Classics) by Sylvia Townsend Warner is an early 20th-century argument for becoming a witch.

Written in a time when a single woman’s choices were limited, we watch as a woman’s life progresses from pleasant to boring to sad, where all major decisions, including those of her finances, are made outside of her control. She watches things move and shift around her, with little regard to her as a person with additional thoughts and feelings.

It leaves her no choice but to become a witch.

What price would you pay for freedom? For peace? Is she the one doing wrong, or is it society?

While some of these themes and issues are dated, sadly, some still are not.

The narrative is a bit slow, but so is Lolly’s life, so that may be fitting. The reader should be cautioned that the real meat of the book takes place in the final pages, and to start this book, to truly get the pay-off, the reader needs to stick with it to the very end.