Lolly Willowes - Sylvia Townsend Warner

nThis 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 n 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. n The first-ever selection of the Book of the Month Club upon its 1926 publication, Lolly Willowes was a surprise international bestseller. This proto-feminist work has since been chosen as one of the Guardian's 100 Best Novels of All Time, and it remains a richly satirical novel that celebrates the joys of self-actualization.

n n Revolutionary ... a subtle demand for women's power over their own lives. -- Alison Lurie n n Remarkable ...

pungent and satisfying. -- Saturday Reviewn