Sylvia Townsend Warner (1893–1978)
Author of Lolly Willowes, or The Loving Huntsman
About the Author
Image credit: Cropped scan of back cover of Penguin No.642 (unattributed image).
Works by Sylvia Townsend Warner
The Element of Lavishness: Letters of William Maxwell and Sylvia Townsend Warner, 1938-1978 (2000) 162 copies, 1 review
I'll Stand By You: The Letters of Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland (1998) 40 copies, 1 review
The Espalier 4 copies
Rainbow 2 copies
A Widow's Quilt 2 copies
Sketches from nature 2 copies
Azrael & other poems 1 copy
A Moral Ending 1 copy
The blameless triangle 1 copy
Two conversation pieces 1 copy
Associated Works
Spells of Enchantment: The Wondrous Fairy Tales of Western Culture (1991) — Contributor — 604 copies, 5 reviews
75 Short Masterpieces: Stories from the World's Literature (1961) — Contributor — 317 copies, 2 reviews
The Sophisticated Cat: A Gathering of Stories, Poems, and Miscellaneous Writings About Cats (1992) — Contributor — 112 copies, 1 review
Poems Between Women: Four Centuries of Love, Romantic Friendship, and Desire (1997) — Contributor — 97 copies, 1 review
Queer: A Collection of LGBTQ Writing from Ancient Times to Yesterday (2021) — Contributor, some editions — 65 copies
Food Tales: A Literary Menu of Mouthwatering Masterpieces (1992) — Contributor — 41 copies, 1 review
Voices from Fairyland: The Fantastical Poems of Mary Coleridge, Charlotte Mew, and Sylvia Townsend Warner (2008) — Contributor — 12 copies
Gender in Modernism: New Geographies, Complex Intersections (2007) — Contributor — 12 copies, 1 review
Sylvia Plath's Tomato Soup Cake: A Compendium of Classic Authors' Favourite Recipes (2024) — Contributor — 6 copies
Vader is de beste — Author — 3 copies
American Aphrodite: A Quarterly for the Fancy-Free (Volume 4, Number 13) (1954) — Contributor — 2 copies
American Aphrodite: A Quarterly for the Fancy Free (Volume 1, Number 2) (1951) — Contributor — 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Warner, Sylvia Townsend
- Legal name
- Warner, Sylvia Nora Townsend
- Birthdate
- 1893-12-06
- Date of death
- 1978-05-01
- Gender
- female
- Education
- privately educated
- Occupations
- novelist
short story writer
poet
musicologist
translator
diarist - Organizations
- American Academy of Arts and Letters (1972)
The New Yorker
British Communist Party - Relationships
- Ackland, Valentine (partner/lover)
Machen, Arthur (uncle)
Warner, George Townsend (father) - Short biography
- Sylvia Townsend Warner, born at Harrow on the Hill in Middlesex, England, was an only child who was educated at home, and she became an accomplished musician at a young age. At the outbreak of World War I, she went to work in a munitions factory in London, and began to write fiction. In 1930, she bought a cottage in the village of Chaldon Herring in Dorset, where she lived with poet Valentine Ackland for the rest of her life. During her career, Sylvia produced seven novels, including Lolly Willowes (1926), Summer Will Show (1936), The Corner that Held Them (1948), and The Flint Anchor (1954); four volumes of poetry; a volume of essays; and eight volumes of acclaimed short stories; as well as a biography of T.H. White. The Diaries of Sylvia Townsend Warner, published after her death, contain vivid thoughts and reactions to the events of the London Blitz and World War II in general. She also translated Proust's Contre Saint Beuve into English.
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Harrow, Middlesex, England, UK
- Places of residence
- Harrow, Middlesex, England, UK
London, Middlesex, England, UK
Norfolk, England, UK
Frome Vauchurch, Dorset, England, UK
Maiden Newton, Dorset, England, UK - Place of death
- Maiden Newton, Dorset, England, UK
- Burial location
- East Chaldon Churchyard, Dorset, England, UK
- Map Location
- England, UK
Members
Discussions
February 2023: Sylvia Townsend Warner in Monthly Author Reads (June 2023)
A fiction story about a woman who decides to sell her soul to the devil so she does not have to live in Name that Book (October 2012)
Reviews
Even though I was surprised that the Elfin tales did not thrill me (normally I love fairy tales and most versions thereof), the other stories - almost without a single exception - moved me, touched me, and awed me with their deft and economical power. If five stars means "amazing," then, yeah, five stars.
