Precious Bane

by Mary Webb

Books like PRECIOUS BANE are as rare as blue moons. A forgotten classic set in rural Shropshire at the turn of the 19th century blends a simple, rustic love story with a profound sense of nature's mystic truth.

Prue Sarn is an original and appealing heroine of English literature as she triumphs over a physical handicap to win her heart's desire. Skillfully woven through this story is the aura of the English countryside, its flora and fauna anticipating every turn of the plot.

Mary Webb's work won her the admiration of her contemporary writers and in 1925 PRECIOUS BANE won the Femina Vie Heureuse prize.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Romance, British Literature, Book Club, Historical

288 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1924

About the author

Mary Webb (1881-1927) was an English romantic novelist of the early 20th century, whose novels were set chiefly in the Shropshire countryside and among Shropshire characters and people which she knew and loved well. Although she was acclaimed by John Buchan and by Rebecca West, who hailed her as a genius, and won the Prix Femina of La Vie Heureuse for Precious Bane (1924), she won little respect from the general public. It was only after her death that the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, earned her posthumous success through his approbation, referring to her as a neglected genius at a Literary Fund dinner in 1928.

Her writing is notable for its descriptions of nature, and of the human heart. She had a deep sympathy for all her characters and was able to see good and truth in all of them. Among her most famous works are: The Golden Arrow (1916), Gone to Earth (1917), and Seven for a Secret (1922).

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my number one favorite novel of all time. I can't really define the reason I love it so much. Sure, there's the lyrical writing, the sweet-yet-spunky protagonist, the gorgeous setting, and the best love story of all time. But there's something beyond all that which touches my soul. I always know I'll be life-long friends with anyone else who has ever read and loved this book.

[Hilary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set in the 1800's this tale of rural life shows what a hard, hard life ordinary people endured. It could have been set in medieval times, for the superstition, religious brutality and the treatment of women, children, and animals are awful.

After Gideon and Prue's father dies Gideon is determined to better their lives, and at first his character seems quite admirable, hard working and driven to look after his mother and sister and not heeding of superstitious nonsense. However as Prue observes, money is his 'precious bane' and he will strive to aquire it at all costs. Gideon changes, and remembering the opening scene of his fathers awful treatment of his children, it's not suprising.

The description of the English countryside is beautiful and the use of dialect helps this era come alive. This book also has hope as well as hardship, and kindness as well as brutality. Prue is a wonderful character, you feel for her immensely throughout the book. One of the best books I have read. If only there were a sequel, I should love to have read about Prue's much hoped for basket of rushes.

[Corinne Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was an absolute pleasure to read, from start to finish. The depth and character development were stunning and you get such a glimpse at human nature - at it's best and worst. It's almost a spiritual journey - after reading you find yourself savoring different passages to find all the truth you know is within them. Precious Bane is AMAZING. I don't know what exactly it was about it struck me as exquisitely beautiful, but it touched me and I finished it feeling like a better person. Prue Sarn is such a relatable and sympathetic heroine, without ever becoming soppy or whiny. She becomes your friend and you want so much for her life to be happy. A FANTASTIC book.

[Carol, She's so Novel ꧁꧂ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had never heard of this author before, so I had no expectations at all going into this read.

But this was a wonderful, book with a lyrical use of language. I am assuming this is an authentic example of Shropshire speech. In any case, I absolutely loved it.

Prue Sarn, she of the 'hare-shotten' lip, is such a wonderful heroine, hardworking, compassionate & brave. Her brother Gideon is ambitious & driven & wants to make a better life for them both. Unfortunately life doesn't always go smoothly for any of us & terrible tragedies happen.

This book is now very easy to get hold of in the kindle/ebook format & I really recommend people try this one.

& in my younger years I was not a Thomas Hardy fan. Since Webb & Hardy's writing styles are supposed to be similar, maybe I should give Hardy another chance.

https://wordpress.com/view/carolshess...

[Diane Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

My goodness, what to say about this book? It has to be read to be imagined, the language is a beauteous thing even without the timeless story.

"I think, times, that in our mortal language there are no words for the things that are of most account."

This is Prue Sarn's love story, though she never expected to have one because of her disfigurement, a hare-shotten lip. She falls in love with the weaver, Kester Woodseaves, as do all women who see him, because he is a fine figure of a man. What none of them see at first is that he has a good heart, and is a kind man; he sees beyond the surface to what lies underneath. It is also the story of her brother, Gideon Sarn, who also has a love story, but lets his love of money and ambition and revenge ruin everything for him.

Prue Sarn is tight up there with Ivy Rowe from "Fair and Tender Ladies" as one of my favorite literary heroines. She makes her own happiness as she finds it in nature and the ones she loves, she works hard, makes peace with her misfortunate looks, and wins us over with her own good heart and kindness.

I was a long time getting around to this novel, but now it's firmly settled in my reading psyche and won't be forgotten. Not a book to read for entertainment and tossed aside, one to keep and reread and live with.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Dear to goodness, what a mort of idle words! The future's as you make it.'
'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.'


Mary Webb has spun with the pages of Precious Bane a spider web of lyrical prose that caught me up and held me fast from first page to last. In the person of Prue Sarn are the qualities of comfort, patience, forgiveness, and love; and in the world around her are evil, jealousy, avarice and superstition. Prue suffers from a disfigurement, she has a cleft or hare-lip, and she is reminded time and again by almost everyone around her that she will never marry, that she is undesirable, that she is unfortunate and ugly.

Then a thought came to me all of a sudden. I wonder it didna come afore, but then I'd never much minded having a hare-lip afore. It seems to me that often it's only when you begin to see other folks minding a thing like that for you, that you begin to mind it for yourself.

Her brother, Gideon, is in love with the beautiful Jancis, daughter of a man who fancies himself a wizard and objects to the match. He wishes to marry her, but first and foremost he wishes to be rich and prominent–an important man. His lust for money and power propels him, and he drives himself and his sister to the point of collapse in his efforts to amass the wealth he desires. He is a good man, a hard-worker, but his obsession for money, the precious bane, takes all precedence in his life, and as we often see in our own time, the blind pursuit of money often loses us our chances of happiness.

He was ever a strong man, which is almost the same times, as to say, a man with little time for kindness. For if you stop to be kind, you must swerve often from your path. So when folk tell me of this great man and that great man, I think to myself, Who was stinted of joy for his glory? How many old folk and children did his coach wheels go over? What bridal lacked his song, and what mourner his tears, that he found time to climb so high?

There are numerous townspeople we come to know and there is the mother of Prue and Gideon, who only wants to be respected and some rest from her endless labors. And then there is the weaver, Kester Woodseaves, who besots the women who see him, and for whom Prue longs, despite knowing no such man would ever accept a “hare-shotten” woman.

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.

I wonder to myself, times, if it was fair, clear weather on Golgotha when Mary looked up at the cross, and whether there was some small bird singing, and the bees busy in the clover. Ah! I think it was glass-clear weather, and bright. For no bitter lacked in that cup, and surely one of the bitterest things is to see the cruelty of man on some fair morning with blessing in it.

Rarely do I find someone I know I will never forget in the pages of my reading. The most perceptive writers sometimes offer them up to us, like the gold Gideon covets. Prue is one such character, bringing to mind strong and gentle creatures, like Corrag and Ivy Rowe–making me smile and cry in the same breath.

