Precious Bane Paperback – 1 Jan. 2020

Mary Webb was a British novelist of the early 20th Century. She lived nearly all her life in Shropshire, and loved the area. She died aged 46 in 1927, having written six novels and several volumes of poetry and short stories. Not many people read her now, but I count that as a shame. She wrote beautifully poetic descriptions of landscapes, and romances about the land. Her style infuriated Stella Gibbons so much that she wrote Cold Comfort Farm as a parody.My favourite Mary Webb novel is Precious Bane. I met this at aged 20, when the BBC did an excellent adaptation with Clive Owen and Janet McTeer in what may have been almost their first leading roles. I just remember watching it, and being carried away by the pain Prue felt on being different for several reasons. Number one is, she has a hare-lip, at a time when many country folk took this as a sign of devilment and were superstitious enough to leave her alone. She also chooses to learn to read and to learn from the local Wizard Beguildy. Added to that the isolation of the farm and the natural intelligence that she has, and she is an interesting character. As soon as I could, I got a copy of the book, and one sits on my bedside table today.I took Prue to heart when I was young. Because I was slightly weird (a sci-fi fan, a reader, a crafter) at a time when all of that was not the thing to do, I didn’t have many close friends locally. I remember thinking that I’d never meet the right man for me, or be a happy person. Of course, with hindsight I know that was all teenage angst and what I needed to do was relax and enjoy life, but I think wisdom is always more powerful after the fact. Suffice to say, I read Prue’s story and the love story with Kester Woodseaves with interest and that beautiful butterfly of excitement that one day… one day someone might say such beautiful things about me.Kester Woodseaves is a travelling weaver, who goes from house to house weaving the yarn that the women spin. The novel is set during and after the Napoleonic Wars, and sets the scene beautifully of an agrarian world about to change. The lives of weavers and spinners would alter radically, with factories and long working days all year round as the norm. The story of Kester’s role in society makes interesting reading as a history buff, since you can trace the developments that were happening then and the novel allows an insight into the worries that the people must have faced then. He also reads and writes, which makes him and Prue the intermediaries between Prue’s brother Gideon, and his girlfriend, Jancis. Knowing that Kester will read the letters to Jancis, Prue adds extra bits to them, just for Kester, like “Tell Weaver it be cold and he should wear his green coat.”Prue’s story is a lovely read, not too hard for a classic and very beguiling. If I ever see the BBC adaptation on again I will watch it. I had it on VHS (illegal copying) and watched it until the tape stretched too badly.

Webb, Mary. Precious BanePrudence Sarn, who tells the story, opens with a paean to the landscape around her home at Sarn. 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. However, Plash has two advantages, notably Mister Beguildy, a sadistic wizard who is lettered and Jancis his beautiful daughter. 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.’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. At the same time he becomes bewitched by Jancis, the beautiful daughter of the irascible Beguildy who detests him. Gideon’s running battles with his ultra-strict father end when the latter perishes after a bout of apoplexy while punishing his son.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. 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. The shadow of tragedy hangs over all from the start. 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. Prue’s saviour Kester the Weaver, who cares naught for ancient superstition and detests bloodsports, arrives on horseback to take her away from Sarn and its backbiting neighbours.For some readers this escape will appear to be a mis-use of the deus ex machina; for others it will be the perfect ending, for Sue deserves her reward and we rejoice in her happiness. It is no denigration to place this novel in the Romance category; it is a good tale, superbly told.

I've always been aware of 'Precious Bane.' I knew it was supposed to be the book that the comedy satire 'Cold Comfort Farm' was based on. I had the impression that it would be a wildly over the top, purple-prosed melodrama and avoided it for years.Then I came across some of Webb's poetry and enjoyed it, so thought I'd give Precious Bane a go -- and I loved it!Okay, it is a melodrama. As my friend, who is much better read in literature of this period, said, "If you weren't writing melodrama at that time, you were invisible.'But given the situation of the characters, the melodrama is convincing -- and gripping. The writing about nature is some of the most beautiful I've ever read. Mary Webb obviously knew the countryside very well and loved it deeply.I shall be looking out for her other famous book, 'Gone to Earth.'

Set in very rural Shropshire in the 1800s it takes a bit of getting used to the "country" language - I almost felt I needed a glossary to explain some of the words in detail although the general meaning is clear enough. Life was tough for these country people and a lost harvest is a monumental tragedy. The heroine of the story, Prue Sarn, has a hare lip and is deeply conscious of the stigma attached to this and attempts to change her life by getting a neighbour - a wicked old man who deals in spells - to teach her to read. Prue has a brother with grand ambitions that drives him to work with a fury, and insisting that Prue shares in this obsession so that they may better themselves. The relationships with the various characters and their loves, dramas and tragedies are woven into a passionate story that still holds up as well as when it was written.