Novel
Lolly Willowes
Sylvia Townsend Warner · 1926
Synopsis
On the death of her father, Laura Willowes is twenty-eight and goes to live in London with her brother Henry, where she is called Lolly. Twenty years pass in this way. At forty-seven, seized by a longing for the countryside and wild places, she announces that she will go and live alone at Great Mop, a remote village in the Chiltern hills, and she settles there.
Context
The novel appeared in London at the beginning of 1926; its author was then unknown. In the United States, it was the very first book chosen by a subscription book club founded that year, and she replied, according to the club, that she was astonished, delighted, and sure that an organisation bold enough to choose an unknown author would be a boon to the letters of the time. She was still working then on the edition of early music that occupied her until 1929.
Who it is for
About two hundred pages; translated into French as early as 1933, then retranslated in 1987 under the title Laura Willowes.
Prizes and reception
In 1926 it was the first selection of the American Book-of-the-Month Club, which sent it to its subscribers.
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