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The Virago Book of Witches by Shahrukh Husain
The tale of how Woodseaves gradually discerns Prue's true beauty is set against the tragic drama of Prue's brother, Gideon, a driven man who is out of harmony with the natural world. Book itself is excellent. A collection of more than fifty stories about witches from around the world. Precious Bane by Mary Webb Cursed for it, too, by the superstitious people amongst whom she lives. a marvellous writer' Eloise Millar, GuardianPrudence Sarn was born with a cleft palate, her 'precious bane', for which she is persecuted as a witch by her superstitious neighbours. Furtively, Prue longs to be loved and harbours a hopeless passion for Kester Woodseaves, the weaver.
Furies: Stories of the wicked, wild and untamed
Reviews
Mr. D. James
Gideon’s running battles with his ultra-strict father end when the latter perishes after a bout of apoplexy while punishing his son. ’Early on, Gideon, Sue’s elder brother and a fanatical son of the soil, engages her in a solemn oath to join him in saving up enough to buy a noble property in Lullingford, the nearest town. Pru is cursed with a hare lip, which puts her out of the marriage market, but she manages to earn enough for lessons from Beguildy, and in due course many great ladies ‘have come to me, time and again, to write their love-letters for them, and a bitter old task it is, to write other women’s love-letters out of your own burning heart. At the same time he becomes bewitched by Jancis, the beautiful daughter of the irascible Beguildy who detests him.
Precious BanePrudence Sarn, who tells the story, opens with a paean to the landscape around her home at Sarn. For some readers this escape will appear to be a mis-use of the deus ex machina; for others it will be the perfect ending, for Sue deserves her reward and we rejoice in her happiness. She contrasts it with Plash, the neighbouring estate, the home of the Beguildys which is poor and neglected, the land being unproductive and its inhabitants idle. The shadow of tragedy hangs over all from the start.
Set back in the time of the Napoleonic Wars, this rural scene is exquisitely evoked by Prue,in simple dialect that reflects her honest puzzlement about human beings and their place in the naural world. The ‘bane’ of the title is reflected not only in Sue’s hare-lip but in the poison that does for her mother and the demonic activities that destroy not only the prospering farm of the Sarns but the love of Gideon and Jancis. Webb, Mary. Prue’s saviour Kester the Weaver, who cares naught for ancient superstition and detests bloodsports, arrives on horseback to take her away from Sarn and its backbiting neighbours.
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