I will leave this book with a link to a folk song that recurs constantly during its telling. I found the recording and thought it was too perfect, for it captures the atmosphere of the tale and wrings a tear.

https://youtu.be/RM6z-g_kfBI

[Magrat Ajostiernos · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5/5
Una novela oscura y tortuosa pero plagada de belleza que recuerda a Thomas Hardy en su manera de describir la Inglaterra rural y sus paisajes salvajes.
Si algo me gustó de esta historia fue Prue, su protagonista, por su inteligencia y valentía, su dulzura y nobleza. Durante la primera mitad del libro la adoré a ella y muchas de esas descripciones sobre los bosques, la tierra y ese otoño/invierno que se percibe eterno en la historia.
Prue destaca por ser resilente, por resistir y poner siempre buena cara ante la adversidad... y en su vida, encontraremos muchas adversidades. Quizás esta tragedia en la que se profundiza durante la segunda parte del libro es lo que me costó un poquito más... No estoy en un momento de mi vida en que pueda soportar muchas tragedias. Por otro lado, la historia se centra mucho en el cruel hermano de Prue (personaje odioso a más no poder) y también en su historia de amor, algo que se me hizo algo repetitivo.
Sea como sea, disfruté de «Precioso veneno» por cómo estaba narrada y por tener a una protagonista fuera de lo común dentro de los clásicos. Una novela perfecta para los fans de las obras británicas del XIX, con, eso sí, sus detalles atípicos (los más interesantes los que tienen que ver con las viejas supersticiones y la brujería, en mi opinión).

[Lori Keeton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such an unexpected and special tale that even though I turned its last page weeks ago, I am still able to fall back into the rural life of Shropshire, England where Prue Sarn makes her home. The country's atmosphere is ripe with folklore and superstitions. The folk are as likely to draw upon a wizard’s book as the Bible for guidance. Prue has been born with a harelip because a poor silly hare looked at your Mother afore you were born. Prue has been told she is cursed and her brother Gideon flippantly tells her she’ll never court or marry. Gideon becomes caretaker of the family farm when their father unexpectedly dies. He is greedy and bent on wealth. He works his mother and sister like machines.

Prue’s outlook on life is joyous despite her disfigurement. She is brave, smart, tender-hearted and naive. She is clever and capable of sympathy for those who are heartless and uncaring. She possesses strength and resilience that demonstrate her fortitude in affliction. She is a product of the natural world which has a mystical feeling about it. Nature has a spiritual affinity to Prue who pens such experiences in her attic space:

I cannot tell whence, a most powerful sweetness that had never come to me afore. It was not religious, like the goodness of a text heard at preaching. It was beyond that. It was as if some creature made all of light had come on a sudden from a great way off, and nestled in my bosom…I cared not to ask what it was.

Although she believes she won’t ever know the bonds of love, Prue falls for the weaver, Kester Woodseaves. She loved to watch him and talk with him all in a friendly way with no belief that a man would ever look at her in the same way. She has been snickered at and teased for her hare-shotten lip for so long that it has become a part of her essence and one that is just naturally a part of her. She accepts it as her “precious bane”.

He wore no beard or whiskers, so you could see the shape and colour and the lines of all his face, which seemed to me to be a face you could never tire of looking on. Times I wonder if heaven will be thus, a long gazing on a face you canna tire of, but must ever have one more glimpse.

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.

I would say if you enjoy Thomas Hardy, you will love Precious Bane. It feels similar yet it stands on its own. Prue Sarn will go down as a favorite female character of mine.

[Dolors · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being the devoted reader of British classics I am, how I've managed to miss this little gem of a book for so long I honestly don't know. But beware, my dear reader, this is not Jane Austen. This is a harsh tale, in the style of Thomas Hardy or even George Eliot, you'll see the characters you so much come to care for struggle in an unfair and prejudiced world, and you'll suffer along with them.

Prudence Sarn is a country girl who lives with her simple mother and her older brother, Gideon, "Maister of the place". Prue is gentle, goodhearted and has a fine figure along with a sharp mind. But she also has a harelip, meaning her whole existence is blighted, as it's impossible that anyone would marry a girl with a curse like that. In spite of her bleak future, she makes light of her woes and from very early on, she develops a special relationship with everything alive, her senses being aligned in harmony with the wild natural world; animals, trees and even the wind are her most beloved companions.
Gideon, in contrast with good natured Prue, is as ambitious and severe as he is handsome. He works hard (and slaves Prue to do the same for him) to be wealthy and prosperous and his pride prevents him from marrying the girl he loves, fair Jancis, because he wants to be well-off before he gives himself that pleasure, not caring if others suffer because of his material whims.
But Prue's peace of mind crumbles down when she meets the new weaver, Kester Woodseaves, whom she starts to worship in secret not believing herself worthy of him. It's up to this Prince Charming to perceive the real beauty of Pruedence Sarn and free her from gossip and hateful stares.

"This was the reason for the hating looks, the turnings aside, the whispers. I was a the witch of Sarn. I was the woman cursed of God with a hare-shotten lip. I was the woman who had friended Beguildy, that wicked old man, the devil's oddman, and like holds to like. And now, almost the worst crime of all, I stood alone".

What mainly got me about this novel is Webb's capacity to transmit such a crude story in which guilt, hatred and prejudice get the worst of its characters, as if it was an innocent and sweet fable. And in that sense, the brutality of the morals which are trying to be taught become more evident and disturbing. Also the evident contrast between brother and sister, between evil and goodness: Prue's silent acceptance and her brother's endless thirst to yield power; her ability to be at ease with herself in spite of her faults versus Gideon's incapacity to accept his position in the world; her humble ways, his capricious goals. As if opposed poles inevitably attracted to each other. Yin and yang. Dark and light. Life and death. One can't exist without the other.

"Why, it was only that I was your angel for a day," I said at long last. "A poor daggly angel, too".

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.

"There are misfortunes that make you spring up and rush to save yourself, but there are others that are too bad for this, for they leave nought to do."

So, imagine my joy, when out of the blue, some shinning and pure light came through and gave me hope and a new understanding, teaching me a valuable lesson: never stop believing in the magic of life, because the moment you stop believing, you will start fading away only to become an invisible spot of dust in this infinite nothingness which some call existence.

[Wyndy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let me start by saying this book was not at all what I expected. I thought I was settling into a leisurely little classic in a cozy English village with a pining maiden who quietly shoulders her burdens. What I got instead was an engrossing, gutsy page turner. Prue Sarn has now charmed her way in to being one of my favorite classic heroines ever. Despite being born with a “hare-shotten lip” (harelip), she’s plucky, and wise beyond her years. She has a wry sense of humor and a thirst for “book-larning.” She endures her manically ambitious brother Gideon without complaint, even though he treats her “like his dog or his bought slave.” She accepts her bane with grace, rarely allowing herself a moment’s self-pity. In fact, she soars above it. Unfortunately, brother Gideon’s bane - his ruthless pursuit of money and position - ultimately proves his undoing.

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.

“And even now, when Parson says, ‘It was the power of the Lord working in you,’ I’m not sure in my own mind. For there was naught in it of churches nor of folks, praying nor praising, sinning nor repenting. It had to do with such things as birdsong and daffadowndillies rustling, knocking their heads together in the wind.”
~ Prue Sarn

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simon and I read this book aloud together ready for our Book Group discussion on January 15th, 2026. All but one of our group loved it! For me, it was an unexpected pleasure. I loved the descriptions of nature and was moved to tears on several occasions by the story.

