Precious Bane

by Mary Webb Narrated by Justine Eyre

Overview

A haunting tale of passion set in Shropshire in the 1800s

Born at the time of Waterloo in the wild countryside of Shropshire, England, Prudence Sarn is a passionate girl, cursed with a harelip-her “precious bane.” She is cursed for it, too, by the superstitious people amongst whom she lives. Prue loves two things: the remote countryside of her birthplace and, hopelessly, Kester Woodseaves, the weaver. The tale of how Kester gradually discerns Prue's true beauty is set against the tragic drama of Prue's brother, Gideon, a man who is out of harmony with the natural world and whose recklessness may ensnare them all in tragedy.

Winner of the 1926 Prix Femina Vie Heureuse Prize, which was similarly awarded to such books as Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse, E. M. Forster's A Passage to India, and Stella Gibbons's Cold Comfort Farm, Precious Bane is a novel that haunts us with its beauty and its timeless truths about our deepest hopes.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Webb was a great mystic and a master of both "inscape" and landscape. Any dull afternoon in London is lifted by being transported to the Mary Webb country of the Shropshire hills and the Welsh borderland." —Mail on Sunday

"Mary Webb need fear no comparison with any writer who has attempted to capture the soul of nature in words." —John Buchan

"On some bookshelves, we feel sure, Precious Bane will find almost a hallowed place." —The New York Times Book Review

"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." —Hilda Addison

praise for the author John Buchan

Mary Webb need fear no comparison with any writer who has attempted to capture the soul of nature in words.”

praise for the author Mail on Sunday (UK)

[Webb] was a great mystic and a master of both ‘inscape’ and landscape. Any dull afternoon in London is lifted by being transported to the Mary Webb country of the Shropshire hills and the Welsh borderland.”

AudioFile

It is a genuine pleasure to listen to Justine Eyre narrate this treasure of an audiobook set in the English countryside of the early nineteenth century. There is a naturalness and fluidity to her performance that renders the formal language fresh for contemporary ears. Eyre’s characterizations are excellent as she shifts among the male and female personalities, giving each a beating heart and a textured vibrancy.”

DECEMBER 2020 - AudioFile

It is a genuine pleasure to listen to Justine Eyre narrate this treasure of an audiobook set in the English countryside of the early nineteenth century. There is a naturalness and fluidity to her performance that renders the formal language fresh for contemporary ears. Eyre's characterizations are excellent as she shifts among the male and female personalities, giving each a beating heart and a textured vibrancy. The story centers on the kindhearted Prudence, born with a cleft palate (her "precious bane"), who lives with her domineering brother, Gideon. The fullness of life is found in the rhythm and flow of this rural community as romances spark and pale, tensions build and ease between family members and among neighbors, and the natural world is a continuing force to be reckoned with. M.J. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173197979
Publisher:	Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	12/15/2020
Edition description:	Unabridged

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