"Precious Bane" by Mary Webb
This novel was written in 1924 and the time of the novel is set in the 19th century in a pastoral setting. It is quite reminiscent of Hardy's "Under the Greenwood Tree" although a much darker story more like his other novels in that respect. It's full of wonderfully descriptive passages of the countryside and country life and these do redeem the novel which is seriously flawed by sentimentalism and high melodrama. We could almost accuse Hardy of this and yet his writing manages to rise above it.
It's worth reading for the descriptions and the portrayal of a very strong female character. A passage from near the beginning to give a flavour of the novel:
"It was a wonderful thing to see our meadows at Sarn when the cowslip was in blow. Gold-over they were, so that you would think not even an angel's feet were good enough to walk there. You could make a tossy-ball before a thrush had gone over his song twice, for you'd only got to sit down and gather with both hands. Every way you looked there was naught but gold, saving towards Sarn, where the woods began, and the great stretch of grey water, gleaming and wincing in the sun."
