This is a welcome addition to the Babel Guides’ lively and innovative World Literature in English Translation series. Other literatures so far covered include Dutch and Flemish; Brazilian; Hungarian; Italian; Portuguese; German; French; Jewish; Scandinavian. Each literature is introduced through summary and review of selected works considered to be representative of the modern literature of each country. In the case of Wales the three main editors are backed by a dozen contributors, all immersed in the cultural life of Wales, all with interesting points‐of‐view.
The Babel Guide to Welsh Fiction has already evoked widespread approval, particularly for the modernity of its approach and style. “Both hip and useful” opines The Guardian. Other accolades include: “easy and enjoyable”; “intelligent, comprehensible and entertaining”; “illuminating and detailed analysis”; “user‐friendly and reader‐tempting”. I find myself mildly in disagreement here, rapidly parting company with the too fashionable, clichéd assessments, e.g. that the egregious Dylan Thomas “has come to represent the fiery Spirit of the Welsh: those ‘Italians under the rain’, that fire in the puritanical belly of Nonconformism!” Some concern, too, over the limited coverage of writers from the 1920s to the present day.
Anthologies (pp. 17‐30) critically reviews, with excerpts, short stories and poems collected in four anthologies, including a special issue of the New Jersey Literary Review. Modern Welsh‐Language Fiction in English Translation (pp. 31‐90) analyses and percipiently comments on some 32 contemporary novels and collections of short prose which have been rendered into English. The writers include such as E. Tegla Davis, Marion Eames (three works), Sonia Edwards (two works), Islwyn Ffowe Elis (two works), T. Rowland Hughes (two works), Emyr Humphreys, Saunders Lewis, Caradog Pritchard, Kate Roberts (seven works), R. S. Thomas and J. D. Williams. Omissions aplenty, but those writers included may be taken as fairly representative of the genre in its Welsh manifestation.
Unsurprisingly, the startlingly cursory rubric Modern Welsh Language Poetry in English Translation (pp. 91‐93) gives us only an, arguable, categorization of poetry types: Academic and Translations of Contemporary Authors; Native and Innovative. Two periods only are simplistically identified: 1918‐1967 and 1967‐2009! Readers are referred to an arbitrary selection of anthologies.
English Language Fiction from Wales (pp. 95‐148) highlights many quite recent writers, while not ignoring true stalwarts such as Dannie Absé, Caradoc Evans, Richard Gwyn, Emyr Humphreys, Siân James, Nigel Jenkins, Glyn Jones, Jan Morris, Bernice Rubens, Dylan Thomas, Raymond Williams – an impressive array. This chapter disappointed me, as it seemed to sweep aside, as no longer of interest, the pioneers of “Anglo‐Welsh fiction”, especially of the seemingly interminable era of poverty and dole, and of bitter class struggle. Jack Jones, Michael Gareth Llewelyn, Lewis Jones, Rhŷs Davies … . These are realist writers to whom I constantly return, for their vivid portrayals of the taxing, heroic life we lived in the Rhondda and other tormented valleys between two world wars.
English Language Poetry from Wales (pp. 149‐155) is fashionable literary review à outrance. W. H. Davies and Huw Menai are dismissed as having “achieved some success”. Drunken, profoundly anti‐Welsh Dylan Thomas, as is lamentably usual, gets excessive, extravagant praise. To be fair to the commentator, it is admitted that “he rarely demonstrated any interest in the literary heritage of his country”. David Jones, Idris Davies, Alun Lewis, T.H. Jones, Vernon Watkins, Lynette Roberts, R.S. Thomas, Harri Webb, and many other excellent poets of later generations are mentioned only en passant. Others well deserving of note, such as Kathy Miles are overlooked.
An idiosyncratic assembly of facts corralled in highly individual opinions, offering an entertaining sampling of Welsh writers meriting wider acquaintance. Lacking an index, its potential value as a work of reference is not met by too selective, quantitatively inadequate Database of Welsh Language Fiction in English Translation (pp. 161‐165).
Despite its quirks and inadequate coverage (75 “liveliest” books reviewed, 50+ authors discussed) this guide could prove useful at quick reference, introductory level, and as an illuminating sampler of unfamiliar writing in the two main languages of Wales.
