Precious Bane (Virago Modern Classics)

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As for Henry, he and his second wife Kathleen had two children and lived in London, Henry renting out Spring Cottage. He died in spectacular style, falling – or, some think, jumping – from Scafell, England’s highest peak, in 1939. 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-- Even the storyline of Precious Bane bears more than a passing resemblance to the Wessex chronicles. Set in the early 19th century, it tells of Prue Sarn, a woman born with a harelip (the eponymous "bane") and – worse – an avaricious brother called Gideon. Gideon, at the start of the novel, becomes a "sin eater" at the funeral of his father, taking on the sins of his father in return for ownership of the Sarn's home and farm. He does this despite protestations from his mother that "Sin Eaters be accurst!" By not listening to her, the die is cast – and for the rest of the narrative we get to watch as, in proper Henchard fashion, Gideon loses his humanity in his quest for money. He treats his mother and sister like farmyard machines ("we were all the machines he had"), and, amid tending to the corn and working like a mule, woos, then discards his childhood sweetheart, Jancis. She, in turn, acts in a way that would have made Sue Bridehead proud. "It was foreboded, Prue! It was to be. I've no home now, Prue, no home on all this earth," she says, before taking herself off to do something dreadful in the pond at the bottom of the farmyard. And finally, it is the story of Kester Woodseaves, whose steady love for all created things leads him to resist people's cruelty toward nature and each other, and whose love for Prue Sarn enables him to discern her natural loveliness beneath her blighted appearance. Published in 1924, Precious Bane is a novel by Mary Webb (1881 - 1927) which touches on ambition, prejudice and hatred but also on the power of love. Prue Sarn is a farm girl in rural Shropshire during the period of the Napoleonic Wars and is viewed with suspicion by the local community because of having been born with a harelip. Her ambitious and domineering brother betrays her and her superstitious neighbours accuse her of witchcraft. An itinerant weaver Kester Woodseaves, makes his living by weaving for the local people in their homes. Like Prue, he loves the natural world and comes to recognises Prue's inner strength and beauty. ( Noel Badrian)

One example of this is that while she was preparing her masterpiece and best-known novel, Precious Bane, she would sit on the banks of Bomere Pool near Condover. Workmen would pass her on their way to work and would be surprised to find her still there on their way home." The bust of Mary Webb outside Shrewsbury library. 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. Despite some success and fluctuating sales of her novels, her health was deteriorating and the Webbs’ marriage was failing. Henry had become infatuated with one of his young pupils, whom he married after Mary’s death. Mary returned to Spring Cottage alone. She died on October 8, 1927, at St Leonard’s-on-Sea, with her old governess Miss Lory at her bedside. She was 46. Daughters and Lovers: The Life and Writing of Mary Webb by Michèle Aina Barale (1986). Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press Mary Webb is commemorated in various ways in Shropshire, including in 2016 the commissioning and funding of a bronze bust by artist Jemma Pearson in the garden at the front of Shrewsbury library.The title of the story has a double meaning. It is taken from John Milton's Paradise Lost (Book I, lines 690-692):

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. Jancis returned with Gideon’s baby. When Gideon drove her out of the house, Jancis took her baby to the pond and drowned herself and her child. Gideon began to see visions. He often told Prue that he had seen Jancis or his mother, and sometimes he heard Jancis singing. He talked queerly about the past, about his love for Jancis. He no longer wanted the money that had been his whole life. One day, he rowed out on the pond and threw himself into the water and drowned. Prue was left alone. 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: 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.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. 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." 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.' Stanley Baldwin suggested that the strength of Precious Bane lies in “the fusion of elements of nature and man”. Do you agree? What was the effect, for you, of Mary Webb’s representation of the natural world? 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.

Why, it was only that I was your angel for a day," I said at long last. "A poor daggly angel, too".Gideon began to rebuild his dream, but Jancis was no longer a part of it. He worked himself and Prue and their mother almost to death. When the mother became too weak to work, Gideon put poison into her tea, for he would feed no one who could not earn her way. Prue knew that her brother’s mind was deranged after the fire, but she had not known that he would kill for money. The strength of this novel is its narrator: Prue is brave and tender, naïve and yet astute, full of sympathy for her fellow man, and a brilliant poet of the natural, enchanted world around her, in which “the cowslip gold seemed to get into your heart”. In places, there are echoes of Gerard Manley Hopkins, as when, waiting to see a dragonfly emerge from its chrysalis, Prue anticipates “the showing forth of God’s power”. Where Hardy’s narrator is distant, omniscient, Prue’s observations combine artlessness, humility, and wisdom: “It seemed to me. . .” she will often begin, before voicing a prescient or pretty insight. He had previously written to Mary expressing his admiration for Precious Bane. Mary was delighted to receive his letter and responded enclosing some violets from her garden. Francis, Peter (2006). A Matter of Life and Death - The Secrets of Shrewsbury Cemetery. Logaston Press. p.41. ISBN 1-904396-58-5.