I really enjoyed being transported back in time to rural Shropshire in the early 1800s. Shropshire lies just north of us and is reported to be quite beautiful. We have made a couple of forays into its market towns and would love to hike through its nature sometime this summer.

My favorite passage includes the description of sowing wheat, "swinging out our arms with a great giving movement, as if we were feeding all the world," and watching it grow, as it contains their hopes for the future.

"It is a pretty thing to see the golden seed tossed in the air with sunshine on it and the light spring wind scattering it here and there; or if it winter wheat, then it will be, very like, a still brown day with the mellowness of old beer in the colours and the scent of the air."

I loved also the description of our planet, "a pleasant painted ball with patterns of blue seas and green mountains upon its roundness."

I was curious about the 'funeral cakes' and wondered if they were regular cakes served at a funeral or specific cakes. Further on, I read, "These were made of good sponge, with plenty of eggs, coffin-shaped and lapped up in black-edged paper."

I learned about the 'Hiring Fair' where folk gathered to be hired - "each one carried the sign of his trade or hers," for example, a cook might carry a wooden spoon, or a gardener a spade.

[CanadianReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3.5

It’s a long time since I’ve read Thomas Hardy to whose work, Mary Webb’s Precious Bane is often compared, but the novel only feels Hardyesque insofar as it involves a nineteenth-century agrarian community steeped in superstition and in its abundant lyrical descriptions of nature. Far more than Hardy’s, Webb’s characters seem like figures from some ancient ballad, more types than fully fleshed-out people, and her plot is a simple one.

The story opens sometime in the 1820s with the sudden death of the main characters’—Prue and her elder brother Gideon Sarn’s—father. At the old man’s funeral, Gideon agrees to be his father’s sin eater (one who ritually takes on the sins of the dead) in exchange for full control of the farm at Sarn Mere. Handsome, hard, and singleminded, Gideon is grimly determined to work the land in order to make himself rich. His goal is to purchase, within a few years, the ageing squire’s mansion in Lullingford, a market town fifteen miles away, where he plans to bring the beautiful Jancis Beguildy as his wife. Prue, cursed with a harelip—thought to be caused by her mother’s encountering a hare in the woods during her pregnancy—will, of course, never marry due to her disfigurement. She pledges to work alongside her brother on the land. She is assured by him that she, too, will one day live a life of ease in his fine Lullingford house.

At the “love-spinning” for Gideon and Jancis—a gathering at which local women spin the wool that will be woven into fabric for the young couple—Prue first sees the weaver, Kester Woodseaves. He’s a powerfully handsome figure, but her attraction, the reader is told, transcends the physical. In those first mystical moments, he becomes her “master” and his image and spirit will infuse her thoughts in the hard days ahead. In time, Prue will save his life, and he will ultimately save hers.

In the end, Webb’s is a story about punishment for all-consuming greed. Jancis Beguildy’s father, the local wizard who provides charms and snake-oil cures and who may be in league with the devil, is known to have held a long grudge against Old Sarn, and he has even less use for the man’s son, Gideon. Idle and amoral, Beguildy is motivated by lust for easy money. He believes he can get a better price for his beautiful daughter, Jancis, than Gideon is likely to give, and he is fully prepared to auction her off to the highest bidder. When Gideon sleeps with the girl to stake his claim to her, however, the young man cements his fate. Beguildy’s curses and revenge will deprive him of all he’s worked for.

Webb’s characters and their motivations are not complex. Neither is her plot. Her story’s strength lies in its rich and poetic telling. My copy of this book sat on the shelf for years. I tried it several times, but, until now, none seemed the right one to wrestle with the thick dialect. I wish there had been an annotated copy available, complete with a glossary of Shropshire English. The meaning of some but not all of the vocabulary can be inferred, and initially I made regular use of an online guide to Shropshire dialect and the Oxford English Dictionary to understand the more opaque words and phrases. I did not find the book easy going until I was about three-quarters of the way in.

I’m glad I finally read Precious Bane, but I wasn’t as enchanted as others apparently are or as I thought I’d be. That’s largely due, I think, to the simple, unnuanced characters: Gideon is too greedy and driven; Beguildy, too bald-facedly bad; golden-haired Jancis, too insipidly pretty; Prue and Kester’s love story, too fanciful. I couldn’t suspend my disbelief in the latter for more than a minute or two.

[Joselito Honestly and Brilliantly · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.


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.


I've never heard, for instance, of this concept of a "sin eater" before. Of course, in the Christian belief system Jesus Christ, the redeemer, was supposed to have died to redeem the world from its sins. Maybe this was what was being faintly echoed in what these old English folks came up with, as narrated by the principal protagonist here with her grieving mother, her brother Gideon and her dead father about to be buried:


"At the coffin foot was our little pewter measure full of wine, and a crust of bread with it, but nobody touched them.

"The Sexton stepped forrard and said--

"'Be there a Sin Eater?'

"And Mother cried out--

"'Alas, no! Woe's me! There is no Sin Eater for poor Sarn. Gideon gainsayed it.'

"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--

"'I give easement and rest now to thee, dear man, that ye walk not over the fields nor down the by-ways. And for thy peace I pawn my own soul.'

"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--

"'We'll save the money. What good would the man do?'

"But Mother cried and moaned all night after. And when the Sexton said 'Be there a Sin Eater?' she cried again very pitifully, because Father had died in his wrath, with all his sins upon him, and besides, he had died in his boots, which is a very unket thing and bodes no good. So she thought he had great need of a Sin Eater, and she would not be comforted.

"Then a strange, heart-shaking thing came to pass.

"Gideon stepped up to the coffin and said--

"'There IS a Sin Eater.'

"'Who then? I see none,' said Sexton.

"'I ool be the Sin Eater.'

"He took up the little pewter measure full of darkness, and he looked at Mother.

"'Oot turn over the farm and all to me if I be the Sin Eater, Mother?' he said.

"'No, no! Sin Eaters be accurst!'

"'What harm, to drink a sup of your own wine and chumble a crust of your own bread? But if you dunna care, let be. He can go with the sin on him.'

""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.'

"'And you'll give me the farm, Mother?'

"'Yes, yes, my dear! What be the farm to me? You can take all, and welcome.'

"Then Gideon drank the wine all of a gulp, and swallowed the crust. There was no sound in all the place but the sound of his teeth biting it up.

"Then he put his hand on the coffin, standing up tall in the high black hat, with a gleaming pale face, and he said--

"'I give easement and rest now to thee, dear man. Come not down the lanes nor in the meadows. And for thy peace I pawn my own soul. Amen.'

"There was a sigh from everybody then, like the wind in dry bents. Even the oxen by the gate, it seemed to me, sighed as they chewed the cud."


A long quote which gives the idea of what kind of English was it that I was trying to describe earlier (direct quotes, for me, are like movie trailers or food samplings: instead of draining one's barrel of adjectives attempting to describe, better just present a choice morsel of the thing!).

This novel transports the reader to another world, makes him hear a language strange, yet comprehensible, introduces him to an unlikely and very unconventional heroine who comes alive in the pages, capable of making grown men swoon to her love story everyone knows can never happen but does happen, credibly, in the hands of this great writer. A total of 1,050 readers have rated this and the average stands at 4.26. Which means that very few, if any, had found any reason to say that they did not like it a lot (4 stars) and still many, like myself, found it amazing (5 stars).

A used, discarded, torn treasure which I bought for the price of a can of Coke (20 pesos).

