Ravens' brood

Along the Cornwall coast you might come upon a place of wind-swept beauty where a steep lane reached to the uplands with their long view of the Atlantic and a path led down to St. Column's and the gray-roofed village that huddled o the shore of the bay. But the path that would lead into the secret lives of the untrammelled country you would never find, and yet it is along this way that Mr. Benson leads us. The rites and curious means that John Pentreath's wife used to regain his attentions which had been centering on Nancy; the love affair of young Dennis Pentreath and Nell, with its simple laughter and devotion; Nancy's proud marriage to the London artist, and the pitiless fate of old John when he chose drastic means to silence Dennis's opposition and disrespect, combine to carry us into a world of unfamiliar power and wild beauty. This classic works by E. F. Benson, originally published in 1934, is being republished here with a new introductory biography.