I will go on record right now to say that "Oxenhope" is one of the most beautiful (if not the most beautiful) stories I have ever read. "Total Loss" broke my heart (what's left of it, show more anyway, after 60+ years of animals in my life); "At the Stroke of Midnight" is sharp, tragic, desperate, and a dark reprise of Lolly Willowes, a novel I cherish. A single half-sentence in "The Red Carnation" made me gasp.
The stories are small in scale, sparely written, often about people (especially women) trapped by their lives and circumstances and their attempts to free themselves. Yet there is a wry, sympathetic narrative tone that keeps them from being merely grim, but instead poignant.
On my shelf of lifetime treasures. show less
I will go on record right now to say that "Oxenhope" is one of the most beautiful (if not the most beautiful) stories I have ever read. "Total Loss" broke my heart (what's left of it, show more anyway, after 60+ years of animals in my life); "At the Stroke of Midnight" is sharp, tragic, desperate, and a dark reprise of Lolly Willowes, a novel I cherish. A single half-sentence in "The Red Carnation" made me gasp.
The stories are small in scale, sparely written, often about people (especially women) trapped by their lives and circumstances and their attempts to free themselves. Yet there is a wry, sympathetic narrative tone that keeps them from being merely grim, but instead poignant.
On my shelf of lifetime treasures. show less
A very Happy Halloween
I can tell already that I am going to love this book all the rest of my life.
Warner's prose is crisp, insightful, playful, and lyrical. Her pacing is perfect. I've never read better descriptions of the English country side. While reading, I lived where Lolly lived, breathed the air she breathed, and perfectly understood her stupor, then beautiful awakening. I could have lived in Part II, on loop, happily ever after. But when her nephew moved to Great Mop, into Lolly's show more sanctuary, I was crestfallen, dreading all that he would drag with him.
I didn't have any idea just how apt reading this the last days of October would be.
The resolution in the last third is the part that makes this novel famous and the part that has given me the most to chew on. Not just me, every reader. Almost 100 years on since 1926. Wow.
SPOILER FOLLOWS
It is a perfectly presented dilemma, an ultimatum even. Lolly may remain under the careless stewardship of a deaf God who favors patriarchy. She would continue the fate of women of her class at the turn of the last century--the tedium, the constrictions, the servitude, the lack of agency, the lack of privacy, and the lack of everything else that had made her new life in Great Mop such a joy, including her peaceful communion with Nature.
Or--the only other option--she could accept to become a witch along with most of the other village ladies, born high and low, and continue to live all her solo, independent days in Great Mop, to have her joys and rights protected, and for a long while to be forgotten by Satan. Until, one presumes, her death when he would collect his due. But even if she had chosen the other more palatable (hmph) option, there is no guarantee her afterlife destiny would be any different--God is incredibly fickle and has St. Peter with his big book at Heaven's gate making sure only the most obedient or slavish may enter; double obedient, double slavish if you are a woman.
Warner's message wasn't meant literally, surely. But she must have thought about it a long time to have created such a convincing and unique Satan. She presented the dilemma with such realism that it drove home the point like no socially-correct, half-dead, namby-pamby story telling would have done.
Instead, Warner's witchery was exciting, alive, and the most devilishly delightful metaphor. Wickedly good, it was.
Audio book narrator Sarah Nichols sounded like she thoroughly enjoyed the story, too.
So, I have found a new annual Halloween tradition to replace the Trick or Treaters that no longer roam the neighborhood and ring doorbells. I'll read Lolly Willowes and eat all the candy corn myself! show less
I can tell already that I am going to love this book all the rest of my life.
Warner's prose is crisp, insightful, playful, and lyrical. Her pacing is perfect. I've never read better descriptions of the English country side. While reading, I lived where Lolly lived, breathed the air she breathed, and perfectly understood her stupor, then beautiful awakening. I could have lived in Part II, on loop, happily ever after. But when her nephew moved to Great Mop, into Lolly's show more sanctuary, I was crestfallen, dreading all that he would drag with him.
I didn't have any idea just how apt reading this the last days of October would be.
The resolution in the last third is the part that makes this novel famous and the part that has given me the most to chew on. Not just me, every reader. Almost 100 years on since 1926. Wow.