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Precious Bane tells the touching story of the young Prue Sarn, coming of age in the early 1800’s, part of a hard-working farm family in the West Midlands of England. She’s considered afflicted, due to being born with a cleft lip, and told she’ll never have a lover or children.

“The only cause for all the misfortune that they could see was the curse of God … They’d reasoned it out slow, as we do in the country, but once they came to the end of the reasoning they were fixed, and it would take a deal to turn them.”

Though Prue narrates the story looking back from a happy future, it’s a story full of woe. I was on the edge of my seat as she faced one challenge after another, heartbreak after heartbreak, but also inspired by the way she held onto her dreams and maintained her stout heart.

We see Prue in contrast to her brother Gideon, who works relentlessly in pursuit of getting rich--the “precious bane” of the title.

“It was one of the times in Gideon’s life when he might choose his blessing, the path of love and merry days where the pretty paigle grew, the keys of heaven, or the path of strange twists and turns, where was the thing of dread, the bane, the precious bane, that feeds on life blood.”

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.

“Yet as I thought of Kester Woodseaves and what he had come to mean, I seemed to hear and see on this side and on that, in the dark woods, a sound and a gleam of the gathering of spring. There was a piping call in the oakwood, a bursting of purple in the treetops, a soft yellowing of celandine in the rookery.”

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.

I’m descended from farmers on both sides of my family, and although I’ve never experienced the toil of that life, it always resonates when I read about it. I find the lifestyle incredibly inspiring, making me want to throw down my book, roll up my sleeves, and get to work.

If you like stories about hard work and well-earned rewards, if you appreciate uniquely gorgeous prose and a love story to melt your heart, and if you’re looking for a heroine you’ll never forget, don’t miss this one.

[Werner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This wonderful novel has been on my radar ever since I read a review of a reprint edition back in the early 80s. I'm profoundly glad that I finally found an opportunity to work it into my reading schedule! Published in 1924 (three years before the author died at the age of only 46, probably from complications from Graves' disease, which had plagued her since she was 20), this has very much the style and flavor of a 19th-century novel. (Coming from me, that's a high compliment!) Webb stands very solidly in the classic tradition of great Victorian writers like Eliot and Hardy; and here, she's definitely equaled their level of achievement. If the 20th-century literary canon hadn't been determined by a purblind clerisy only interested in grinding its axes (and, probably, if the author hadn't been a woman), this would be universally recognized as a major work of modern British fiction. Though her work wasn't widely distributed until after her death, once the reading public discovered it, her novels became best sellers by the 1930s; and though they've been forgotten again by those mainly interested in novelty, they continue to be much reprinted for the delight of discerning readers.

The geographic setting here is rural Shropshire in western England, on the border of Wales where Celtic and Anglo-Saxon cultures have co-existed and cross-fertilized each other for centuries, the part of England where Webb was born and grew up. No dates are given, but references to events establish a time frame of about 1811-1820. Our narrator, looking back on those years as a "very old woman," is one of the greatest characters in English literature, Prue Sarn (b. ca. 1796), who's 15 when the story begins. Born with a cleft palate (a condition formerly often referred to as a harelip, or as here in Shropshire dialect as a "hare-shotten" lip, which the country folk actually believe can be caused by a hare crossing the pregnant mother's path), her different appearance is automatically dismissed as ugly, people often view her as cursed and as a probable witch, and her brother tells her she'll never marry because nobody would want her. (Webb herself, whose Graves' disease caused her eyes to bulge and produced a disfiguring swollen goiter in her neck, knew something about the treatment many people mete out to those with medical conditions that affect our appearance.)

Prue's narrative voice is a joy. Partly, this is because of the quaint, endearing regional dialect that Webb faithfully reproduces, with colorful turns of phrase that fascinate. (Some of the vocabulary was unfamiliar, but I could usually glean the meaning from the context.) But mostly, it's because of her warm embrace of life, her caring heart for her fellow humans, and her delight in the sheer beauty of the natural world (richly described here in all of its glory, at a time before industrial pollution and urban sprawl menaced and defiled it; Webb clearly shared her protagonist's delight in it). She's one of the most beautiful souls you'll ever meet in a book (on both the inside and the outside; just because a lady happens to have a cleft palate doesn't mean she's not good-looking --and if you don't know that, Webb will educate you!), and as innately classy as any noblewoman in England. (Though I didn't shelve this as an "action heroine" book, at one point she actually does also have to step into that territory, and she rises to the occasion admirably; you'll recognize that scene when you come to it.)

In her brief preface, Webb (b. 1881) speaks of listening to the "reminiscence" of Shropshire friends and neighbors as she was growing up, and particularly of the local lore she learned from her father. She also researched this novel seriously, as she indicates. Reading it genuinely transports you into a world and a way of life now essentially vanished. Textured depiction of the folkways and folklore, folk songs and customs of that time and place is a great strength of this book. It's a world that has its pluses and minuses, and you'll feel both of them profoundly. Webb looks unflinchingly at the sexist and classist attitudes of that time, including the double standard for sexual morality, and the ugly fallout these could have; the dangers of superstition, and the gruesome "sport" of bullbaiting. (We should probably include a trigger warning for animal death/cruelty --though, thanks to a brave action, not as much death and cruelty as there might have been.) The plot definitely isn't all sweetness and light; the baser attitudes and motives of some human hearts are on display, and some events are grim indeed. But the author recognizes life's beauty as well as its tragedy, and the positive as well as negative potential of the human spirit.

I don't know what Webb's religious beliefs were, if she had any. Though all of her characters here would claim to be "Christians," for many of them it's probably (and for a few of them certainly!) no more than a nominal affiliation. (Even for Christians in this time and place, their belief coexists with implicit trust in the old pre-Christian practice of "sin-eating," which is incorporated into backwoods Anglican burial services and plays a large role in the tale here; its basic incompatibility with Christian theology doesn't suggest itself to tradition-bound minds not accustomed to thinking analytically.) But for all that, the role of simple religious faith in the life of the community and of those, like Prue, who take it to heart in how they treat others, is approached positively. Even Prue's reflection at one point on bad things that happen, from an ultra-Calvinist perspective, didn't offend me (though I'm not a Calvinist). Unlike such literary characters as Captain Ahab or Master Prynne, she doesn't use it to excuse her own shortcomings, but rather to feel more compassionate and forgiving to those who do wrong; and it makes her more appreciative and thankful for the good things that happen as well.

I'd unhesitatingly recommend this novel to any reader who appreciates well-written serious fiction, in the real meaning of the term. And I give Webb high marks for having the guts to create a heroine with a birth defect, who isn't lessened or defined by it. (But is Prue really doomed to lifelong spinsterhood because of it? Is there ANY guy at all in 19th-century Shropshire with two good eyes and even half a brain? Well ...I'm not telling; you'll just have to read the book. :-)

Warning: The Modern Library posthumous reprint edition by Random House, which I read, has a short (four pages) Introduction by no less than the then Prime Minister of the UK, Stanley Baldwin, a Webb fan who was largely responsible, after her death, for calling serious attention to her work. It consists mostly of a short biography and appreciation of the author; but if you read it, it should only be (as I'm glad I did) as an afterword, because it contains MAJOR spoilers!

