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Fill your bookshelves with Witches, Hags and Viragos.
The tale of how Woodseaves gradually discerns Prue's true beauty is set against the tragic drama of Prue's brother, Gideon, a driven man who is out of harmony with the natural world. 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. This fabulous celebration of strong minds, low cunning, black arts and dirty tricks could only have been collected by the unique and much-missed Angela Carter. Precious Bane by Mary Webb by Webb, Mary | Fiction & related items Published 10/06/2021 by Little, Brown Book Group (Virago Press Ltd) in the United Kingdom as part of the Virago Modern Classics series Paperback | 336 pages When she died at the age of 46, literature lost a voice that promised to speak for Shropshire as poignantly as Thomas Hardy had spoken for Wessex, Emily Bronte for Yorkshire - New York Times Prue's brother, Gideon, is engaged to her only friend, but in his ambition for wealth at any cost, he incurs the wrath of his would-be father-in-law whose act of vengeance results in Prue being accused of murder. Furtively, Prue longs to be loved and harbours a hopeless passion for Kester Woodseaves, the weaver. 'With the publication of Precious Bane, a substantial readership came to respect Mary Webb's quiet genius . Beautiful small antique hardcover in very good condition.
The Virago Book of Witches by Shahrukh Husain
Reviews
Mr. D. James
However, Plash has two advantages, notably Mister Beguildy, a sadistic wizard who is lettered and Jancis his beautiful daughter. Set back in the time of the Napoleonic Wars, this rural scene is exquisitely evoked by Prue,in simple dialect that reflects her honest puzzlement about human beings and their place in the naural world.
At the same time he becomes bewitched by Jancis, the beautiful daughter of the irascible Beguildy who detests him. She contrasts it with Plash, the neighbouring estate, the home of the Beguildys which is poor and neglected, the land being unproductive and its inhabitants idle.
Webb, Mary. The ‘bane’ of the title is reflected not only in Sue’s hare-lip but in the poison that does for her mother and the demonic activities that destroy not only the prospering farm of the Sarns but the love of Gideon and Jancis.
Gideon’s running battles with his ultra-strict father end when the latter perishes after a bout of apoplexy while punishing his son. Pru is cursed with a hare lip, which puts her out of the marriage market, but she manages to earn enough for lessons from Beguildy, and in due course many great ladies ‘have come to me, time and again, to write their love-letters for them, and a bitter old task it is, to write other women’s love-letters out of your own burning heart. This rural tragedy has all the power of Hardy or the George Eliot of The Mill on the Floss, except that it has a seemingly tacked on happy ending. The shadow of tragedy hangs over all from the start.
It is no denigration to place this novel in the Romance category; it is a good tale, superbly told. ’Early on, Gideon, Sue’s elder brother and a fanatical son of the soil, engages her in a solemn oath to join him in saving up enough to buy a noble property in Lullingford, the nearest town. Precious BanePrudence Sarn, who tells the story, opens with a paean to the landscape around her home at Sarn.
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