Bücher von Sylvia Townsend Warner

Lolly Willowes; or The Loving Huntsman is a novel by English writer Sylvia Townsend Warner, her first, published in 1926. It has been described as an early feminist classic."Lolly" is the version of Laura's name used by her family after a mispronunciation by a young niece. She comes to dislike being called "Aunt Lolly" and to see the name as a symbol of her lack of independence. "The Loving Huntsman" refers to Satan, whom Laura envisions as hunting souls in a kindly way.Lolly Willowes is a satirical comedy of manners incorporating elements of fantasy. It is the story of a middle-aged spinster who moves to a country village to escape her controlling relatives and takes up the practice of witchcraft. The novel opens at the turn of the twentieth century, with Laura Willowes moving from Somerset to London to live with her brother Henry and his family. The move comes in the wake of the death of Laura's father, Everard, with whom she lived at the family home, Lady Place. Laura's other brother, James, moves into Lady Place with his wife and his young son, Titus, with the intention to continue the family's brewing business. However, James dies suddenly of a heart attack and Lady Place is rented out, with the view that Titus, once grown up, will return to the home and run the business.After twenty years of being a live-in aunt Laura finds herself feeling increasingly stifled both by her obligations to the family and by living in London. When shopping for flowers on the Moscow Road, Laura decides she wishes to move to the Chiltern Hills and, buying a guide book and map to the area, she picks the village of Great Mop as her new home. Against the wishes of her extended family, Laura moves to Great Mop and finds herself entranced and overwhelmed by the chalk hills and beech woods. Though sometimes disturbed by strange noises at night, she settles in and befriends her landlady and a poultry farmer.After a while, Titus decides to move from his lodgings in Bloomsbury to Great Mop and be a writer, rather than managing the family business. Titus's renewed social and domestic reliance on Laura make her feel frustrated that even living in the Chilterns she cannot escape the duties expected of women. When out walking, she makes a pact with a force that she takes to be Satan, to be free from such duties. On returning to her lodgings, she discovers a kitten, whom she takes to be Satan's emissary, and names him Vinegar, in reference to an old picture of witches' familiars. Subsequently, her landlady takes her to a Witches' Sabbath attended by many of the villagers.Titus is plagued with misadventures, such as having his milk constantly curdle and falling into a nest of wasps. Finally, he proposes marriage to a London visitor, Pandora Williams, who has treated his wasp stings, and the two retreat to London. Laura, relieved, meets Satan at Mulgrave Folly and tells him that women are like 'sticks of dynamite' waiting to explode and that all women are witches even 'if they never do anything with their witchcraft, they know it's there - ready!' The novel ends with Laura acknowledging that her new freedom comes at the expense of knowing that she belongs to the 'satisfied but profound indifferent ownership' of Satan.The novel was well received by critics on its publication. In France it was shortlisted for the Prix Femina and in the USA it was the very first Book Of The Month for the Book Club.Until the 1960s, the manuscript of Lolly Willowes was displayed in the New York Public Library.In 2014, Robert McCrum chose it as one of the 100 Best Novels in English, for his list for The Guardian. (wikipedia.org)

First published in 1926, "Lolly Willowes" is Sylvia Townsend Warner's satirical feminist comedy of manners. Set in the first part of the twentieth century, the novel concerns the aging spinster Laura Willowes who comes to live with her elder brother and his family in London following the death of her father. After many years of living in the shadow of her controlling family, Laura, while shopping for flowers, on a whim decides to break free and move to the English countryside. Her destination is the town of Great Mop in the Chiltern Hills northwest of London. Her escape from the duties her family imposes upon her is soon foiled when her nephew Titus decides to abandon the family business and moves to Great Mop to become a writer. What follows is a pact with the devil, the adoption of an emissary of Satan which comes in the form of a cat named Vinegar, and a turn towards the practice of witchcraft. In this fantastic turn of events we find a hilarious exposition of the lengths a woman must go to escape the burdens placed upon her by society at the turn of the twentieth century. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

