Background to Dylan Thomas and Other Explorations

by Gwyn Jones

These twelve essays and addresses range widely from consideration of the nature of Anglo-Welsh literature to incisive commentary on critical approaches to the European novel. Authors such as Dylan Thomas, Richard Savage, and Caradoc Evans (the "best-hated Welshman of them all") come under Jones's sympathetic scrutiny; there is incisive analysis of the Heroic poetry of the Welsh, Norse, and English peoples. Here too are some reflections on Viking themes, an area in which Gwyn Jones has established a worldwide reputation. Jones's critical insights and literary judgments are constantly enlivened by his genial personality and a gift for vivid description, expressed in prose that is both thoughtful and nonchalant. These explorations are the witty and lively writings of a man whose heart is in Wales, but whose head allows him to range freely across the wider world.

220 pages, Hardcover

First published April 2, 1992

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.