Sylvia Townsend Warner

This article reviews some important recent contributions to the belated recovery of the work of English novelist and poet Sylvia Townsend Warner. Described by Eleanor Perényi as “feminist, Marxist, historical novelist, social comedian, teller of fairy tales,” Warner has received scant critical attention, in stark contrast to her remarkable productivity. Warner published thirty-six books during her lifetime, in addition to four posthumous collections of poems and short stories; at least 154 short stories published in theNew Yorker; her diary, published by Chatto and Windus in 1994; several volumes of correspondence; a revised and expanded edition of her poems; her translation of Marcel Proust’s critical writings inBy Way of Sainte-Beuve; and a volume of previously uncollected writings,With the Hunted, which includes many short pieces previously published in theJournal of the Sylvia Townsend Warner Society. The present article looks at key critical responses to Warner’s work by such writers as Jan Montefiore, Jane Marcus, Gillian Beer, Jean-Jacques Lecercle, and Mary Jacobs.