The Little Willow

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`The Little Willow' is one of the short stories of author Frances Towers, collected in the book `Tea with Mr. Rochester'. Barely recognized in the field of literature, Frances Towers was born in 1885 in England and died in 1948 at the age of 63. It is said that Towers was a reluctant writer, who did not find writing easy. She wrote only eighteen stories during her lifetime, which was later on collected in the book `Tea with Mr. Rochester'. All of Towers's fiction is populated by sensitive, innocent women in search of love and hence, she is sometimes compared to Jane Austen. Her story `The Little Willow' depicts the same essence and talks about a secret love.

The story `The Little Willow' is about a girl named Lisby Avery, eternally outshined by her two extremely charming sisters Charlotte and Brenda. The story is set in the heart of London during the Second World War. Lisby is innocent, introverted and aloof and she knows nothing of love until a similarly shy boy, Simon Byrne, comes in her life. Simon, who is a soldier on leave, is brought to Avery's house by a friend of Charlotte's as a guest. Lisby forms an unspoken bond with Simon and both of their feelings seem mutual. But sadly Simon heads off to war again without either of them ever able to profess their secret love, and all Lisby is able to give Simon is a little willow tree, which she had treasured all her life. She never hears from him again. Time passes by. Lisby gets more aloof than ever and Charlotte's wedding comes around. In the Wedding Lisby meets the best man Captain Oliver, who also happens to be a dear friend of Simon's. He informs Lisby that her soulmate had been killed, and that the boy's last words were stuttering declaration of love for her. It leaves Lisb...

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...ory. I also found some of the phrases in the story very profound, something that one could dwell upon and cherish, like "Death, perhaps, is poetry, and life, prose. Or was it the other way round?" These are perhaps the vision of the author, which emanated from the story. By and large, I found the story interesting and very memorable, something I will be keeping close to my heart.

Hence `The Little Willow' is a beautiful story, giving impressions of pure romantic love, innocence, fate, irony, sadness, hope and tragedy. It tells us of various shades of life, without which life is incomplete and tasteless. It gives an insight into human emotions and teaches us about love and it's existence, which extends beyond death. All in all, the story `The Little Willow' is a beautiful story, which talks about one of the most important and indispensable things in life- Love.

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