Precious poison

Author: Mary Webb
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-02-01
Features: Easy Read Classics Series. To promote English learning among Chinese middle school students and cultivate their cultural literacy and literary appreciation, Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, after extensive deliberation and market research, decided to introduce a series of abridged literary classics from Macmillan Publishing Company in the UK to Chinese middle school students. From this series of abridged literary classics by Macmillan, SFLP carefully selected 40 books, compiling them into the "Easy Read Classics Series," with difficulty levels spanning from Level 3 to Level 8 of the "English Curriculum Standards." This series includes classic works by literary masters from the UK, the US, France, and other countries, featuring the works of renowned authors such as Shakespeare, Dickens, Mark Twain, Hardy, and Alexandre Dumas. To help middle school students better grasp the essence of the original works and the creative journey of the authors during their reading, SFLP has specially annotated the language difficulties in the texts and added background introductions about the authors and their works. We sincerely hope that the "Easy Read Classics Series" will help improve the literary appreciation level of Chinese middle school students, cultivate their moral sentiments, enhance their English reading skills, and become the key to opening the door to reading English literary classics for middle school students. Mary Webb (1881-1927) was a British female novelist, whose famous work is The Precious Poison (1924). M. Webb studied at a school in Southport. In 1912, she married a teacher, H. Webb, and spent most of her time in Shropshire, with her novels set in the region. M. Webb's novels are known for their lyrical style, vividly depicting the landscapes and people of Shropshire with rich brushstrokes. The love for nature and the fate that hangs over her protagonists in her novels remind one of late 19th-century writers, but her works did not reach the depth and maturity of tragedy found in Hardy's. Other works include The Golden Arrow (1916), The Hole in the Wall (1917), and The House in Dalloway Forest (1920). Her poetry collection, Fifty-One Poems, was published in 1946 after her death. This story is set in the rural life of western England about two hundred years ago. It tells the story of Prue Sains and her brother's pursuit of love and happiness. Life in the countryside was very difficult back then, with no machinery to help them work, and young people often died young from hunger and cold.