"Precious Bane" by Mary Webb is an unusual book. I found it purely by chance when I was looking for some other titles at a used bookstore. I think it must have been the cover that caught my eye and made me pick it up and read the description. I finished it today--it reads quite fast. I really enjoyed it, but I do have some reservations about the story.
I never know quite how much to say about a book that I have read. I hate to give away details, but to give you a sense of what the book is about, I will have to share a few. I will try not to give any spoilers away however. The story is about Prudence Sarn, who lives with her family in Shropshire. She is a very inviting character, but she is cursed with a harelip. Nowadays I think most people wouldn't look twice at such a thing, and I would guess it is fairly easily fixed with cosmetic surgery. However in the 1920s when this was written, this would not have been the case. Pru and her brother Gideon live in a rural area where supersition is deeply ingrained. I had no idea that people thought a harelip was caused by a hare crossing a pregnant woman's path. And of course a harelip might easily be looked upon as a devil's mark as well.
To me the story is about love and greed. Pru has all of one, and Gideon all of the other. Pru is a good person despite how she is treated by people, which is in a most insensitive manner--looked upon as something devilish, or someone that no one could love--certainly no man. She has a deep love for nature, and one of the things I like most about this book is the descriptions of Sarn (I found this a bit confusing--Sarn is not only the family homestead, but also the family name) and the mere (which is a type of lake). Webb was born in Shropshire and you can tell she loved it there from her descriptions. And she loves her Mother and her brother Gideon, the latter to a fault in my mind. Gideon, though, is worried seemingly about one thing and one thing only. To make enough money to buy their way (a redeeming quality perhaps--he plans on taking Pru with him) into a higher station in life. Day and night he slaves away growing crops, and tending animals all to become rich. And Pru agrees to help him--though he may work her like a dog--and work she does.
What I liked about the story (aside from the wonderful descriptions)? There is a love story involved. While I like all sorts of books, I am always happy when there is a love story--most especially when the heroine is not perfect--physically at least. So maybe there is someone who cares naught for a harelip. And it isn't a drippy, honeyed sort of love story. Just nice, not over the top. And the story captured my interest right away and I kept wanting to read. As for my reservations about the novel--I do have a few. It is a bit dark. Some of the things that happen are on the gloomy side. Webb uses a lot of the local dialect, which once I got into the story I didn't notice as much. There were a few occasions, though, when it would trip me up and I wasn't sure what exactly she meant. Even though Gideon was in many ways a nasty character, Pru always loved and supported him, and would always say what a handsome, fine cut of a man he was--as if that excused his behavior. I thought she said it a few too many times, but I suppose it was in her good nature to always see the positive side to everyone.
I am curious to know what others who have read this novel think of it, and I wouldn't mind checking out her other works as well. There is even a Mary Webb Society, so she has followers to this day. Stella Gibbons wrote a parody of Precious Bane (well, this novel as well as more broadly rural novels that had a gloomy slant to them such as those by Thomas Hardy) called Cold Comfort Farm (which I have never read). All in all a nice interlude from my nighttable stack. But now I better get back to business (well, The Sisters Mortland is also a bit of an interlude, too, isn't it...). I am feeling a tad bit guilty for having such a large stack going, so I won't be starting anything new for a while--at least until I finish a few others first!