Lost Classic (1)

As a semi-regular feature, I will be selecting books which I think can qualify as 'lost classics'. Each book I pick will have been found as the result of foraging in second hand bookshops, must be relatively unknown, and a good read. I love buying books second hand - you can nearly always find something unexpected, and hopefully end up reading something you wouldn't otherwise have come across. My first 'lost classic' is Gone to Earth, by Mary Webb. Set in the Welsh borderlands, this is the story of a wild teenage girl named Hazel with an intense love for nature and her own freedom, who becomes caught between the attentions of two men, with tragic consequences. As John Buchan explains in the introduction, Hazel 'suffers because she is involved in the clash of common lusts and petty jealousies...she is a creature of the wilds, with no heritage in the orderly populous world'.

For me, Gone to Earth is a classic as it is a beautifully written and original story. There are sections of this book which are very poetic, with stunning descriptions of the natural world. Mary Webb (1881-1927) was known to have a strong interest in mysticism and nature, having grown up in a small Shropshire village. Webb's use of dialect is particularly effective in conveying who Hazel is, and emphasing how she is at odds with those around her. She is a believable and original tragic herione who stayed with me long after I finished reading.

First published in 1917 against the backdrop of the First World War, Webb's adulation of nature can be understood as a reaction to the death and destruction all around, and the devastation being caused by man and his machines. John Buchan sheds light on the books themes and appeal:

'I read it at a time when everything that concerned the soil of England seemed precious, and one longed for the old things as a relief from a world full of urgent novelties.'

This was a time of great uncertainty, fear and death, while nature represents the eternal, beauty and life. The influence of the war can also be seen in the battle between strength and weakness which is an important theme of the novel. Webb writes:

'Death is a dark dream, but it is not a nightmare. It is mankind's lack of pity, mankind's fatal propensity for torture, that is the nightmare. When a man or woman, confronted by helpless terror, is without the impulse to save, the world becomes hell.'

While Reddin, the squire who sets his sights on Hazel, enjoys hunting and killing animals for fun, Hazel is the protector of all weak and helpless creatures, with her collection of rescued animals. Hazel has great compassion and an unstoppable instinct to save those in pain or distress, a quality which eventually leads to her own tragic downfall.

Gone to Earth could be described as Tess of the D'Urbervilles meets Wuthering Heights meets Lady Chatterley's Lover - in its themes of romantic entanglements, female and male sexual instincts, the importance of the British landscape, and the beauty and vitality of nature.  Gone to Earth inspired Stella Gibbon's 1932 parody Cold Comfort Farm, and in 1950 Gone to Earth was adapted to film. Yet, Webb was more widely known for her novel Precious Bane. During the 1930s Webb's works sold well after Stanley Baldwin described her as a 'neglected genius', but now, although her works have been reissued by Virago, she seems to have sunk into obscurity. In my opinion this is a great novel, and Mary Webb deserves to be better known and held in higher esteem. Her writing is just as good as the more well known female novelists of her time, and while tragic and touching, Gone to Earth is an enjoyable and memorable read.