Gone to Earth

Mary Webb's second novel, first published in 1917 by Constable, is set in the Shropshire hills in the late nineteenth century. Hazel Woodus, a young woman who lives close to nature in a forest cottage, draws the attention of two very different men: the domineering local squire Jack Reddin and the gentle minister Edward Marston, whom she marries. The book is a rural romance and tragedy, and was adapted for film by Powell and Pressburger in 1948.