regshoe

The part where Ned repeatedly kisses Tom's flushed, feverish, unconscious face while whispering "My darling, oh, my darling," and then rushes back behind Confederate lines so Stonewall Jackson can have him executed for breaking parole? But first Stonewall Jackson pauses to admire Ned's honor and the power of his loving friendship for Tom.

:D Hahaha, it is good stuff, isn't it... I think this book has a lot in common with Broster's The Wounded Name, which is also very 'id close to the surface'.

Oh yeah, I remember Loring talking about his real best friend in the introduction (though the war part seems to have been made up?). Yeah, it would certainly be interesting to know what he thought of it...!

That is a very good point about Webb being too good to write enjoyable melodrama. I like a good over-the-top Gothic novel or Victorian sensation novel, and that sort of thing can be genuinely good in some ways, but there was too much about The Precious Bane that ought to have been... more seriously(?) better than that.