Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru
Fireside Tales
Fireside Tales
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Disgrifiad Cymraeg / Welsh Description
Addasiad Saesneg o gasgliad o straeon byrion Daniel Owen, Straeon y Pentan a gyhoeddwyd gyntaf yn 1895.
Disgrifiad Saesneg / English Description
An English translation of Straeon y Pentan , a fascinating, humorous collection of 19 short stories and character portraits first published in Welsh in 1895. Often based on popular urban legends of the time, it comprises funny depictions of 19th century life in Wales, and although intended for fireside reading during the Victorian era, will bring warmth to modern lives too.
Manylion y cynnyrch / Product details
- ISBN 13
- 9780956703118
- Gwales Code
- gwales.com.9780956703118
- Gwerthwr / Vendor
- Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru
- Long Title
- Fireside Tales
- Awdur / Author
- Owen, Daniel
- Current Price ex VAT
- £8.95
- Current Price inc VAT
- £8.95
- Availability Status (EN)
- Out of print
- Availability Status (CY)
- Allan o brint
- Dyddiad cyhoeddi / Publication Date
- 2011-10-04
- Cyhoeddwr / Publisher
- Y Lolfa
- Editor
- Morgan, Derec Llwyd
- Translator
- Pearce, Adam
- Media Type (EN)
- Paperback / softback
- Media Type (CY)
- Clawr meddal
- Pages
- 92 pages
- Size
- 130 × 195 mm
- Language Code
- English
- Categori / Category
- CY: Nofelau a Storïau ar Gyfer Oedolion (yn Saesneg) | EN: Adult Fiction and Stories (in English)
- Is-gategori / Subcategory
- CY: Straeon Byrion (yn Saesneg) | EN: Short Stories (in English)
Adolygiad y Cyhoeddwr / Publisher Review
This collection of short stories and character sketches is a late work by the most influential nineteenth-century novelist writing in the Welsh language but it gathers together material collected and created throughout his career. It is presented in the words of ‘Uncle’ Edward Jones to his young nephew. Most of the stories are based in north Wales, especially around the Mold area, and, although some are folk tales of wide currency, Uncle Edward vows they are ‘as true as the Lord’s Prayer’. The strength of the tales lies not in the plots but in the characters and the flavour they give of lives lived in the country and in the small towns of Victorian Wales. The central position of the Methodist Chapel is clear but, while Owen is sometimes critical of narrowness and ignorance (especially in the sad tale of ‘The Minister’ – James Lewis), it is generally seen as a positive force in the community. Owen knew and valued its teaching and its contribution to education but he also clearly had a fondness for the fancies and eccentricities of the peasant life it endeavoured to improve. Several stories debunk superstition but ‘William the Shepherd’ is a well-told, traditional ghost story, and there is obvious delight in the mischief of ‘Jac Jones’s Hat’. Some stories may perhaps have been ideas for novels which Owen never developed: ‘Doli of Hafod Lom’ is a barely sketched love story such as Sir Walter Scott would have made into a tragic romance. The translation conveys well the narrator’s warm, attractive character and succeeds in unifying the disparate material. As Daniel Owen says in his foreword, he was practically inventing the form in Welsh. On one hand he draws on a timeless oral tradition but he also paves the way for many fine Welsh writers of short stories in both languages.
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