Precious Bane was written by Mary Webb and first published in 1924. Narrated by the central character Prue Sarn, whose life is blighted by having a harelip. Only the weaver, Kester Woodseaves, perceives her inner beauty but Prue cannot believe herself worthy of him. Prue is wrongly accused of murder and only one man can save her and take her away to the happiness she believes she can never possess because of her harelip. A forgotten classic set in rural Shropshire at the turn of the 19th c...

Mary Webb's "Poems, and The Spring of Joy" is a lyrical celebration of nature, love, and the human experience, reflecting the author's deep affinity for the rural English landscape. Webb's literary style is characterized by its rich imagery and emotional depth, often infused with a sense of mysticism that invites readers to explore the connections between humanity and the natural world. Set against the backdrop of early 20th-century literature, her poetry resonates with the themes of Roman...

Mary Gladys Meredith was born on 25th March 1881 at Leighton Lodge in the village of Leighton, near Shrewsbury in Shropshire.Mary was home-schooled by her father before being sent to a finishing school in Southport in 1895. Her longs walks in the countryside helped her develop a heightened sense of observation and description, of both people and places, which later infused both her poetry and prose.When she was 20 she developed symptoms of Graves' disease, a thyroid disorde...

The daughter of a Welsh gypsy and a crazy bee-keeper, Hazel Woodus is happiest living in her forest cottage in the remote Shropshire hills, at one with the winds and seasons, protector and friend of the wild animals she loves. But Hazel's beauty and innocence prove irresistible to the men in her orbit. Both Jack Reddin, the local squire and Edward Marston, the gentle minister, offer her human love...

The Spring of Joy was Mary Webb's collection of nature essays. First published in 1917 with an introduction by Walter de la Mare, these essays contain the core of Webb's nature mysticism and reveal her precise, minute observation of natural phenomena. They express her faith that health and divine vitality are to be found in "The spiritual ties between man and nature."

The interwar English novelist and poet Mary Webb is best known for her masterpiece ‘Precious Bane’ and for her lyrical style, conveying a rich and intense impression of her beloved Shropshire countryside home. Though in her lifetime her novels suffered neglect, a reappraisal of her work after her early death has drawn comparisons with the works of Thomas Hardy, sharing a love of nature and a sense of impending doom. For the first time in publishing history, this eBook presents Webb...

'She has a style of exquisite beauty which yet has both force and restraint, simplicity and subtlety she has fancy and wit, delicious humour and pathos. She sees and knows men aright as no other novelist does. She has, In short, genius' Mr. Edwin Pugh

This is the story of us all at Sarn, of Mother and Gideon and me, and Jancis, and Wizard Beguildy, and the two or three other folk that lived in those parts, that I did set out to tell. There were but a few, and maybe always will be, for there’s a discouragement about the place. It may be the water lapping, year in and year out—everywhere you look and listen, water; or the big trees waiting and considering on your right hand and on your left; or the unbreathing quiet of the place, as if it...

Precious Bane is a novel by Mary Webb, first published in 1924. It won the Prix Femina Vie Heureuse Prize.Mary Gladys Webb (25 March 1881 – 8 October 1927) was an English romantic 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.

Mary Gladys Meredith was born on 25th March 1881 at Leighton Lodge in the village of Leighton, near Shrewsbury in Shropshire.Mary was home-schooled by her father before being sent to a finishing school in Southport in 1895. Her longs walks in the countryside helped her develop a heightened sense of observation and description, of both people and places, which later infused both her poetry and prose.When she was 20 she developed symptoms of Graves' disease, a thyroid disorde...

Mary Webb's Precious Bane is a haunting rural novel set in the border country of Shropshire, where marshland, old speech, folklore, and hard country work shape every life. From the memoir-like voice of Prue Sarn, the story looks back on a half-mythic world of Sarn Mere, where superstition, religion, family discipline, and local custom mingle with daily labor and hidden grief. Prue, judged for her deformity and drawn toward the kind, poetic weaver Kester Woodseaves, tells of love, suffering...

This is the story of us all at Sarn, of Mother and Gideon and me, and Jancis, and Wizard Beguildy, and the two or three other folk that lived in those parts, that I did set out to tell. There were but a few, and maybe always will be, for there’s a discouragement about the place. It may be the water lapping, year in and year out—everywhere you look and listen, water; or the big trees waiting and considering on your right hand and on your left; or the unbreathing quiet of the place, as if it...