Lolly Willowes

Laura Willowes is an unmarried woman in early twentieth-century England who spends decades serves as a convenient, unpaid domestic resource for her brother's family in London. At age forty-seven, she rejects her assigned role as "Aunt Lolly" and moves alone to the village of Appleby. Seeking autonomy from the stifling expectations of the patriarchy and the boredom of middle-class domesticity, she discovers she is a witch. To secure her solitude against family interference, she enters a pact with various supernatural forces and a polite, companionable version of Satan.

Readers interested in the intersection of feminism and folklore read this book to understand how early century female independence required a literal departure from polite society. It serves those examining how private property, family law, and social etiquette conspired to trap women in roles of perpetual service. The reader leaves with a cold realization that for a woman to belong entirely to herself, she might have to abandon traditional morality and formal social structures altogether.