PRECIOUS BANE won the Prix Femina Vie Heureuse Prize. In 1957 and 1989 it was made into a BBC television drama. The story is 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. Author Mary Webb had many readers in her ...
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PRECIOUS BANE won the Prix Femina Vie Heureuse Prize. In 1957 and 1989 it was made into a BBC television drama. The story is 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. Author Mary Webb had many readers in her lifetime but was not otherwise greatly esteemed by critics. It was only after her death that Stanley Baldwin, then Britain's Prime Minister, brought about her commercial success, referring to her as a neglected genius. Consequently her collected works were republished and became best sellers in the 1930s, running into many editions. Her work is still widely admired, and PRECIOUS BANE has survived as her imperishable and most popular novel.
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Add this copy of Precious Bane to cart. $13.61, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Baltimore rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Halethorpe, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2011 by Createspace.
Add this copy of Precious Bane to cart. $57.48, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2011 by CreateSpace Independent Publis.
The sad story is that if I say too much good about this book, other readers might have high expectations and be disappointed.
The truth is that I was enchanted by Mary Webb's poetic writing and her descriptions of nature, as well as her insights into human nature! I also liked very much the strange, eerie "ambiance" of the whole story, and it's setting in what seems to be a past time long gone.
What more can I say? I fell in love with this book!
AOfromPA
Oct 25, 2009
Lyrical beauty
What I love are the descriptions of the beauty of Prue's surroundings: the fields, the hum of insects, rippling water ('troubling of the mere'), or the smell of apples in her attic. I believe that the 'severely dated' language mentioned by other reviewers evokes a place and time long gone but worth remembering. This and the gentle humor are what make Precious Bane one of the most poignant variations of the Cinderella story that I've ever read.
