Mary Webb

It’s a little book composed of an unfinished novel written in a completely different style than other Mary Webb novels, and a collection of short stories and drafts that appeared in various publications. The style fit the story of a young boy who fell in love and leaves to fight in the Crusades. A pearl-like prose and a fairy tale, eerie in turn and beautifully strange.

Precious Bane is also the story of Gideon, the doomed brother of Prue, no less decisive, but with different motives. Determined to defeat the poverty of their farm, he devotes all his strength to making money. The only thing that distracts him from these ambitions is that he abandons her for a stronger attraction to his money.

”Seven For A Secret” is the story of a young girl who turns into a compassionate, passionate, loving woman, who is visible through the eyes of a shepherd poet who loves her. Gillian is nineteen when the romance opens, and she is a romantic star who wants to flirt with men to fall in love with her. Gillian, in many ways, still behaves like a child, and she is selfish, narcissistic, and stupid with others...

In this dense novel, the house in which the Darke family exists apparently has its own impassive but claustrophobic influence on the family, which, in turn, tied itself up too quickly in its network of special hate agreements and connections. Jasper fights against his religion, Ruby is trapped between her need for conventions and her own desires, and Peter is forced to rebel.