SPOILER FOLLOWS
It is a perfectly presented dilemma, an ultimatum even. Lolly may remain under the careless stewardship of a deaf God who favors patriarchy. She would continue the fate of women of her class at the turn of the last century--the tedium, the constrictions, the servitude, the lack of agency, the lack of privacy, and the lack of everything else that had made her new life in Great Mop such a joy, including her peaceful communion with Nature.
Or--the only other option--she could accept to become a witch along with most of the other village ladies, born high and low, and continue to live all her solo, independent days in Great Mop, to have her joys and rights protected, and for a long while to be forgotten by Satan. Until, one presumes, her death when he would collect his due. But even if she had chosen the other more palatable (hmph) option, there is no guarantee her afterlife destiny would be any different--God is incredibly fickle and has St. Peter with his big book at Heaven's gate making sure only the most obedient or slavish may enter; double obedient, double slavish if you are a woman.
Warner's message wasn't meant literally, surely. But she must have thought about it a long time to have created such a convincing and unique Satan. She presented the dilemma with such realism that it drove home the point like no socially-correct, half-dead, namby-pamby story telling would have done.
Instead, Warner's witchery was exciting, alive, and the most devilishly delightful metaphor. Wickedly good, it was.
Audio book narrator Sarah Nichols sounded like she thoroughly enjoyed the story, too.
So, I have found a new annual Halloween tradition to replace the Trick or Treaters that no longer roam the neighborhood and ring doorbells. I'll read Lolly Willowes and eat all the candy corn myself! show less
Winter will shake. Spring will try,
Summer will show if you live or die.
This somewhat ominous couplet seemed a promising start to Sylvia Townsend Warner's Summer will Show. The promise held in the excellent writing, the use of language, and Townsend Warner's deeply evident connection to the English countryside. It didn't hold with the characters and plot.
The word that frequently came to mind was "unpleasant". Nothing stronger, as the well mannered central character Sophia Willoughby would show more not herself use a stronger word, although her feelings would be evident nonetheless. As the novel starts, Sophia was well pleased with herself indeed. Her husband Frederick was off in France having an affair, and Sophia was happily living the exceedingly comfortable life of a nineteenth century woman in charge of her inherited estates. Yes, the servants might talk about the state of her marriage, but it was a small price to pay for being on her own.
Sophia's world abruptly changed though and she set off to France, to visit her great aunt in Paris. Nothing like a new wardrobe to set the world right after an upset, or was it Frederick who might do it? Frederick may have been a cunning person, but he certainly could not have anticipated the outcome of Sophia's visit. He may have been egocentric and dim, but he was certainly the master of petty spite. When Sophia suddenly left her great aunt's and asked for her trunk and dressing case to be forwarded, it was Frederick who sent them on. She discovered
The cause of all this turmoil was Minna Lemeul, Frederick's mistress. In the introduction to the NYRB edition, Claire Harman describes Minna as "...one of Warner's most beguiling creations, a self-dramatist and visionary, an artist of great power, yet also a bit of a charlatan. Aging, unbeautiful, unscrupulous, 'her principles were so inconsistent that to all intents and purposes she had no principles at all'." (p ix)
"Beguiling" did not fit at all with my reading; "unscrupulous" did. Minna was every bit as unpleasant and manipulative in her own way as Frederick and Sophia were in theirs. However, while Minna's character and behaviour were well drawn and crucial to the plot, I had a lot of trouble with the characteristics attributed to her by both Frederick and Sophia based on her religion. Minna earned her living in part as a storyteller on stage. Many of her stories were of the Lithuanian shtetl where she had grown up. The casual way in which prejudice was expressed and received among the English characters was disturbing. This was a novel written in 1936 and set in 1848, so some prejudice might be expected, but here it seemed completely gratuitous and added nothing. Had Minna been nearly as inately clever with money and finances as their remarks would have it, she would not have been living in a garret and borrowing from those friends in a position to help.
The Paris section of the book is set against the uprisings of 1848. Minna was involved in the same vague way she did everything. Sophia became more involved, collecting scrap metal for the workers to make into ammunition. One fateful June evening, Minna and Sophia helped defend the people's barricades. Sophia's world shifted yet again. In the end, Sophia's future is left up in the air. Last seen, she is reading [The Communist Manifesto].
