A review by nickartrip102
Precious Bane by Mary Webb

5.0

“There are misfortunes that make you spring up and rush to save yourself, but, there are others that are too bad for this, for they leave nought to do. Then a stillness falls on the soul, like the stillness of a rabbit when the stoat looks hotly upon it and it knows that there is no more to be done.”

Last year I read the Virago Modern Classics edition of The Gentlewomen by Laura Talbot and absolutely fell in love. I searched through their extensive catalogue to find out what other books I could discover and the first of my random picks from that list for this year is Precious Bane by Mary Webb. Set in Shropshire in the 1800s, the Precious Bane is the story of Prue Sarn, a woman with a cleft lip. Distrusted by the village because of her physical appearance, Prue finds herself subjected to ignorance and superstition, all while being worked to the bone to satisfy her brother’s ambition which knows no limits.

I was immediately struck by the very distinct voice give to the novel's protagonist, Prue Sarn. The use of dialect in the novel helped to ground me in Prue’s world. I think what I love most about Prue Sarn is that she isn’t merely some saintly character who stews in a quiet passion against the unfairness of society’s ignorance. She’s real and complex. There are flashes of jealousy, especially as she is cruelly reminded that because of her appearance she will be excluded from the world of love and sex. Even though she says she’ll be the Venus to spare Jancy from being paraded around naked by her father, Prue almost thrills at the opportunity to take her place. One telling passage shows Prue revealing that, "Even in spite of [Jancy] making me remember that she was pretty and I was ugly, I was fond of her, and the more so when she was in trouble, for I never love folks quite so well when it's bright weather with them." Hardly saintly!

By the time I reached the conclusion of the novel, I still hadn’t entirely made my mind up about Prue Sarn, but I certainly felt a sort of spiritual connection with her character. She’s quite easy to have sympathy for, sharp edges and all. I so often wish she had bigger moments of rebellion against Gideon, or even more moments when she fully condemns him. Prue is easily able to detect faults in the other characters of Precious Bane, but her sense of duty to her brother seemed to often blind her. Gideon is definitely a very interesting character to follow, much less sympathetic than Prue, but I found that I could really relate to his struggle against poverty and the shame that comes along with that. By the end of the novel, of course, he becomes a completely despicable character who is justly ravaged by guilt. I found the end of the novel to be quite satisfying and I really enjoyed the unique way Mary Webb interrogates the human condition, holding up the mirror to the world’s own ugliness while basking in the natural beauty found in the woods or fields or even Prue Sarn’s heart. Something Prue articulated a few times throughout the story was that she never minded being “ugly” until the world reminded her of it. Sometimes the simplest lessons really are the most powerful.