Lolly Willowes or the Loving Huntsman
Registered by chich of Ibiza - Sant Antoni de Portmany, Illes Balears/Islas Baleares Spain on 8/26/2007
11 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by chich from Ibiza - Sant Antoni de Portmany, Illes Balears/Islas Baleares Spain on Sunday, August 26, 2007
One of my favorite reads ever! I really enjoyed the quiet subversiveness of the book and am really not surprise it caused quite a stir when it was first published in 1926! As John Updike wrote, this book is "witty, eerie, tender". The book also has a very "modern" feel as it deals with the themes of freedom, rule-breaking and creating a life for oneself without following a pattern imposed by society. The most surprising thing about this book is that it is very humorous, despite dealing with such serious themes. Although the devil is involved in the story and makes quite a few appearances towards the end of the book, don't expect a Gothic tale here. [Mild spoiler alert] I just *loved* the fact that Lolly Willowes sold her soul *just* for a bit of peace and quiet;)
A fantastic read!
Book Description (Amazon.co.uk):
Lolly Willowes is a twenty-eight-year-old spinster when her adored father dies, leaving her dependent upon her brothers and their wives. After twenty years of self-effacement as a maiden aunt, she decides to break free and moves to a small Bedfordshire village. Here, happy and unfettered, she enjoys her new existence nagged only by the sense of a secret she has yet to discover. That secret - and her vocation - is witchcraft, and with her cat and a pact with the Devil, Lolly Willowes is finally free.
An instant and great success on its publication in 1926, Lolly Willowes is Sylvia Townsend Warner's most magical novel. Deliciously wry and inviting, it was her piquant plea that single women find liberty and civility.
A fantastic read!
Book Description (Amazon.co.uk):
Lolly Willowes is a twenty-eight-year-old spinster when her adored father dies, leaving her dependent upon her brothers and their wives. After twenty years of self-effacement as a maiden aunt, she decides to break free and moves to a small Bedfordshire village. Here, happy and unfettered, she enjoys her new existence nagged only by the sense of a secret she has yet to discover. That secret - and her vocation - is witchcraft, and with her cat and a pact with the Devil, Lolly Willowes is finally free.
An instant and great success on its publication in 1926, Lolly Willowes is Sylvia Townsend Warner's most magical novel. Deliciously wry and inviting, it was her piquant plea that single women find liberty and civility.
Journal Entry 2 by chich from Ibiza - Sant Antoni de Portmany, Illes Balears/Islas Baleares Spain on Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Starting a BookRay, PM me if you want to join!
Mailing order for this ray:
1) Plum-crazy, UK, Euro shipping.
2) wyvernfriend, Ireland, can ship anywhere.
3) Wordsnark, Canada, Canada or US shipping.
4) WritinReader, US, US shipping preferred but int'l ok.
5) lakelady2282, Australia, OZ shipping preferred but int'l ok.
6) catsalive, Australia, shipping prefs unknown.
7) sally906, Australia, Australia shipping.
8) scrapaholic, Australia, can ship anywhere.
10) blackadder75, US (PA), US or Canada shipping.
11) withoutwings, US (AZ), US shipping. **current location**
12) Queniene, US (CO), US shipping.
...you?
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BookRay Recommendations:
• make a journal entry when you receive the book so everyone knows it has safely arrived
• try to read it within a month
• ask the next on the list for his/her address
• make a journal entry when finished, telling us what you thought - did you like it? Did you think it was well-written?
• wrap it up well and send it to on
Please PM me in case of any problems/unforseen delay. If you are experiencing an RBC (Reading Backlog Crisis) or no longer wish to read the book, let me know and I will move/remove you down/off the list.
Hint: Ask for the address of the next on the list before you have finished reading; sometimes it takes a while before you get a reply. Some people don't get PM's. You may want to look for an e-mail address on their profile, or leave an ISO message on the forum. If the person doesn't respond within 7-10 days (use your judgement), please PM the next person, and then me, so I can update the bookring list.
**Cheapest postage rate is fine**
Happy reading everyone!
Journal Entry 3 by chich from Ibiza - Sant Antoni de Portmany, Illes Balears/Islas Baleares Spain on Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Journal Entry 4 by 
Plum-crazy
from Brighouse, West Yorkshire United Kingdom on Friday, September 21, 2007
Plum-crazy from Brighouse, West Yorkshire United Kingdom on Friday, September 21, 2007
This arrived this morning along with 3 other rings - how shall I decide which to read first! The good news is that I'm quite a fast reader & this book looks so good I don't think it will be long before I start it.
