Classic Welsh Short Stories

by Gwyn Jones (Editor & Contributor), David Alexander, E. Tegla Davies

The story-teller has always been an important figure in Welsh society, and this collection draws on a rich and varied literature to present twenty-five of the finest Welsh short stories from this century, many of them original translations. From the exuberant lyricism of Dylan Thomas, to the sparse and telling prose of Kate Roberts, all these tales testify to the vitality and uniqueness of the Welsh story-telling tradition. Through stories of soldiers, poets, scholars, doctors, ordinary men and women, the warm hues and rich textures of all aspects of Welsh life, thought, and tradition are brought forth.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 1970

About the author

Son of a miner, Gwyn Jones (1907-1999) became a schoolteacher, then lecturer, then Professor of English from 1940. He was a novelist and short-story writer, translator of The Mabinogion and Icelandic sagas, founder and editor of The Welsh Review. He became Chairman of the Welsh Arts Council and was awarded the CBE (1965), the Knight's Cross of the Order of the Falcon (1963), and the Commander's Cross (1987) of Iceland.

Reviews

[hawk · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories. as with most collections there were some stories I liked better than others, and some that were stronger than others.

I did initially start to rate each story, but that became abit unwieldy, with many stories containing too much for a short review, and also with most rating 4 or 5 stars for me... and then there were a few that I forgot to/wasn't in a position to rate at the time... 🙃

so I've opted for overall 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5, cos I thought the collection was good in ways that are bigger than the individual stories.

as well as being well crafted stories with interesting and varied styles and themes, they contained so much detail in some of the descriptions of place, people, culture, humour, history... and some resonated on a level hard to describe.

while most stories are set in Wales, there were three (iirc) stories just past midway thru the collection that moved away from Wales and were situated variously in India, Canada, and USA. these engaged me less, but were interesting, especially wrt their situation within British colonial contexts, and at least one story explicitly made the connection with the English occupation of Wales.

it feels like an important collection, which hasn't received alot of comment on goodreads, and I feel like I haven't done it justice by not writing more about the individual stories and authors ♥ maybe I'll come back to it sometime 🙂

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

accessed as an RNIB talking book, well read by Shaun Probert 🙂

[October · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved this. I'm a big fan of short stories, and I'm currently learning Welsh, so this collection is super relevant to my interests. There are a handful of parts that aged rather poorly, but for the most part I was very taken with the characters and their circumstances, the descriptions of Wales, and the sprinklings of Welsh language in the English text. It made me smile whenever I could translate the occasional bit, although an understanding of Welsh isn't required to understand and enjoy these stories. The chosen stories range from funny to frightening, delightful to melancholy, and there's such a vein of love for Wales itself throughout the collection in the descriptions of its land and its people. Some of my favorites from this collection were "The Pit," "The Wedding," "Canute," "The Letter," "Cats at an Auction," "Deprivation," "The White Farm," "It's Not by His Beak You Can Judge a Woodcock," "Samuel Jones's Harvest Thanksgiving," and "The Miracle."

[Félise · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short story collections are always a gamble. I found most of these hard to follow and the endings didn't all seem like conclusions, so not my cup of tea.

[Harry Tomos · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm sure there were a couple of things lost in translation , but was fun to read....