Nothing to Pay

by Caradoc Evans

When Caradoc Evans’s novel  Nothing to Pay  appeared in 1930, it met with much admiration and also much resistance. His ruthless exposure of the Nonconformist establishment undermined the commonly held view that the Welsh were a pastoral, God-fearing people. As Jeremy Brooks put it  The Independent , “What the Welsh could not forgive was that they recognized themselves only too clearly in Evans’s satirical portraits.” But Dylan Thomas praised Evans’s work relentlessly, and H.G. Wells said in a “There was one, who is too little esteemed, who has done the thing [of telling about the trade shops] with a certain brutal thoroughness, and he tells a great deal of truth. That is Caradoc Evans in his book  Nothing to Pay .” (In America, H.L. Mencken saw in Evans the fundamentalists of the South laid bare, and offered one hundred free copies of his story collection to the local YMCA.)  Nothing to Pay  relates the story of Amos Morgan, an ambitious draper from Cardiganshire who works his way up to London through the shop trade. Largely autobiographical, this novel was admired by the Welsh literati and has since become a classic of Welsh literature, not only for its scathing satire, but for its brilliant linguistic inventiveness and poetic style.

237 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1930

About the author

David Caradoc Evans was a Welsh novelist, short-story writer, and playwright who wrote in English. He was married to writer Oliver Sandys.

Reviews

[Eileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's always nice when you find a book that uses not exactly dialect but a blend of particular phrasing and well-timed accent to create a believable regional voice. Much of the characterization here could have fallen out of the sordid side of Dickens (as opposed to the ludicrously idealistic and angelic moral side), although it's set later, at the turn of the 20th century, and in Wales besides. The time period is interesting; we're set at the crest between the uneducated superstition of early rural Britain and the disease, machinery and filth of the modern day. Bensha Wedding Singer--great-grandfather and clear mental progenitor of the main character, Amos Morgan--not only steals land and builds his house illegally, while shooting and maiming the sole witness to his action, but is the only man brave enough to stay in the streets during the visitation of the serpent. Amos, three generations later, spends his days oilily selling clothes and fabrics, scheming to acquire and acquire, paying lip service to the church while taking a base line toward everything and everyone in his obsession for selfish, squalid, unspent riches. The very baseness of his character, as formed by his family and society, is the point of the book. It certainly makes you happy not to live either there or then.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A hard novel, biting portrait on a society. An important book and a good read

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s an interesting work - parts lyrical exploration of rendering Welsh language in English, with a folkloric opening. The meat of the matter is the tale of a ridiculous miser, his miser-father, and miser-lover, all reaching ever higher levels of self-deception, hypocrisy, and meanness.

There are at least four laugh-out-loud moments of pure nasty behavior. Quite a bit of violence, too. I hadn’t expected to enjoy it quite as much as I did through the difficulties of the language. And to think I picked it up because I liked the title and cover photo!