[Libros Prestados · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me ha gustado mucho, pero no sabría decir por qué. En un principio se parece un poco a "Canción del ocaso" de Lewis Grassic Gibbon, por su protagonista femenina que vive en una granja en Gran Bretaña, pero es un parecido meramente superficial. El personaje de Gideon, tan obsesionado con hacerse rico y que anuncia un final trágico, podría acercarla a una obra de las hermanas Brönte o de Thomas Hardy, pero no es tan oscuro ni tan absolutamente trágico. Es trágico, sí, pero no tiene esas vibras del Romanticismo ni se regodea realmente en la tragedia. Y aunque se supone que hay un hombre que es brujo y el folklore y las supersticiones tienen cierto peso en la novela, no la podemos calificar para nada como "folk terror".

Es una novela pausada y reflexiva, con una protagonista que no destaca realmente por nada, pero que consigue tener una visión diferente de su realidad.

Ahora bien, el final me ha parecido un poco precipitado y el último capítulo... bueno, es sin duda un capítulo.

[Chrissie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Please read the GR book description here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7....
It is excellent. I will fill in only a bit more, what I think should be emphasized.

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 is glorious, while at the same time spirits haunt and fairies flit in and out. None of this is fantastical, but simply an integral part of how life was perceived.

The English literary critic Gilbert Keith Chesterton wrote that the novel’s characters "live a hard life; they probably on occasion live a hungry life; they are quite capable in some circumstances of living a gross or ferocious life. But they do, in a very deep sense, live a full life." (Source: The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton Volume 34: The Illustrated London News, 1926-1928, page 521). I quote this because despite all the difficulties thrown at the story’s characters, what stands out above all else is the very fullness of their lives.

Mary Webb (1881 – 1927) was born and lived most of her life in Shropshire. In this novel she is writing of what she knows. She is at home with the dialect, the nature she describes and the traditions of which she felt a part. She was deformed, not with a hare-lip, but instead by Graves’ disease. When the tale’s Prue Sarn remarks that it was in the eyes of others that she became aware of the ghastliness her own deformity, Webb is revealing her own thoughts. Graves’ disease, a thyroid disorder, caused protuberant eyes and a throat goitre. The disease most probably contributed to the author’s death at the young age of forty-six.

The tale may be analyzed on different levels. There are many quotes from the Bible. I am sure a religious interpretation is possible too.

Justine Eyre narrates the audiobook. Her narration isn’t easy to follow, due primarily to the dialect, but also due to an indistinct enunciation. I listened to parts several times. The prose is so special, re-listening is in fact enjoyable. I like the narration because it fits so perfectly the prose. It takes getting used to, and I had to reduce the speed, but I am giving it four stars because despite these difficulties I like it a lot.

Mary Webb is an author you simply must try. She ‘s really got a style of her own. I find it to be delightful. Shropshire of the 1800s will become a place you know.

************************

*Gone to Earth 5 stars
*Precious Bane 4 stars

[Andy Marr · Rating 3 out of 5]

My third attempt at reading this one, and it's done. I'm glad of it, even if I didn't love it in the way I hoped I might.

[bookstories_travels🪐 · Rating 5 out of 5]

No podría haber empezado el año lector 2024 de mejor forma. Lo he hecho con una novela realmente hermosa que me llamó la atención desde el mismo instante en que fue publicada en español, y que estaba convencida totalmente de que me iba a encantar. La he cerrado con sentimientos encontrados por la clase de trama que es, y convencida de una cosa: qué es muy probable que cuando llegue diciembre de 2024 este libro esté en mi Top cinco de mejores lecturas y eso que solo hemos empezado el año.

En los tiempos de la guerra napoleónica, en la laguna de Sarn, la joven Prudence Sarn lleva una vida triste y solitaria. Por culpa de su labio leporino, Prue está condenada a no poder casarse nunca y a ser rechazada por sus supersticiosos vecinos, que murmuran que es una bruja. El único consuelo que Prue tiene en una vida marcada por el extenuante trabajo al que la obliga la ambición de su hermano Gideon, obsesionado con ser rico, es la hermosa naturaleza que la rodea. Pero cuando Prue parece encontrar un alma gemela en el tejedor Kester Woodseaves, la ambición de Gideon convertirá la campiña de Shropshire en el escenario de una brutal venganza.

Mary Webb nos transporta a la Inglaterra rural del siglo XIX con una obra de ritmo plácido y prosa preciosista que a primera vista puede parecer meramente costumbrista y destinada a caer en lo sensiblero, o incluso en lo cursi. Pero a medida que se va desenrollando la madeja que Webb nos propone, descubrimos que nos encontramos ante una historia mucho más compleja y trágica de lo que puede parecer en la primera página, que paulatinamente va volviéndose más densa y oscura. En la sinopsis se compara a la escritora con Thomas Hardy y Emily Bronte, y lo que podría haber sido un simple gancho publicitario para atraer al lector no tarda demostrarse como muy cercano a la realidad. En”Precioso Veneno” se combinan las pasiones desmedidas y un tanto oscuras que sazonan “Cumbres Borrascosas” con el aura trágica de Hardy y la ambientación rural fina y bellamente retratada qué caracterizan las novelas del ciclo de Wessex del escritor victoriano. La prosa de Mary Webb es delicada, elegante y depurada, pero a la vez ágil y dinámica. Hay algo cristalino y luminoso en ella, es como una hoja que se mueve y baila al sol del viento. Cada una de las letras que componen en tinta y papel este tomo está cargada de una fuerza onírica inmensa, de un lirismo plástico que logra recrear una atmósfera potente que es imposible que no atraiga y atrape. Mientras uno lee a Webb, siente que pasea por esos campos de Shropshire y que el dialecto de cada personaje con el que se para a hablar entra por sus oídos. Los diálogos están llenos de fuerza y potencia, logran mostrarnos el mundo interior de sus personajes y enseñarnos muchos de los detalles y complejidades de la sociedad que la autora recrea en esta novela.

Es la pluma perfecta para recrear la naturaleza y la ambientación que consigue Webb recrear en este libro. Son simplemente mágicas y preciosas la manera en que habla de los entornos naturales con una belleza casi plástica, con nítidas descripciones de lugares y entornos detalladismas, recreándose en la belleza sanadora de la naturaleza forma en que el paso de las estaciones va sucediéndose a lo largo de los años y como este afecta al entorno que rodea a Prue. Quizás a alguno, mientras lee, le pueda parecer que tanta descripción ralentiza en demasía la lectura. Pero es que la naturaleza es una parte esencial de la obra, casi podría considerarse un personaje más de la misma Es en la soledad de la campiña, los lagos, los campos y los bosques de la región donde nuestra desdichada protagonista encontrará consuelo y fortaleza. Los cambios ambientales que se narran a lo largo de la historia tienen su motivo. Por un lado son motivo de razonamiento e inspiración, siendo la base en la que se sustentan muchos de los pensamientos e ideas que va desarrollando a lo largo del libro. Y por otro, casan con la evolución psicológica de Prue, consiguiendo enlazar su estado mental con el del lector, conseguir de una manera sutil, y sencilla que este empatice con lo que está pasando la joven en momentos concretos y ayudándole a meterse en su psique.