However, despite Warner's own membership in the British Communist Party and despite the dramatic events of the rebellion and their conclusion, it seemed Sophia was still as detached and self contained as ever. Sophia herself seemed to suspect this, seemed to anticipate a return to her old life, thinking
This is the second book I have read by Sylvia Townsend Warner and the second disappointment, which is a pity, as she writes so well. Perhaps she was trying to show the immutability of the landed classes, perhaps she was trying to idealize the workers and students; there just did not seem to be a purpose for this book, while its earnestness definitely suggested it should have one. show less
Summer will show if you live or die.
This somewhat ominous couplet seemed a promising start to Sylvia Townsend Warner's Summer will Show. The promise held in the excellent writing, the use of language, and Townsend Warner's deeply evident connection to the English countryside. It didn't hold with the characters and plot.
The word that frequently came to mind was "unpleasant". Nothing stronger, as the well mannered central character Sophia Willoughby would show more not herself use a stronger word, although her feelings would be evident nonetheless. As the novel starts, Sophia was well pleased with herself indeed. Her husband Frederick was off in France having an affair, and Sophia was happily living the exceedingly comfortable life of a nineteenth century woman in charge of her inherited estates. Yes, the servants might talk about the state of her marriage, but it was a small price to pay for being on her own.
Sophia's world abruptly changed though and she set off to France, to visit her great aunt in Paris. Nothing like a new wardrobe to set the world right after an upset, or was it Frederick who might do it? Frederick may have been a cunning person, but he certainly could not have anticipated the outcome of Sophia's visit. He may have been egocentric and dim, but he was certainly the master of petty spite. When Sophia suddenly left her great aunt's and asked for her trunk and dressing case to be forwarded, it was Frederick who sent them on. She discovered
They had been carefully dealt with, the dressing-case in particular. Even the gold tops had been removed from the flasks and pomade-pots, and corks of assorted sizes rammed down in their stead. Hidden under a silk band -- pious observance of Papa's axiom that one should always keep five pounds against emergency -- had been a Bank of England note. This also had been removed. Frederick had indeed been a most thorough and conscientious steward of her goods.
The cause of all this turmoil was Minna Lemeul, Frederick's mistress. In the introduction to the NYRB edition, Claire Harman describes Minna as "...one of Warner's most beguiling creations, a self-dramatist and visionary, an artist of great power, yet also a bit of a charlatan. Aging, unbeautiful, unscrupulous, 'her principles were so inconsistent that to all intents and purposes she had no principles at all'." (p ix)
"Beguiling" did not fit at all with my reading; "unscrupulous" did. Minna was every bit as unpleasant and manipulative in her own way as Frederick and Sophia were in theirs. However, while Minna's character and behaviour were well drawn and crucial to the plot, I had a lot of trouble with the characteristics attributed to her by both Frederick and Sophia based on her religion. Minna earned her living in part as a storyteller on stage. Many of her stories were of the Lithuanian shtetl where she had grown up. The casual way in which prejudice was expressed and received among the English characters was disturbing. This was a novel written in 1936 and set in 1848, so some prejudice might be expected, but here it seemed completely gratuitous and added nothing. Had Minna been nearly as inately clever with money and finances as their remarks would have it, she would not have been living in a garret and borrowing from those friends in a position to help.
The Paris section of the book is set against the uprisings of 1848. Minna was involved in the same vague way she did everything. Sophia became more involved, collecting scrap metal for the workers to make into ammunition. One fateful June evening, Minna and Sophia helped defend the people's barricades. Sophia's world shifted yet again. In the end, Sophia's future is left up in the air. Last seen, she is reading [The Communist Manifesto].
However, despite Warner's own membership in the British Communist Party and despite the dramatic events of the rebellion and their conclusion, it seemed Sophia was still as detached and self contained as ever. Sophia herself seemed to suspect this, seemed to anticipate a return to her old life, thinking
Probably I shall live to a profound old age. And people will say of me "Do you know, old Mrs. Willoughby went through the Revolution of '48 in Paris?" And someone else will answer, "How extraordinary! One would never think it."... "Such a dull old woman."
This is the second book I have read by Sylvia Townsend Warner and the second disappointment, which is a pity, as she writes so well. Perhaps she was trying to show the immutability of the landed classes, perhaps she was trying to idealize the workers and students; there just did not seem to be a purpose for this book, while its earnestness definitely suggested it should have one. show less
What a fabulous quirky constantly inventive writer Sylvia Townsend Warner was! I am already a massive fan of her writing, and The Cat’s Cradle Book collection is really something quite different.
