Precious Bane (Virago Modern Classics)

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Winner of the 1926 Prix Femina Vie Heureuse Prize, Precious Bane is a novel that enchants with its beauty and its timeless truths. Set in Shropshire, England, after the Napoleonic Wars. Narrated by Prue Sarn, a young woman with a cleft lip, or hare-shotten lip, as it is called in the book. She died at St Leonards on Sea on 8th October 1927 at the age of forty six. She is buried at Shrewsbury cemetery and The Mary Webb Society maintains her grave and has a rota for placing fresh flowers each month.

Precious Bane - Mary Webb - Google Books Precious Bane - Mary Webb - Google Books

The large agonised faces in Mary Webb's book annoyed me ... I did not believe people were any more despairing in Herefordshire [sic] than in Camden Town. Her cottage on Lyth Hill (not open to the public) can still be seen. In September 2013, plans were submitted for its demolition. [17] This is such a beautifully written book that is so underrated and that could be because it is not well known. I had not heard of it before it was chosen as a group read and what a shame if I had never had the opportunity to know Prue and her story. The prose immerses one in the countryside and gives one a feel for the archaic dialect unique to this area. I felt that this gave the novel an authentic touch. Being able to transport a reader to a world unfamiliar is a sure sign of an adept writer. It was so pleasant to hear the songs of the willow wrens and see the fields of sweet barley. Or to watch the dragonflies or “daffodowndillies” fluttering up into the sky. I especially enjoyed learning about the rural customs like the ‘love spinning’ where the ladies gather to spin the wool that will be woven into the fabric for the wedding. Another curious tradition was called ‘sin eating’ when a person takes over the sins of a deceased person. Mister Huglet was a great raw-looking man who seemed as if he'd come together accidental and was made up of two or three other people's bodies. He was a giant, very nearly, and clumsy, with tremendous long arms, and so big round the middle that tailors who brought their own stuff always charged extra for his clothes. He'd got a mouth like a frog, and a round red snub nose, and such little eyes that they were lost in the mountains of flesh that made up his face. Whenever he could understand anything, he laughed, and his laugh was enough to frighten you.The setting for the story has been attributed to the Meres of northern Shropshire, but is more likely to have been the area around Bomere Pool which was closer to the author's own home at Spring Cottage on Lyth Hill. The travel writer S. P. B. Mais recorded being taken to the pool to see the location of “Sarn” in the 1930s. [1] These locations remained very rural at the time the novel was written, and Mary Webb was herself very much part of local country life there in the 1920s. Webb uses the rural setting to isolate Prue Sarn and her fellow characters from the larger world; at one point Prue tells us, "four years went by, and though a deal happened out in the world, naught happened to us. [2] Title [ edit ] How sad for Mary that this much desired acclaim was never received in her lifetime. She is buried in the old part of Shrewsbury cemetery, Longden Road, where her grave is maintained by the Mary Webb Society."

Biography - Mary Webb Society Biography - Mary Webb Society

Three of Webb's novels have been reprinted by Virago Press. [12] Bibliography [ edit ] Library resources about

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Prue works almost as hard as he does, but her focus is on helping others--always first to sacrifice herself for someone in need. She goes particularly far to help the man of her dreams, the man she has fallen for, the weaver Kester Woodseaves. This novel is full of musical prose, but I found the romantic parts particularly tender and beautiful.