This classic novel -- a lyrical blending of human passion with a powerful and poetic vision of nature -- has been compared by critics, since its publication in 1924, the great novels of the Bronte sisters and Thomas Hardy. Like Jane Eyre, like Tess of the D'Urbervilles, the heroine of Previous Bane is a strong woman whose determined striving for a fuller life breaks the bonds of her confining world. Born in the wild hill country of Shropshire, Prue Sarn is cursed with a harelip. Her "precious bane" sets her apart -- from the possibility of marriage and from the superstitious villagers, who regard her as "queer, outlandish," "a witch," particularly once she learns to read and write. Resigned to a life of endless labor on her ambitious brother's farm, Prue loves two things -- the remote countryside of her birth, and, first hopelessly, then with answering passion, the weaver Kester Woodseaves.