Lolly Willowes or The Loving Huntsman

Laura Willowes, known as "Lolly" to her relatives, is an invisible woman. She lives with her father in the countryside, until his death leads her to move in with her brother and sister-in-law, who live in London. She subsumes herself in being a good daughter, a good sister, and a good aunt: the perfect, dutiful spinster who can be counted on to do anything and complain about nothing.

But one cold, dreary, autumnal day, Lolly is struck by a great longing: Surely there is more to life than this? In an instant she resolves to leave London, her family, and her old life behind. Who wants to be a helpmeet when you can live alone, independently, in a tiny, remote village?

This resolution—and the panic it instills in Lolly's family—will lead to an even more surprising revelation: that Lolly Willowes would rather sell her soul to the Devil than become "dear old Aunt Lolly" ever again.

Sylvia Townsend Warner (1893–1978) was a writer, musicologist, poet, and political activist. She began writing poetry in the early 1920s, publishing her best-known novel, Lolly Willowes, in 1926. In 1930, she moved to a village in Dorset, where she fell in love with the poet Valentine Ackland, who would become her lifelong partner. Ardently left wing, the two women became active in the Communist Party.