The premise essentially is to tell us the stories, that have been passed down from cats to their kittens for generations. Fairy-tales from cats, giving us, an unusual cat’s eye view of the world. It isn’t a perspective we are used to – and the cynical reader may need to suspend belief and show more just enjoy the ride. These stories are joyfully different, tapping into our long-held love of traditional stories.
“For ages the Cat language has been catholic, explicit, unvarying. I understand it, you understand it, every child picks up an inkling of it. When cats creep into children’s cradles and old women say that they are sucking the child’s breath, what do you suppose they are doing? Keeping them quiet with a story – and better than their mothers can!”
It is a shame that this collection remains out of print, although this pretty 1960s edition of a collection first published in 1940 seems widely available from the usual places, a perfect gift for a fairy-tale loving cat person. A little warning though cat lovers, a few of the cats in this book don’t survive – but you would probably expect that.
The collection begins with an introduction from the editor of these special tales. This forty-four page ‘introduction’ was my favourite part of the whole book, in which STW describes perfectly, a house, its feline inhabitants in fine and glorious prose. The ‘editor’ comes upon a house, nestled deep in the countryside, here she meets a particularly handsome man, living alongside many cats and kittens. The young man is astounded to find the author can understand the language of cat – far better than she can speak it. The cats have plenty to tell her, introducing her to their kittens, they rub against her in welcome. Our narrator stays to tea, and the remarkably handsome young man begins to tell his own story. Having finished Oxford, the young man embarked upon a diplomatic career, while in Turkey he fell hopelessly in love; with a Siamese cat called Haru. Look, these things happen! Haru is technically the property of the naval attaché’s wife, though Haru soon makes her feelings perfectly clear. Haru captivates the young man; William with her stories. The young man is destined for heartbreak, and thereafter dedicates himself to re-telling the traditional stories of cats.
“The following stories are chosen from the collection of traditional narratives current among cats, made by the late Mr William Farthing of Spain Hall, Norfolk. The selection is the editor’s.”
The stories which follow tell a variety of tales, and not all of them are about cats. Like Odin’s Birds in which we have a couple of ravens competing over the eyes of a corpse; the body a man they have just witnessed two women fighting over. In another we find ourselves among the marquisate of The Castle of Carabas who for generations have been born with a cat’s paw shaped birthmark and a natural horror for cats. Virtue and the Tiger tells the story of a hermit a man of great learning and holiness, and his strange meeting with a tiger, a meeting that will have a profound effect on them both. The Fox Pope tells the story of a fox unwillingly named as the next pope – who enlists the help of a stable-boy to free him from the papacy. The Phoenix; tells the story of the legendary bird acquired by Lord Strawberry a big collector of birds, after his death The Strawberry Phoenix fund is launched, and the bird acquired to be shown – at a price – to the marvelling public. In Bread for the Castle, the lives of a baker and his daughter are changed when a great family comes to the neighbourhood and takes up residence in the castle. The man and his daughter bake night and day to fulfil the order from the castle.
“ ‘Surely she has grown smaller,’ thought the baker. ‘Or do my eyes deceive me?’
Looking at her more attentively he saw that his daughter had changed into an owl.
‘But this is frightful,’ thought the baker. ‘My poor girl, with such brilliant prospects, and such a good daughter into the bargain, so handy and willing! What shall I do without her?’
He opened the oven-door and turned the bread. The bread was alright: nothing untoward had happened to the bread.”
The final story in this collection is Bluebeard’s Daughter, Djamileh is the daughter in question. Her father had been adoring and kind, none of her step-mothers lived long enough to cause her any problems. She had however, inherited her father’s colouring which causes the girl to not want to look at herself in the mirror. Her father dies, and Djamileh guardianship is undertaken by her father’s solicitor, she will inherit everything, and grows up to be very wealthy young woman. In time she marries Kayel, and the couple return to Shady Transports – where as a child Djamileh had lived with her father. The palace still has secrets to reveal.
The Cat’s Cradle Book is a lovely collection, at turns dark and humorous Sylvia Townsend Warner understands perfectly the tradition of old tales passed on, and these stories are wonderfully inventive. show less
The premise essentially is to tell us the stories, that have been passed down from cats to their kittens for generations. Fairy-tales from cats, giving us, an unusual cat’s eye view of the world. It isn’t a perspective we are used to – and the cynical reader may need to suspend belief and show more just enjoy the ride. These stories are joyfully different, tapping into our long-held love of traditional stories.