Y es que es Prue Sarn es un personaje que una vez que la conoces se queda para siempre contigo. es imposible no enamorarte de un carácter tan sufrido, dulce, tenaz, valiente, soñador y sencillo, condenada por algo de lo que no tiene la culpa y por una sociedad pueblerina y llena de prejuicios e ideas supersticiosas, destinada a trabajar como un animal de sol a sol en los campos para ayudar a su hermano a obtener las riquezas que éste anhela con una fuerza casi lujuriosa. Hay algo profundamente entrañable en Prue, tiene en sí misma madera de heroína. Pero no trágica, por más que sean tragicas muchas de las cosas por las que tiene que pasar en esta historia. No carece de orgullo, confianza en sí misma y dignidad, sabe perfectamente que pese a su defecto de nacimiento también tiene sus propias virtudes físicas y que es muy resistente y capaz de trabajar en los campos tan bien (incluso mejor), que cualquier hombre. No en pocas ocasiones nos deja caer que es plenamente consciente de su inteligencia, repitiendo varias veces al lector que sabe leer y escribir, una habilidad que pocos tienen entre esos vecinos que la desprecian. Todos esos pequeños detalles hacen que Prue no caiga en la cursilería más rancia o en el victimismo más barato, dan realismo, profundidad y humanidad al carácter, y consiguen que conecte mejor con el lector. Prue Actuará como narradora de la novela, y es a través de sus ojos, por el que conocemos los acontecimientos que la jalonan y el resto de personajes, los cuales están, a su vez, finamente trazados con gran maestría y de una forma tan nítida como lo está la propia Prue.

Todos son personajes muy realistas, llenos de matices y defectos, con personalidades muy bien construidas. Si hay algo en lo que se maneja con soltura es presentar de una forma realista y tierna sus personalidades. Nunca les juzga con severidad , como nuestra protagonista señala en un momento determinado, las personas estamos sujetas a muchas cosas, y a veces no controlamos lo que pasan por nuestros corazones y lo que sucede a nuestro alrededor. Pero al mismo tiempo les retrata con gran fidelidad y sinceridad, mostrando todos los entresijos de sus almas. Por más que Prue le quiera y compadezca, su hermano Gideon está demasiado cegado por su ambición y por sus sueños de grandeza, resulta demasiado antipático y duro. Pero incluso él tiene algo que consigue que no pocas veces se le pueda perdonar un poco, ya que hay una fuerza superior a él y una cabezonería que le marca más que sus propios deseos y le convierte en un ser de hierro sin corazón. Y al brujo y frio Beguildy, pese a que es el gran antagonista de esta historia, se le reconoce que ha nacido y se ha criado en un mundo que se le quedaba pequeño, que debidamente encarrilado, hubiera sido capaz de hacer grandes cosas por el bien común. Pero si hay un personaje que podamos considerar profundamente idealizado es Kester Woodseaves, el recien llegado tejedor de pueblo que muchas de sus ideas y principios se demuestra como un auténtico adelantado a su tiempo. Es muy bonito ver la forma tierna, inteligente, original y soterrada, como va desarrollándose su relación con, como poco a poco van conectando. Muchos de estos caracteres sirven para retratar una sociedad rural en la que cada uno de sus componentes tiene su papel bien trazado dentro de la misma, y todos están conectados unos con otros como si de una fina tela de araña se tratase. Una sociedad rural en la que la supersticiones, la hipocresía, las redecillas familiares y las ambiciones irán de la mano para crear un microcosmos finamente detallado y que refleja muy bien la Inglaterra rural del siglo XIX. Y que a su vez es el escenario perfecto para hablarnos de muchas cuestiones y situaciones que siempre acompañarán al ser humano, como la venganza, las ambiciones, las enemistades, el amor o la lujuria.

Es por trabajar todo esto por lo que “Precioso Veneno” se convierte en una obra atemporal, que puede decir muchas cosas al lector contemporáneo. Muy agradecida de que la editorial Trotalibros nos haya traído al español una obra tan desconocida, creada por una autora de vida azarosa y que hasta este momento nunca había leído y ni conocía su existencia. No se trata solo del hecho de conocer a autoras injustamente olvidadas, también se debe a que esta mujer me ha enamorado totalmente con una sola lectura. Ojalá que salgan al español más novelas de Mary Webb, porque estoy deseando leer todo lo que pueda de ella.

Quizás el único pero que pueda ponerle a esta lectura es que sus últimas páginas me han parecido un tanto precipitadas. La situación que se da en el último capítulo me ha parecido esperable, pero creo que se da de una manera demasiado abrupta si se compara con la lentitud que ha tenido el ritmo narrativo a lo largo de la historia. Pero Pese ese pequeño detalle, este libro se merece plenamente las cinco estrellas y no le quito ni una décima. Es una obra arriba, hermosa, intensa, atmosférica y adelantada a su época en muchos momentos. Desde prácticamente la primera hoja me han enganchado y enamorado. Había de hoy, que es cuando estoy escribiendo esta reseña, había pasado casi dos semanas desde que lo leí, y aún sigo pensando fuertemente en él. Sin duda es una historia y una protagonista que han venido para quedarse conmigo por mucho tiempo ya.

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I give this book six stars. I wanted to begin it again the second I finished it. I would never have heard of this book were it not for Goodreads. Thanks Goodreads friends!! This is truly a miracle of a book.

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.

The book is beautiful in three ways. The writing--the Shropshire dialect---is so wonderful that I whispered almost the entire book aloud. My family thought I was insane. It was lovely and delicate. Next, the content. Here is an excerpt from the introduction--

"..what Mary Webb (author) gives us is more than the archetypal happy ending of the fairy tale, where transformations come to princesses and princes trapped in bear and frog skins, where the kiss from one who sees the trapped creature as beautiful sets the real beauty free. For when the princely weaver kisses Prudence Sarn upon the spot of her deformity, it does not go away, she does not shed it suddenly. Rather, the blemish, loved and kissed at last, can make her whole and open up the gates of entry to the joys it threatened to deny. Thus what is finally evoked in us is more than the fairy tale longing that our inner beauty will be seen so clearly it will make us beautiful before the world, it is the longing to be known and loved for all our blemishes, our warts and wens and contradictions, to be "let in" whole."

Thirdly, the sense of place.

And fourth---the original sketches by Rowland Hilder are phenomenal---if you read this, get the 1980 edition that has these original sketches reprinted.

A truly remarkable tale.

[Jim Puskas · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a delightful discovery this is! The book succeeds on so many levels: as a historical document of a particular time and place (Shropshire, ca1820); as the powerful personal story of a woman afflicted with a harelip; and as a richly evocative work of prose. But it is also more than the sum of its parts, being at times dramatic, contemplative or humorous. And along with her own story, Prue Sarn delivers an even more powerful and tragic story, that of her brother Gideon, a striving, implacable young man, hell-bent on becoming rich, no matter the personal cost. Any man so driven inevitably provokes sharp reactions from those he encounters and it’s Gideon’s obsession that most devastatingly impacts Prue’s life. Some readers may quibble with the intensely romantic tone of the novel in places, especially in its final pages. No matter, Mary Webb earned the freedom for some degree of self-indulgence, if only by virtue of her deep character development and most notably by her spectacular evocation of the natural world that Prue inhabits.
Mary Webb’s work has been compared with that of Thomas Hardy; and Tess of the d’Urbervilles will immediately come to mind. Mercifully, unlike Tess, Prue Sarn is not prepared to be a victim of her situation or the actions of those she encounters; she is made of far sterner stuff! Despite being intensely aware of how her unfortunate disfigurement may hamper her prospects, she is nevertheless comfortable in her own skin and prepared to act decisively when called upon. Mary Web was no fatalist.
The book presents today’s reader with just one notable challenge: it was first published in 1924 but the language is entirely that of the early 19th century Shropshire countryside; it’s a rich dialect that one has to adjust to. Gradually. But I consider that to be an integral part of the book’s charm. It obliges the reader to slow down, smell the meadows, listen to the neighbors’ conversations, see the sunlight on the rippling mere, watch the dragonflies struggle to emerge from their nymph cases.
There are dozens of passages I could quote, but I’ll just include this:
Then I come to myself and see only the tall clouds, that hadna stirred, the tall hedges with meadowsweet below, the woods and the hills and the sweet blue air with larks hanging in it as if them above had let them down on threads, and shaking so with their joyful song that they threatened to break their threads. Not a bit did they care who won the prize, nor which of them sang best and loudest, so long as all sang, so long as none lacked nest or cropful, drink of dew and space to sing in.
Mary Webb clearly saw the depiction of characters as an opportunity to have some fun:
Missis Miller was a poor creature, like a mealworm, but very pleasant-spoken. Sexton’s missus was just the opposite. She always made me think of a new-painted coach, big and wide, with an open road, and the horn blowing loud and cheerful, and full speed ahead. She was as gay in her dress as a seven-coloured linnet, and if she could wear another shawl or flounce or brooch, she would. She wore so many petticoats it was a wonder she could walk. And once Tivvy said to me that to watch her mother undress was like peeling a big onion, down to the core.
A classic, by any measure.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gorgeous story with a wonderful narrative voice. Such a tale of rustic life gone by, full of long gone dialect, customs, practices and beliefs. It puts me in mind of Thomas Hardy’s, Under the Greenwood Tree, although it is more authentic if anything.

