Precious Bane (Virago Modern Classics)

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Mary's first published work had been a poem which appeared in the Shrewsbury Chronicle of October 18, 1907, about the Shrewsbury train disaster three days earlier. Her brother Kenneth Meredith had taken it in to the paper without her knowledge and it was published anonymously. This poem about the Shrewsbury railway disaster was published anonymously in the Shrewsbury Chronicle in 1907 – the future novelist's first published work. Hammill, Faye Cold Comfort Farm, D. H. Lawrence, and English Literary Culture Between the Wars, Modern Fiction Studies 47.4 (2001) 831-854 Mary’s second novel, Gone To Earth, from which a film was later made, was written in response to her sadness at the cruelty of war. Three of Webb's novels have been reprinted by Virago Press. [12] Bibliography [ edit ] Library resources about In 1917 Henry secured a job at the Priory School in Shrewsbury and Mary was able to realise a dream when they acquired a small bungalow at Lyth Hill called Spring Cottage. She loved Lyth Hill and would spend hours in quiet meditation of her surroundings, gathering information to include in later novels or poems. It was here Mary wrote The House in Dormer Forest in 1920 and many of her poems.

Book club: Precious Bane , by Mary Webb - The Church Times Book club: Precious Bane , by Mary Webb - The Church Times

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.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. 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. The story is set in rural Shropshire during the Napoleonic Wars. It is narrated by the central character, Prue Sarn, whose life is blighted by having a cleft lip and cleft palate. Only the weaver, Kester Woodseaves, perceives the beauty of her character, but Prue cannot believe herself worthy of him. Her brother Gideon is overridingly ambitious to attain wealth and power, regardless of who suffers while he does so. Gideon is set to wed his sweetheart Jancis, but he incurs the wrath of her father, the cruel and scheming self-proclaimed wizard Beguildy. An act of vengeance by Beguildy makes Gideon reject Jancis and tragedy engulfs them both. Prue is wrongly accused of murder and set upon by a mob, but Kester defies them and carries Prue away to the happiness she believed she could never possess because of her deformity. Critic Hilda Addison summed up Precious Bane: "The book opens with one of those simple sentences which haunt the mind until the curiosity has been satisfied . . . It strikes a note which never fails throughout; it opens with a beauty which is justified to the last sentence."

Precious Bane (TV Movie 1989) - IMDb Precious Bane (TV Movie 1989) - IMDb

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. She had an extraordinary eye for detail which she developed during her long walks in the landscape. She would sit for hours deep in thought observing and absorbing her environment, developing the themes for her work.

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She wrote her first novel, The Golden Arrow while at Weston. It is set around the Long Mynd and Stiperstones. On their return they lived at Pontesbury and at The Nills near The Stiperstones. Mary lived for a while at Roseville, Pontesbury, where she and her husband grew vegetables and flowers and she sold them in Shrewsbury market. While at Pontesbury in 1914 to 1916, she and Henry did their bit for the war effort by growing vegetables in their garden and selling them at Shrewsbury market." Anger at demolition plan for writer's Shrewsbury home". Shropshire Star. 16 October 2013 . Retrieved 20 October 2013. Mary Gladys Webb (25 March 1881 – 8 October 1927) was an English romance novelist and poet of the early 20th century, whose work is set chiefly in the Shropshire countryside and among Shropshire characters and people whom she knew. Her novels have been successfully dramatized, most notably the film Gone to Earth in 1950 by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger based on the novel of the same title. The novels are thought to have inspired the famous parody Cold Comfort Farm (1932) by Stella Gibbons. I fell to thinking how all this blessedness of the attic came through me being curst. For if I hadna had a hare-lip to frighten me away in to my own lonesome soul, this would never have come to me. The apples would have crowded all in vain to see a marvel, for I should never have known the glory that came from the other side of silence. Even while I was thinking this, out of nowhere suddenly came that lovely thing, and nestled in my heart, like a seed from the core of love."