Precious Bane
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Narrated by:
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Justine Eyre
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By:
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Mary Webb
About this listen
A haunting tale of passion set in Shropshire in the 1800s.
Born at the time of Waterloo in the wild countryside of Shropshire, England, Prudence Sarn is a passionate girl, cursed with a harelip - her “precious bane”. She is cursed for it, too, by the superstitious people among whom she lives. Prue loves two things: the remote countryside of her birthplace and, hopelessly, Kester Woodseaves, the weaver. The tale of how Kester gradually discerns Prue’s true beauty is set against the tragic drama of Prue’s brother, Gideon, a man who is out of harmony with the natural world and whose recklessness may ensnare them all in tragedy.
Winner of the 1926 Prix Femina Vie Heureuse Prize, which was similarly awarded to such books as Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India, and Stella Gibbons’ Cold Comfort Farm, Precious Bane is a novel that haunts us with its beauty and its timeless truths about our deepest hopes.
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During the hectic Christmas season, slow down with these heartwarming stories from some of literature’s most beloved writers. In this collection, listeners will discover lesser-known but tender stories and poems from classic authors they know and love. Each selection celebrates the beauty, mystery, and joy found in the season that commemorates Christ’s birth. A Vintage Christmas includes stories from Louisa May Alcott, Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain, and many more great writers....
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Uplifting holiday collection
- By JB on 11-14-23
By: Charles Dickens, and others
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Adam Bede
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Jill Tanner
- Length: 23 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Adam Bede (1859), George Eliot's first full-length novel, marked the emergence of an artist to rank with Scott and Dickens. Set in the English Midlands of farmers and village craftsmen at the turn of the 18th century, the book relates a story of seduction issuing in "the inward suffering which is the worst form of Nemesis". But it is also a rich and pioneering record - drawing on intimate knowledge and affectionate memory - of a rural world that we have lost.
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Very good book
- By Terri Tinkham on 03-11-19
By: George Eliot
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An Irish Country Doctor
- A Novel
- By: Patrick Taylor
- Narrated by: John Keating
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Barry Laverty, M.B., can barely find the village of Ballybucklebo on a map when he first sets out to seek gainful employment there, but already he knows that there is nowhere he would rather live than in the emerald hills and dales of Northern Ireland. The proud owner of a spanking-new medical degree and little else in the way of worldly possessions, Barry jumps at the chance to secure a position as an assistant in a small rural practice. At least until he meets Dr. Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly.
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Something's Missing ... But It's Not the "F Bomb"!
- By Bookworm on 09-06-13
By: Patrick Taylor
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Cold Comfort Farm
- Penguin Classics
- By: Stella Gibbons
- Narrated by: Pearl Mackie
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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When sensible, sophisticated Flora Poste is orphaned at 19, she decides her only choice is to descend upon relatives in deepest Sussex. At the aptly named Cold Comfort Farm, she meets the doomed Starkadders: cousin Judith, heaving with remorse for unspoken wickedness; Amos, preaching fire and damnation; their sons, lustful Seth and despairing Reuben; child of nature Elfine; and crazed old Aunt Ada Doom, who has kept to her bedroom for the last 20 years. But Flora loves nothing better than to organise other people.
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Very, very amusing, a go to if one needs cheering
- By Laura G. Marcantoni on 11-05-20
By: Stella Gibbons
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How Green Was My Valley
- By: Richard Llewellyn
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 16 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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How Green Was My Valley is Richard Llewellyn’s best-selling - and timeless - classic, as well as the basis of a beloved film. As Huw Morgan is about to leave home forever, he reminisces about the golden days of his youth when South Wales still prospered, when coal dust had not yet blackened the valley. Drawn simply and lovingly, with a crisp Welsh humor, Llewellyn’s characters fight, love, laugh, and cry, creating an indelible portrait of a people. Richard Llewellyn (1906–1983), a Welsh novelist, was born in Hendon, England, in the county of Middlesex.
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The rhythm of life... the pattern of words...
- By Jan on 04-16-13
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Independent People
- By: Halldór Laxness
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 20 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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This magnificent novel - which secured for its author the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature - is now available to contemporary American audiences. Although it is set in the early 20th century, it recalls both Iceland's medieval epics and such classics as Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter. And if Bjartur of Summerhouses, the book's protagonist, is an ordinary sheep farmer, his flinty determination to achieve independence is genuinely heroic and, at the same time, terrifying and bleakly comic.
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I am so confused about this introduction
- By George M on 09-10-18
By: Halldór Laxness
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The Playboy of the Western World
- By: J.M. Synge
- Narrated by: Orson Bean, Alley Mills, Full Cast
- Length: 1 hr and 37 mins
- Original Recording
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Orson Bean and Alley Mills star in the story of a man who becomes the town hero after he boasts of murdering his father. Riots greeted the first performance of this 1907 comic masterpiece of the Irish Literary Renaissance. L.A. Theatre Works reprises the Pacific Resident Theatre's acclaimed production.