Lolly Willowes is a satirical comedy of manners incorporating elements of fantasy. It is the story of a middle-aged spinster who moves to a country village to escape her controlling relatives and takes up the practice of witchcraft. The novel opens at the turn of the twentieth century, with Laura Willowes moving from Somerset to London to live with her brother Henry and his family. The move comes in the wake of the death of Laura's father, Everard, with whom she lived at the family home, Lady Place. Laura's other brother, James, moves into Lady Place with his wife and his young son, Titus, with the intention to continue the family's brewing business. However, James dies suddenly of a heart attack and Lady Place is rented out, with the view that Titus, once grown up, will return to the home and run the business.After twenty years of being a live-in aunt, Laura finds herself feeling increasingly stifled both by her obligations to the family and by living in London. When shopping for flowers on the Moscow Road, Laura decides she wishes to move to the Chiltern Hills and, buying a guidebook and map to the area, she picks the village of Great Mop as her new home. Against the wishes of her extended family, Laura moves to Great Mop and finds herself entranced and overwhelmed by the chalk hills and beech woods. Though sometimes disturbed by strange noises at night, she settles in and befriends her landlady and a poultry farmer.After a while, Titus decides to move from his lodgings in Bloomsbury to Great Mop and be a writer, rather than managing the family business. Titus's renewed social and domestic reliance on Laura makes her feel frustrated that even living in the Chilterns she cannot escape the duties expected of women. When out walking, she makes a pact with a force that she takes to be Satan, to be free from such duties. On returning to her lodgings, she discovers a kitten, whom she takes to be Satan's emissary, and names him Vinegar, in reference to an old picture of witches' familiars. Subsequently, her landlady takes her to a Witches' Sabbath attended by many of the villagers.Titus is plagued with misadventures, such as having his milk constantly curdle and falling into a nest of wasps. Finally, he proposes marriage to a London visitor, Pandora Williams, who has treated his wasp stings, and the two retreat to London. Laura, relieved, meets Satan at Mulgrave Folly and tells him that women are like 'sticks of dynamite' waiting to explode and that all women are witches even 'if they never do anything with their witchcraft, they know it's there - ready!' The novel ends with Laura acknowledging that her new freedom comes at the expense of knowing that she belongs to the 'satisfied but profound indifferent ownership' of Satan.

Lolly Willowes ist mit achtundzwanzig Jahren eine alte Jungfer, als ihr Vater stirbt und sie in die Obhut ihrer Brüder gerät. Nach zwanzig Jahren der Einschränkungen als unverheiratete Tante beschließt sie, sich endlich zu befreien und nach Great Mop in die Chiltern Hills zu ziehen. Hier genießt sie glücklich und ungehindert ihr neues Leben, das nur durch ein Geheimnis getrübt wird. Dieses Geheimnis - und ihre Berufung - ist die Hexerei, und dank einem Pakt mit dem Teufel ist Lolly Willowes samt ihrerKatze endlich frei.»Lolly Willowes« ist der zauberhafte Debütroman von Sylvia Townsend Warner. Ihr pikantes Plädoyer für die Freiheit alleinstehender Frauen ist herrlich schräg und ein Meilenstein der feministischen Literatur.

This, arguably Sylvia Townsend Warner's most luminous collection of stories, was first published in 1966 and includes 'A Love Match', hailed by the Los Angeles Times as 'a supreme example of her technique.' It is the tale of Celia and Justin Tizard, sister and war-scarred brother, whose uncommon closeness becomes the talk of a small English village.'Sylvia Townsend Warner was one of the most talented and well-respected British authors of the twentieth century. Today she is shamefully under-read. Her short stories have been particularly neglected - and yet, intelligent, lyrical, beautifully crafted, they constitute some of the very best of her work. It is wonderful to see so many of them being made available again by Faber Finds.' Sarah Waters

In the course of her brilliant career Sylvia Townsend Warner wrote superbly in many and diverse forms but never penned a memoir, properly speaking. However, from the 1930s to the 1970s she did contribute a series of short reminiscences to the New Yorker. Scenes of Childhood collects and orders those reminiscences, thus forming a volume that reads as a joyous, wry and moving testament to the experience of being alive. The collection evokes a recognisably English world of nannies, butlers, pet podles, public schools, 'good works' and country churches, but the resonances of these stories are universal - funny and touching by turns.

A Spirit Rises is one of four collections of Sylvia Townsend Warner's short stories that Faber Finds are reissuing: Winter in the Air; The stories in A Spirit Rises, private, utterly leisured, are like charades played by angels - albeit rather sardonic ones, and in a slightly unreal hothouse.