I will PM the next person now so it's ready to go when read. Thanks for making this book avaliable to us chich....& by the way love the flying envelope on your journal entry - so cute!
I will PM the next person now so it's ready to go when read. Thanks for making this book avaliable to us chich....& by the way love the flying envelope on your journal entry - so cute!
Journal Entry 5 by Plum-crazy from Brighouse, West Yorkshire United Kingdom on Thursday, October 4, 2007
Plum-crazy from Brighouse, West Yorkshire United Kingdom on Thursday, October 4, 2007
I knew I was going to enjoy this book by the time I'd finished the first page (I love it when I get that feeling!)
I loved the way it was written & the descriptions of Lolly's life . It gave a real indication of how it must have been for a spinster aunt living with her family. But that life wasn't for Lolly & to the shock & concern of her family, she moves alone to the curious village of Great Mop where she intends to live her life to her own rules.
I found Lolly's encounters with the devil quite amusing - not how I expected the meetings would be!.....& I would have liked the story to to have covered more about Lolly's involvement with witchcraft.
However, the book's blurb said "deliciously wry & magical"....& it was!
I would certainly read more by this author.
It's now back on it's travels & on it's way to wyvernfriend. Thanks chich for making this lovely book availiable to us!
I loved the way it was written & the descriptions of Lolly's life . It gave a real indication of how it must have been for a spinster aunt living with her family. But that life wasn't for Lolly & to the shock & concern of her family, she moves alone to the curious village of Great Mop where she intends to live her life to her own rules.
I found Lolly's encounters with the devil quite amusing - not how I expected the meetings would be!.....& I would have liked the story to to have covered more about Lolly's involvement with witchcraft.
However, the book's blurb said "deliciously wry & magical"....& it was!
I would certainly read more by this author.
It's now back on it's travels & on it's way to wyvernfriend. Thanks chich for making this lovely book availiable to us!
Arrived in the post yesterday. I started reading it last night and hope to have it finished in a few days. Have PMed the next person on the list to induce me to get it finished.
Lolly Willowes is the maiden aunt living hn her brothers house. She eventually tires of this and decides to move to a small Bedfordshire village where she finds her own place in the village. She also finds witchcraft and a place of her own. I
It's a gentle story, an exploration of finding your self and finding a role within the world. This is a time just after world war I, when some people still lived off small inheritances.
It's an interesting look at that life and a woman's life then. I've read a fair number of books based in this period but from a man's point of view so this was an interesting change.
In the Post to Wordsnark today 5th December 2007
It's a gentle story, an exploration of finding your self and finding a role within the world. This is a time just after world war I, when some people still lived off small inheritances.
It's an interesting look at that life and a woman's life then. I've read a fair number of books based in this period but from a man's point of view so this was an interesting change.
In the Post to Wordsnark today 5th December 2007
Lolly has landed. I will savour this book soon.
I found this to be a curious and delightful book. The writing combines a love and close observation of rustic English countryside and manners with fantastical, allegorical, troubled inner visions. The dry, wry, and mannered style reads something like a slightly more wicked (and only slightly more modern) Jane Austen.
Convention and propriety exert a gravity that nearly crush Laura Willowes. But then, at 47, she receives a terror, a vision, and a sign in the form of a spray of beech leaves. Laura astonishes her family by suddenly moving from London to Great Mop, an out-of-the-way village in the east of England. She is pursued, but she does not hide. Satan, the loving huntsman, finds Laura; she becomes one of his own, but entirely herself.
Thankfully, this is an ambiguous book. So it will be a different story for each reader.
Thank you for sharing it, chich. On to WritinReader, after Christmas, when I get an address back.
Convention and propriety exert a gravity that nearly crush Laura Willowes. But then, at 47, she receives a terror, a vision, and a sign in the form of a spray of beech leaves. Laura astonishes her family by suddenly moving from London to Great Mop, an out-of-the-way village in the east of England. She is pursued, but she does not hide. Satan, the loving huntsman, finds Laura; she becomes one of his own, but entirely herself.
Thankfully, this is an ambiguous book. So it will be a different story for each reader.
Thank you for sharing it, chich. On to WritinReader, after Christmas, when I get an address back.
Off to WritinReader, in a part of Kentucky so disputed that even the post office can't decide where it belongs. Sent today from Lewiston NY.
It has safely arrived. Thank you chich for organizing this bookray, and Wordsnark for sending it along to me.
I began this book with the intention of reading only a few pages and then getting back to what I should have been doing. No such thing was to happen. It is that good.
The humor and the modern feel of the story was a pleasant surprise. Wonderful book.