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Brilliant
- By Michael Burke on 04-11-19
By: J.M. Synge
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Andersen's Fairy Tales, Volume 1
- By: Hans Christian Andersen
- Narrated by: Emma Fenney, Phil Gigante, Erin Yuen
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales, which have been translated into more than 125 languages, have become culturally embedded in the West's collective consciousness. Readily accessible by children, they present lessons of virtue and resilience in the face of adversity that appeal to mature listeners as well. This collection of 18 tales includes "The Emperor's New Clothes", "The Princess and the Pea", and "The Snow Queen".
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Cousin Phillis
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
- Narrated by: Joe Marsh
- Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Cousin Phillis – a miniature masterpiece – is set in the 1840s, when the coming of the railway was changing the face of England, and quiet rural communities, coming into contact with the outside world, were changed forever. The story focuses on the effect these changes have on a naïve country girl, Phillis, as she encounters love, with all its pains and pleasures, for the first time.
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Delicate Story
- By Mama C on 01-08-11
What listeners say about Precious Bane
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 03-19-24
I love this story
If you like Victorian style romance, this is the story for you. Similar to Tomas Hardy
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- R. Barry
- 12-18-20
A classic (gothic?) romance; audiobook very helpful!
I loved this award-winning book, although, as an early 20th-century classic set in the early 19th century, it is very different from my usual fare. Prue Sarn, the narrator, is afflicted with a hare lip and beset with an array of family members and neighbors who range from supportive to abusive, even as a good man unexpectedly develops an interest in her. The novel is set in Shropshire (adjacent to Wales), and the semi-archaic dialect makes the outstanding Audible narration a perfect companion to the text, which I used but may not be necessary. Dramatic, engaging, ultimately uplifting, and highly recommended if you aren’t afraid of the dialect!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Art Librarian
- 11-08-23
Otherworldly and beautiful
I was entranced by this book. The language, grammar, vocabulary alone are transporting; the descriptions of the natural world are glorious. Sui generis and wonderful. You’ll know within the first few paragraphs or minutes if this is for you.
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1 person found this helpful
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- L Simmons
- 12-16-22
Haunting tale
Real life and still not.
I can hear echoes of medieval times. Tudor maybe.
Performed so well it pulls you into a deeper level than I believe the story would by itself.
Story is sweet, sad, wrenching, and yet triumphant all at once.
A young woman who learns to love herself regardless of her “deformity”. Precious Bane is one of those books that every girl should read at around 12 or 13. I wish I had. Blessed thing to love yourself before you are old.
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-19-22
What a tale...
Stumbled across, finished in one day, so engrossed was I. This tale, set in a different time, has it all; insight into the human condition and a lovely human being at the core. The story took several unexpected paths and I'll be thinking about this one for a while, feels like an instant classic. Narration brought it to life. Definitely recommend it if you like Austen or Dickens.
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- Maine Midwife
- 01-11-24
A world come alive
This book and the reader revives a time gone by in rural England, before machinery and simple education were present. The language of old is delightful to hear, and the story line fascinates. And the description of how beautiful the small and large details of the countryside are vivid and beguiling. I highly recommend it!
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- Catalina Andrade
- 01-07-24
Rich detail of a culture and worldview
Remarkably detailed telling of a way of past British village life from a woman’s perspective. The protagonist’s outsider status sharpens her observations. Excellent and evocative reader.
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- KatC
- 03-14-22
One of the greatest love stories ever told
One of my absolute favorites. Poignant and beautiful and lovely in every way. I’ve read the book several times, watched the movie, and now have listened on Audible. The performance was good, maybe not quite as I would have imagined, but good enough. The story is as classically perfect as they get.
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2 people found this helpful
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- allison STOOPS
- 06-11-23
New Favorite Classic
I stumbled on this classic after reading quotes from Precious Bane in Julia Klassen’s newest historical romance novel. I was intrigued and when I saw that Justine Eyre was the narrator I knew it was a must try. So glad I did. It is VERY RARE I find what I consider a great novel and this is one of them!! My review could never do this beauty of great literary fiction it’s deserved justice. You know it’s good when you still feel the impact of the story in your thoughts days later. This is not a light hearted cookie cutter book (thank goodness!!) 10 stars!!!!
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- AstoriaSis
- 03-30-23
Wonderful.
I am so glad I came across this author and book. Sorry that more of her books aren't on Audible. The writing was excellent, and narration was uncommonly good with flowing the old time English. I would call this a great book. Loved it.
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