Precious Bane (Virago Modern Classics)

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The title comes from John Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ and refers to both Prue’s physical deformity and Gideon’s pursuit of wealth. Published in 1924, this prize-winner requires patience with the 1880’s Shropshire dialect but it’s worth it because ‘Precious Bane’ contains all the components of a great novel - suspense, greed, lust, revenge, madness, beauty, kindness, determination, humor, love - it’s all here. And Mary Webb’s landscape writing is like strolling through a fine art gallery. I admit there is some cringe-worthy melodrama in this tale, but I closed the book with complete satisfaction. 5 unapologetic ;-) stars because I was quite “smitten” with Miss Prudence Sarn and my first Mary Webb. From an early age she enjoyed walks in the countryside with her beloved father from whom she inherited her love of nature and the rich folklore, legends and dialects of Shropshire. However the passing of time seems to have led to a new appreciation of its merits as the online movie database IMDb gives it a respectable score of 6.9 out of 10. Mary Webb And with a calm and grievous look he would go to his own place. Mostly, my Grandad used to say, Sin Eaters were such as had been Wise Men or layers of spirits, and had fallen on evil days. Or they were poor folk that had come, through some dark deed, out of the kindly life of men, and with whom none would trade, whose only food might oftentimes be the bread and wine that had crossed the coffin. In our time there were none left around Sarn. They had nearly died out, and they had to be sent for to the mountains. It was a long way to send, and they asked a big price, instead of doing it for nothing as in the old days. So Gideon said-- No, no! Leave un go free, Gideon! Let un rest, poor soul! You be in life and young, but he'm cold and helpless, in the power of Satan. He went with all his sins upon him, in his boots, poor soul! If there's none else to help, let his own lad take pity.'

The title of the story has a double meaning. It is taken from John Milton's Paradise Lost (Book I, lines 690-692): What also had me bothered for some time is the subtle way in which Mary Webb implies that no one is naturally evil , what the characters (and ultimately what WE) become is the uncontrollable combination of fate, desire and chance altogether with their skill in taking the right decision at the right moment. This way to view life as a running river whose course we don't have the power to change produced a kind of claustrophobic feeling of impotence, with this constant foreboding, lurking behind my consciousness, that something gruesome was going to happen and that no one would be able to stop it, and I'd sink along with all the characters.Her writing is notable for its descriptions of nature, and of the human heart. She had a deep sympathy for all her characters a The Old Shropshire dialect was very difficult for me, I must admit. I stumbled through for a while, but eventually the bumpy ride smoothed out as I adjusted to it, and in the end I found the dialect gave a richness and authenticity to the text. She was born Mary Gladys Meredith in 1881 at Leighton Lodge in the Shropshire village of Leighton, where she was baptised at St Mary's parish church, [1] 8 miles (13km) southeast of Shrewsbury. Her father, George Edward Meredith, a private schoolteacher, [2] inspired his daughter with his own love of literature and the local countryside. Her mother Sarah Alice was descended from a family related to Sir Walter Scott. Mary explored the countryside around her childhood home, and developed a sense of detailed observation and description, of both people and places, which later infused her poetry and prose. Why, no,' I says. 'It be like the blue country a traveller sees at dawn, and he dunna know if it'll be a kind country with farms sending up a trail of smoke in the sunset, and a meal for the asking, or if it'll be a wild, savage moor where he'll starve to death with cold afore morning.'

The original plans are located at Shropshire Archives which should be invaluable in identifying the original structure. It is testament to the affection that Shropshire people have for Mary Webb that numerous objections to the demolition were sent to the planners." Spring Cottage in Lyth Hill Books: Principal works include The Golden Arrow (1916), Gone To Earth (1917), The House In Dormer Forest (1920), and Precious Bane (1924).I think, times, that in our mortal language there are no words for the things that are of most account." Gideon and Jancis were handfasted, and Jancis had a love-spinning, even though her father swore that she could never marry Gideon. At the love-spinning, Prue first saw Kester Woodseaves, the weaver. When Kester came into the room, it seemed to Prue that a beautiful mist surrounded her. Then she turned sadly away. Gideon had told her often enough that no man would love a girl with a harelip. In recent years the current owners of Spring Cottage have submitted plans to demolish it and replace it with a much larger modern house. Although the cottage has been extended over the years it is still possible to identify Mary’s original modest dwelling. Each of the characters is drawn with skill and dexterity. They sing. They are real. However, it is Prue, so thoughtful and wise, so wondering and open, that makes this book such a joy to read.

Her final novel Armour Wherein He Trusted remained unfinished but was published as it stood." Mary's grave at Shrewsbury.Anger at demolition plan for writer's Shrewsbury home". Shropshire Star. 16 October 2013 . Retrieved 20 October 2013. What be she, after all, but a woman?” In what ways are women’s lives limited in the society of Precious Bane? In what ways does Prue break the mould?

Imagine the English language as a man who had passed through life's many stages, from infancy to adulthood. This novel may then be considered to have been written in English when the language was still a young boy of thirteen. Adding a lot to its quaint charm is the novel's simple, rustic setting, as if saying that when the language was young, so was the world then. Now it was still the custom at that time, in our part of the country, to give a fee to some poor man after a death, and then he would take bread and wine handed to him across the coffin, and eat and drink, saying-- One part of Gideon’s plan, however, did not work out as he had arranged. He was in love with Jancis Beguildy and decided that he would make his fortune and then marry her. Jancis did not want to wait that long, but Gideon would not change his mind.IT IS HARD, now, to imagine a Prime Minister writing a foreword to a novel and celebrating its account of “a soul’s loveliness”. Stanley Baldwin read Mary Webb’s Precious Bane at Christmas 1926, less than a year before her death. It was, he wrote, “the fresh and crushing answer” to the “stupid urban view of the countryside as dull. . . One who reads some passage in Whitehall almost has the physical sense of being in Shropshire cornfields.” There's a love story here, and tragedy, and family. When she was a young girl the narrator expressed wonderment that her mother kept on telling her father, in moments of anguish--"Could I help it if the hare crossed my path? Could I help it?" I, too, found this puzzling not knowing what it meant until later it dawned on me: it has something to do with superstition, of which there were plenty during the old times, and what the girl-narrator is (though she be unconscious of it). Superstitions which, themselves, bring informative delight. The prose is what makes this book special. The prose fits the story to a T. Life in the countryside of 1800s Shropshire, England, is what is drawn. There is a heavy use of dialect. The story is told as it should be told—the dialect, the idioms, and manner of speech all blend together. They create a whole that feels genuine. The atmosphere of the time and place is captured. Old traditions and beliefs, nature, the mystical and the supernatural are the essence of the story. Reading this, you immerse yourself in another world. Nature i