[natura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una historia sencilla sobre las pasiones más ancestrales, la dura vida de los campesinos ingleses a finales del siglo XIX y la difícil transición entre la mitología popular y el sentido común.
La forma de narrar de Mary Webb en esta obra es magnífica, con unas descripciones bellísimas de la naturaleza que alterna con un relato realista y descarnado de las condiciones de vida en ese tiempo y lugar. La obsesión por conseguir salir de su miserable situación por parte del hermano de la protagonista-narradora le llevará a sobre explotar a su exigua familia tras la muerte del padre de ambos, al tiempo que un carácter difícil y obstinado terminará por hundir sus propios sueños y trastocar toda su existencia .
El carácter de la narradora le da a todo el conjunto una atmósfera de serena belleza, de amor por la vida según se te presenta, aprovechando todo lo que de bueno pueda darte y sin dejarte llevar por ese “precioso veneno” que deslumbra con horizontes dorados para destrozarte sin saber apreciar lo que tienes.
Realmente entrañable y disfrutable.

[Cissy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel is unlike any I've ever read, but its beauty and strength drew me in. You can read summaries in myriad other places, so I will just say that the story, told in first-person, is sweet, wise, tragic, and real. I give five stars only to books I would 1. buy, and 2. re-read. I had not even finished my borrowed copy before I ordered my own and have already started skimming it again. I cannot recommend this to everyone, because it is definitely unusual; however, I think it is a worthwhile, thought-provoking read with truly beautiful language. This is literature. (Be forewarned of heavy dialect and atypical vocabulary that will slow down your normal reading pace.)

[Rocío Prieto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lo digo sin exagerar: este libro se ha colado directamente en mi lista de favoritos, al mismo nivel que «Canción del ocaso» de Lewis Grassic Gibbon se coló en su momento, y que a día de hoy sigue en la cima. Mary Webb ha creado algo que trasciende la época, el género, las etiquetas. Ha creado a Prudence Sarn, y con ella, una de las historias más conmovedoras que he leído.

La premisa es sencilla. Prue nace con un labio leporino, una deformidad que en la Inglaterra rural de principios del siglo XIX se considera una maldición. Su madre fue asustada por una liebre durante el embarazo, dice la superstición, y por eso la niña nace marcada. Prue crece escuchando una y otra vez que nunca se casará, que es fea, que está maldita. Su propio hermano Gideon se lo recuerda sin piedad. Y sin embargo, Prue es todo lo contrario a lo que su "precioso veneno" (su labio leporino) debería hacerla: es valiente, inteligente, compasiva, sabia más allá de sus años. Tiene sed de conocimiento, aprende a leer y escribir, observa la naturaleza con una sensibilidad que te parte el alma.

Gideon, su hermano, tiene su propio precioso veneno: la avaricia. Cuando su padre muere, hereda la granja y se obsesiona con hacerse rico, con acumular dinero y prestigio. Hace trabajar hasta la extenuación a su madre y a Prue, las trata como esclavas, sacrifica todo —amor, felicidad, humanidad— en el altar de su ambición. La novela funciona como un espejo: dos hermanos, dos maldiciones, dos formas de enfrentarse a la vida.

Y luego está Kester Woodseaves, el tejedor. Un hombre guapo, amable, que todas las mujeres desean. Prue se enamora de él sabiendo que es imposible, que un hombre así jamás se fijaría en ella. Pero Kester ve lo que otros no ven. Ve más allá del labio partido. Ve a Prue.

La historia es dura. No voy a mentir. Hay tragedia, hay injusticia, hay momentos que duelen. Las supersticiones brutales de la época. La cacería de brujas. El "comedor de pecados", esa figura escalofriante que aparece en los funerales para cargar con los pecados del muerto a cambio de un trozo de pan y un vaso de vino. Pero también hay esperanza, ternura, belleza. Y, sobre todo, está la voz de Prue, narrando su propia vida con una mezcla de resignación, humor y dignidad.

Prue Sarn se ha convertido en una de mis heroínas literarias favoritas. No es perfecta, no es una mártir sufriente, no es pasiva. Es una mujer que acepta su realidad sin autocompasión, que encuentra belleza donde otros solo ven fealdad, que trabaja duro, que ama profundamente, que perdona lo imperdonable. Tiene momentos de debilidad, sí, pero nunca se quiebra del todo. Y cuando al final consigue lo que parecía imposible, no se siente inverosímil. Se siente merecido.

Gideon es un personaje complejo, casi trágico. Lo odias por cómo trata a Prue y a su madre, pero también entiendes de dónde viene esa obsesión. Ha crecido en la pobreza, ha sufrido la brutalidad de su padre, ha interiorizado que el dinero es la única forma de escapar, de ser alguien.

Y Kester... Kester es el contrapunto perfecto. Un hombre bueno en un mundo cruel. Alguien que ve con el corazón y no con los ojos. Su relación con Prue es de las historias de amor más bonitas que he leído. Sin grandilocuencia, sin drama innecesario. Solo dos personas que se reconocen, que se ven de verdad.

Pero, además de estos protagonistas y sus otros personajes (que no se quedan atrás), lo que hace brillar este libro es la escritura de Mary Webb. La prosa es lírica, poética, llena de imágenes que se te quedan grabadas. Las descripciones de la campiña de Shropshire son tan vívidas que casi puedes oler el trigo, sentir el viento, escuchar el canto de los pájaros. Webb escribe la naturaleza como si fuera un personaje más, viva, presente, llena de simbolismo.

Este libro me ha hecho llorar, sonreír, reflexionar. Me ha hecho pensar en cómo juzgamos a las personas por su apariencia, en cómo la ambición puede destruirnos, en cómo la bondad a veces sí es recompensada (aunque últimamente casi es una ilusión). Me ha recordado que los clásicos olvidados a veces son los mejores tesoros. Y me ha confirmado que la editorial Trotalibros tiene un olfato literario impecable.

Cinco estrellas que brillan como los campos de trigo bajo el sol de Shropshire. Para quienes busquen una historia que les remueva por dentro. Para quienes crean en la belleza que se esconde detrás de lo imperfecto. Para quienes quieran conocer a una heroína inolvidable. Para quienes amen la literatura con alma.