“For ages the Cat language has been catholic, explicit, unvarying. I understand it, you understand it, every child picks up an inkling of it. When cats creep into children’s cradles and old women say that they are sucking the child’s breath, what do you suppose they are doing? Keeping them quiet with a story – and better than their mothers can!”
It is a shame that this collection remains out of print, although this pretty 1960s edition of a collection first published in 1940 seems widely available from the usual places, a perfect gift for a fairy-tale loving cat person. A little warning though cat lovers, a few of the cats in this book don’t survive – but you would probably expect that.
The collection begins with an introduction from the editor of these special tales. This forty-four page ‘introduction’ was my favourite part of the whole book, in which STW describes perfectly, a house, its feline inhabitants in fine and glorious prose. The ‘editor’ comes upon a house, nestled deep in the countryside, here she meets a particularly handsome man, living alongside many cats and kittens. The young man is astounded to find the author can understand the language of cat – far better than she can speak it. The cats have plenty to tell her, introducing her to their kittens, they rub against her in welcome. Our narrator stays to tea, and the remarkably handsome young man begins to tell his own story. Having finished Oxford, the young man embarked upon a diplomatic career, while in Turkey he fell hopelessly in love; with a Siamese cat called Haru. Look, these things happen! Haru is technically the property of the naval attaché’s wife, though Haru soon makes her feelings perfectly clear. Haru captivates the young man; William with her stories. The young man is destined for heartbreak, and thereafter dedicates himself to re-telling the traditional stories of cats.
“The following stories are chosen from the collection of traditional narratives current among cats, made by the late Mr William Farthing of Spain Hall, Norfolk. The selection is the editor’s.”
The stories which follow tell a variety of tales, and not all of them are about cats. Like Odin’s Birds in which we have a couple of ravens competing over the eyes of a corpse; the body a man they have just witnessed two women fighting over. In another we find ourselves among the marquisate of The Castle of Carabas who for generations have been born with a cat’s paw shaped birthmark and a natural horror for cats. Virtue and the Tiger tells the story of a hermit a man of great learning and holiness, and his strange meeting with a tiger, a meeting that will have a profound effect on them both. The Fox Pope tells the story of a fox unwillingly named as the next pope – who enlists the help of a stable-boy to free him from the papacy. The Phoenix; tells the story of the legendary bird acquired by Lord Strawberry a big collector of birds, after his death The Strawberry Phoenix fund is launched, and the bird acquired to be shown – at a price – to the marvelling public. In Bread for the Castle, the lives of a baker and his daughter are changed when a great family comes to the neighbourhood and takes up residence in the castle. The man and his daughter bake night and day to fulfil the order from the castle.
“ ‘Surely she has grown smaller,’ thought the baker. ‘Or do my eyes deceive me?’
Looking at her more attentively he saw that his daughter had changed into an owl.
‘But this is frightful,’ thought the baker. ‘My poor girl, with such brilliant prospects, and such a good daughter into the bargain, so handy and willing! What shall I do without her?’
He opened the oven-door and turned the bread. The bread was alright: nothing untoward had happened to the bread.”
The final story in this collection is Bluebeard’s Daughter, Djamileh is the daughter in question. Her father had been adoring and kind, none of her step-mothers lived long enough to cause her any problems. She had however, inherited her father’s colouring which causes the girl to not want to look at herself in the mirror. Her father dies, and Djamileh guardianship is undertaken by her father’s solicitor, she will inherit everything, and grows up to be very wealthy young woman. In time she marries Kayel, and the couple return to Shady Transports – where as a child Djamileh had lived with her father. The palace still has secrets to reveal.
The Cat’s Cradle Book is a lovely collection, at turns dark and humorous Sylvia Townsend Warner understands perfectly the tradition of old tales passed on, and these stories are wonderfully inventive. show less
Lists
Reading LIst (7)
1920s (1)
Faerie Mythology (1)
To Read (1)
Backlisted (1)
Lost Gay Novels (1)
Witchy Fiction (1)
Favorite Memoirs (1)
Book wishlist (1)
Unmarried women (1)
Persephone (1)
Monastic life (1)
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