{"product_id":"lolly-willowes-9780486843483","title":"Lolly Willowes","description":"\"This is the witty, eerie, tender but firm life history of a middle-class Englishwoman who politely declines to make the expected connection with the opposite sex and becomes a witch instead.\" -- John Updike \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Forty-seven-year-old Lolly Willowes is a conventional maiden aunt, an unpaid companion and babysitter to her brothers' children. After years of submission to her controlling family, she develops a longing for the countryside and dark, wild places that impels her to flee London for a remote village. Lolly soon discovers that her new neighbors are a coven of bohemian witches and eventually encounters Satan himself -- a genial country gentleman who's ready to make a pact. \u003cbr\u003e The first-ever selection of the Book of the Month Club upon its 1926 publication, \u003ci\u003eLolly Willowes\u003c\/i\u003e was a surprise international bestseller. This proto-feminist work has since been chosen as one of the \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e's 100 Best Novels of All Time, and it remains a richly satirical novel that celebrates the joys of self-actualization. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"Revolutionary ... a subtle demand for women's power over their own lives.\" -- Alison Lurie \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"Remarkable ... pungent and satisfying.\" -- \u003ci\u003eSaturday Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSylvia Townsend Warner (1893-1978) was a British author who began her self-proclaimed \"accidental career\" as a poet after she was given paper with a \"particularly tempting surface.\" Originally a musicologist, Warner was one of the editors of the 10-volume Tudor Church Music and was also a contributor to \u003ci\u003eGrove's Dictionary of Music. Lolly Willowes, \u003c\/i\u003eher first novel, was the first selection of the Book of the Month Club. In addition to her short stories, 144 of which appeared in the \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker, \u003c\/i\u003eWarner also published many collections of short fiction, novels, volumes of poetry, and works of nonfiction, including\u003ci\u003e Jane Austen: 1775-1817 \u003c\/i\u003eand the semiautobiographical, posthumously published \u003ci\u003eScenes of Childhood.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Dover Publications","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50618459029778,"sku":"9780486843483","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_cb9fe5cb-1936-4a09-879b-eb0bc4e4472b.jpg?v=1748522221","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/lolly-willowes-9780486843483","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}