The humor and the modern feel of the story was a pleasant surprise. Wonderful book.
Journal Entry 13 by rem_NFI-175395 at Controlled Release in Controlled Release, A Bookcrossing member -- Controlled Releases on Friday, January 18, 2008
Released 16 yrs ago (1/18/2008 UTC) at Controlled Release in Controlled Release, A Bookcrossing member -- Controlled Releases
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
RELEASE NOTES:
Passing along to lakelady2282.
Passing along to lakelady2282.
Journal Entry 14 by lakelady2282 from Lake Macquarie, New South Wales Australia on Thursday, January 31, 2008
Thanks Anji for posting the book out and for your lovely postcard. I hope your writing is going well. Thanks too to chich for organising the ring.
Journal Entry 15 by lakelady2282 from Lake Macquarie, New South Wales Australia on Friday, February 8, 2008
What a delightful read and what a wonderful writer Townsend Warner is. Witty but astute too. Take for instance:
"Laura had brought her sensitive conscience into the country with her, just as she had brought her umbrella, though so far she had not remembered to use either."
Rather liked the devil and would have loved to see her in full flight with her witchcraft. Pity Sylvia didn't write a sequel. Thanks everyone. Will pm catsalive.
"Laura had brought her sensitive conscience into the country with her, just as she had brought her umbrella, though so far she had not remembered to use either."
Rather liked the devil and would have loved to see her in full flight with her witchcraft. Pity Sylvia didn't write a sequel. Thanks everyone. Will pm catsalive.
Released 16 yrs ago (2/13/2008 UTC) at
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
RELEASE NOTES:
Journal Entry 17 by 
catsalive
from Rooty Hill, New South Wales Australia on Thursday, February 14, 2008
catsalive from Rooty Hill, New South Wales Australia on Thursday, February 14, 2008
Thanks lakelady2282.
Journal Entry 18 by catsalive from Rooty Hill, New South Wales Australia on Saturday, February 16, 2008
catsalive from Rooty Hill, New South Wales Australia on Saturday, February 16, 2008
How delightful it would be to live in a place called Great Mop. LOL! There is no Lesser Mop to take up the slack. I love it. Wouldn't we all sell our souls for a moment of peace on occasion. Let's face it, family can be the very devil at times. Laura was brave.
I must be a witch too - solitary splendour plus cats. I snicker gleefully.
Thanks for this odd little piece of literature, chich. If not for BC I would have remained in ignorance of my pact with the devil.
I must be a witch too - solitary splendour plus cats. I snicker gleefully.
Thanks for this odd little piece of literature, chich. If not for BC I would have remained in ignorance of my pact with the devil.
Journal Entry 19 by catsalive from Rooty Hill, New South Wales Australia on Wednesday, February 20, 2008
catsalive from Rooty Hill, New South Wales Australia on Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Posted to sally906 today.
Arrived today - picked up at PO today
There is no pace in this book, it is very slow, but beautiful written. A nice gentle read.
Journal Entry 22 by sally906 at Controlled release in By hand, by hand -- Controlled Releases on Friday, April 18, 2008
Released 16 yrs ago (4/18/2008 UTC) at Controlled release in By hand, by hand -- Controlled Releases
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
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Passed to scrapaholic at today's meet-up
Passed to scrapaholic at today's meet-up
Journal Entry 23 by scrapaholic from Darwin, Northern Territory Australia on Saturday, April 19, 2008
Thanks sally906. Will be next on my list to read.
A well written story but a little slow in places.
I was expecting more witchcraft and magic so that left me a little disappointed.
Thanks for sharing the book chich.
I was expecting more witchcraft and magic so that left me a little disappointed.
Thanks for sharing the book chich.
posted via seamail today to blackadder75
Got this book in today's mail. Thanks! I will try to read it soon and pass it along to another BXer as soon as possible.
I really tried to get into this book, but the writing style kept me from enjoying it. Thanks for letting me join the bookray. I will get this off to the next person in line.
Journal Entry 28 by blackadder75 at Bookring, A Bookring -- Controlled Releases on Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Released 15 yrs ago (8/12/2008 UTC) at Bookring, A Bookring -- Controlled Releases
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
Sent to withoutwings in today's mail.
Sent to withoutwings in today's mail.
Received in the mail today. Will start reading.
Journal Entry 30 by chich from Ibiza - Sant Antoni de Portmany, Illes Balears/Islas Baleares Spain on Sunday, November 30, 2008
I've finished reading the book. I was not that thrilled with it. There are no chapters and a wide margin so it's hard to starte at for a long time. It was just meh in my opinion. I have emailed the next person in line for thier address.