[Hux · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a scene in Blackadder where he writes a novel designed to appeal to the masses. He describes it as: a giant rollercoaster of a novel in four hundred sizzling chapters. A searing indictment of domestic servitude in the eighteenth century, with some hot gypsies thrown in. Anyway, that popped into my head as I was reading this frothing hotbed of pulsating romantic peasant life during the sexy Napoleonic wars. Pwhoar!!

The book takes place in rural Shropshire and is full of rustic landscapes, bread and wine, pastoral innocence and peasant hardship and charm. I'm reliably informed that this genre was often referred to as loam and lovechild (which is rather apt), because it's a book which celebrates the earthy traditions of farming life, passionate, desolate emotions, and the fruity lusts of the heart (and there might actually be a lovechild thrown in too). Ultimately, it's historical romance but with a touch of literary fiction. Prue Sarn is a heroic and romantic figure, a hearty woman with curves and desires. Everything about her is spirited and pure, a woman who works hard in the fields, who speaks her mind, yet enjoys being distracted by various romantic thoughts. Prue, however, has a hare lip and is considered unattractive by her rural community but this only affords her more opportunities to enjoy her romantic fantasies, to escape into the possibility of finding a strong and worthy man. Meanwhile her brother, Gideon, has become the leader of the farm after their father's death (suspicious) and is obsessed with making money and acquiring power. After their mother dies (also suspicious with some implication that he may have been involved in both deaths), this obsession intensifies. And while the book is supposedly romantic, the truth is, the man that Prue meets (Kester) only really turns up in the middle of the book, disappears to London, then returns at the very end. But it's still quite a sweet story. And it plays into those heaving bosom/wild man of the moors love-tropes that appeal to certain readers *cough-women-cough*. But hey, it's gotta be better than those angry sex werewolves that they read about these days.

As such, the romance stuff didn't really appeal to me that much. But I did like Prue, the environment, the obsessive desire for success which propels Gideon (his precious bane), and even the curious and often distracting dialect (it took a while to even grasp which part of the country this was supposed to be). Prue has a way of speaking, and narrating, which is very distinct and interesting, and occasionally quite funny: "Christmas went by us and naught stirred the quiet, unless you count killing the pig."

I can't say that I enjoyed the book in its entirety, several chapters being rather bogged down in farming detail and trips to the market, but Prue definitely made up for that and had a noticeable impact. In fact, she might even be my favourite female character of all-time (relegating poor Fanny Price from 'Of Human Bondage' into second place). She is quite remarkable and intriguing as a character, full of zest and passionate feeling. Really did kind of adore her. 

It's a fascinating look at a period of time which was simple yet hard. A worthwhile read. That all being said there was a little too much dialogue for my tastes and probably too much melodrama. I would recommend it but be aware that some of it will probably drag. Oh, and the ending is magnificent and unapologetically offers you the ending you desperately wanted -- a heaving chest full of breathlessness and windswept embraces. 

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

FINISHED (14 March 2019)
Having read Gone to Earth a few years back, I vowed to read everything that I could find by Mary Webb. It has taken me a while but, for my second novel by this author, I finally got to Precious Bane. It is a treasure through and through, filled with so much wisdom and marvellous descriptions of the natural world and of the many quirky characters.

I can't remember where I read it, but Mary Webb has been called a genius. I am beginning to be of the same opinion. The prose seems to have flowed effortlessly from the pen of the author (although no doubt there were endless laborious hours of editing and re-writing involved in writing such a thing of beauty). Had I been reading a print copy (instead of an audiobook supplemented by an online digitized copy), the pages would now be filled with countless highlights and margin notes. This story deserves a re-read. In my experience, it is in the same class as Stoner by John Williams, a novel never to be forgotten, albeit for very different reasons.

STILL READING (13 March 2019)
So much wisdom and such beautiful writing, especially descriptions of the natural world and of the characters, that I could fill each page with highlighted sections. Maybe I will just re-read and savour it all again but, for now, here are a few quotes.

Book 2, Chapter 9, page 150
" . . . When you wed, you begin a game of Blind Man's Bluff that ends you canna tell where. . . ."

Book 2, Chapter 9, pages 154-5
" . . . Three year inna long. By the end of three year all the ploughland should be bearing well, and us'll be reaping what we've sown. . . . I'm well content to reap what I sow."
"But not if it's the bane, Gideon? Not if it's the precious bane as I read about in the book of the Vicar lent me? You dunna want that amid the corn, lad, what grows in hell?"

Book 3, Chapter 2, page 173
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.

Book 4, Chapter 2, page 271
. . . I remembered the barley, oh, the sweet barley, rustling in the wind of the dawn! I called to mind the ploughing for it, in such good behopes, and the sowing of it, between the sowing of the winter wheat and the sowing of the summer wheat, Gideon and me walking up and down the fields with the bags of seed slung over shoulder, or with a deep round lid to hold enough of seed for one crossing of the field there and back, and swinging out our arms with a great giving movement, as if we were feeding all the world, a thing I dearly loved to see. For reaping, though it is good to watch as be all the year's doings on a farm, is a grutching and a grabbing thing compared with sowing. You must lean out to it and sweep it in to you, and hold it to your bosom, jealous, and grasp it and take it. There is ever a greediness in reaping with the sickle, in my sight. There is not in scything, which is a large destroying movement without either love or anger in it, like the judgments of God. Nor is there in flailing, which is a thing full of anger, but without any will or wish to have or keep. But reaping is all greed, just as sowing is all giving.

[Mela · Rating 4 out of 5]

At times, I found it difficult to read due to the mix of dialect, unfamiliar terms, and detailed descriptions of nature. The plot itself wasn’t particularly original and felt quite predictable.

Nevertheless, this novel should be preserved as a cultural treasure—a time capsule and a vault capturing an era, its people, culture, languages, and landscapes.

[4-4.5 stars]

[Julie Durnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

The language, while written with beautiful words, took me some time to get used to. The story is sweet and sad in turns. But I will say that Prue Sarn won’t be soon forgotten, an incredible story!

[Sylvester (Taking a break in 2023) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had to order this from a distant library - which is sad, to think of this book being neglected. I know I mocked "Gone to Earth", and with good reason, but there was something about it nonetheless that made me think I'd like to check PB out. I wasn't disappointed. I knew it would be melodramatic, but this is Webb's way, you either like it or you leave it alone.

Reasons I liked Precious Bane:

1. Interesting dialect. Made me feel as if I'd been dropped directly into another time (dialect is iffy business to write in, but I think she did okay) - I like old words.
2. Webb is a wonderful nature writer. Nature is another character for her. Her description of the changing seasons, the variety of wood and hedge plants, birds, etc. just beautiful. I especially loved the bit where she goes to see the dragonflies breaking out of their larval bodies (Chapt. 5)and drying out their iridescent wings. Lovely, lovely - and every description of the Mere with its outer ring of bulrushes and inner ring of waterlilies - wonderful. A recurring theme is the reflections on the face of the Mere. And the description of "Harvest Home" in Chapt.6 is very picturesque - all the neighbors gathering to help bring in the wheat.
3. Pru has a harelip. I like protagonists who are not paragons of beauty, and the difficulty of Prudence's particular disfigurement is that she is considered "cursed", a witch, even. This added considerable interest to her character.

So there. I'd maybe go so far as a 3.5*.