Library of Wales

Lucian Taylor believes he has been damned through contact with an erotically pagan world-or possibly through something degenerate in his own nature-in this critically acclaimed horror story. Moving to London to shake off his fears of being trapped by the dark imaginings of a creature inside him, Taylor soon finds his hallucinations becoming increasingly real. An important and moving work, this story is one of the first explorations in fiction of the figure of the doomed artist. A forward that provides literary and historical context from renowned author Ramsey Campbell is also included.

A riotous, unsentimental picture of life in a small Wales town, this portrait of a working-class woman of the Victorian era explores the hardships and joys of family life. Saran, the novel's female protagonist, faces hard times in the industrial work climate of South Wales at the turn of the century and deals with the devastating effects of World War I.

A sensation when first published in 1894, this frightening story involves evil scientists and the women that become monsters at their hands. An experiment into the sources of the human brain through the mind of a young woman has gone horribly wrong-she has witnessed the God Pan and will die giving birth to a daughter, Helen Vaughan. Twenty years later Helen becomes the source of much fevered speculation when she is feted as a society hostess of great charm. Many men are infatuated with her beauty, but great beauty has a price. Linking horror with prurient sexuality, this classic of horror sheds light on late Victorian misogyny and the public's interest in theories of evolutionary degeneration.

The Library of Wales' Story anthologies feature the very best of Welsh short fiction, written amid the political, social, and economic turbulence of 20th-century Wales and beyond. More than 80 outstanding works from the classics of Dylan Thomas, Rhys Davies, Arthur Machen, and Gwyn Thomas to the almost forgotten brilliance of work by Margiad Evans and Dilys Rowe and then forward to the prize-winning work of Emyr Humphreys, Rachel Trezise, and Leonora Brito, coloring and engaging in the life of a changed country. Story Volume 1 depicts a Wales wracked by a driving capitalism, shriven by hypocrisy and soon devastated by two world wars, but still creative, resilient, and sometimes laughing uproariously. The writers produced stories to entertain, engage, and share in the intimate lives of a distinctive people. In this selection Dai Smith has crafted an anthology that gives a unique insight into the life of a country and the talent of its major writers.

Widely acclaimed for its warm humor, lyricism, and honesty, this accurate evocation of the 1930s has become a classic. In this delightful autobiographical novel, Dannie Abse skilfully interweaves public and private themes, setting the fortunes of a Jewish family in Wales against the troubled backdrop of the times: unemployment, the rise of Hitler and Mussolini, and the Spanish Civil War.

The village of Tanygraig on the Welsh-English border is the backdrop of this passionate novel of love and its consequences. Beti, the beautiful and willful daughter of a pub landlord, is pursued by two men: Llew, her aggressive, red-haired cousin, and Evan, the dreamy miller and would-be poet. She must make a choice, but it is not just her future that depends on her decision; for she and Tanygraig are positioned precariously on borders of class, nation, language, and changing times.

The Library of Wales' Story anthologies feature the very best of Welsh short fiction, written amid the political, social, and economic turbulence of 20th-century Wales and beyond. More than 80 outstanding works from the classics of Dylan Thomas, Rhys Davies, Arthur Machen, and Gwyn Thomas to the almost forgotten brilliance of work by Margiad Evans and Dilys Rowe and then forward to the prize-winning work of Emyr Humphreys, Rachel Trezise, and Leonora Brito, coloring and engaging in the life of a changed country. Story Volume 2 depicts a Wales facing up to a dramatically changed culture and society in a world where the old certainties of class and money, of love and war, of living and surviving do not hold. The writers explore the spirit of a country while the ground keeps shifting beneath them. In this selection Dai Smith has crafted an anthology that gives a unique insight into the life of a country: identity, language, class, and sex are all explored intensely in this kaleidoscope of the best of the last 50 years of Welsh short fiction.

A collection of many of the author's best short stories, this volume focuses on the author's hometown of Pontypridd, Wales, with writing that is as scathing and savage as it is funny and compassionate. Examining the inhabitants' personal relationships and social ambitions with a baleful eye, these works are a revealing look at life in postwar, postindustrial south Wales during the 20th century and are accompanied by the autobiographical essay "Days of Absence."

During the miners' strike in the 1980s, a worker is killed in the striking coalfields of Wales. Some months later, a government minister thought to be connected with the death is also shot. Lewis Redfern-once a radical but now a political analyst and journalist-pursues the sniper, a lonely hunt that leads him through an imbroglio of civil service leaks to a secret organization: a source of insurrection far more powerful than anyone could have suspected known as the Volunteers. In this fast-paced narrative of espionage and intrigue, Redfern, through his obsessive pursuit of justice, finally encounters the truth about himself as the novel discusses the conflict between moral choice and political loyalty.

Leonora Brito's literary career, though cut tragically short, produced some of the most unique, culturally diverse and fresh fiction the Welsh writing scene has encountered. Though Cardiff-born, Brito's work was frequently shaped by her Afro-Carribean roots, and her stories are characterised by an abundance of freethought and a striking singularity of perspective. Full of wry humor and startling originality, this collection features some of Brito's most acclaimed stories, including 'Mama's Baby (Papa's Maybe)', 'The Last Jumpshot', and 'Dat's Love.'

This first-person account of passion, murder, and cultural conflict plays out in the person of the young Ann Goodman, who is torn by the struggle for supremacy in her mixed blood, Welsh and English. In this love story, set in the late 19th century, the rural way of life is no idyll but rather a savage and exacting struggle for survival.

Sometimes compared to The Catcher in the Rye, this rediscovered novel of the 1960s has a similar haunting sense that the adult world is phony and threatening. The hero of the book, Ashton Vaughan, has come home after a long absence from his Welsh seaside town. A member of the notorious Vaughan family, he has become a hopeless alcoholic drifter, but he moves in with his brother, aloof and eccentric, who still lives in the family home. Slowly, as Ashton reaches out to his loyal friends in town, it becomes clear that a violent vendetta had forced him to run away from home.

Extremely controlled studies of constrained desire, loneliness, and incomplete relationships, these tales fostered Edwards' development of a nonrealist world of imagery and symbolism in her own language. The ten stories of Rhapsody, together with the three previously uncollected pieces added to this edition, are utterly distinctive in voice and sensibility. At least three of the Rhapsody stories-"A Country House," "Days," and the brilliant, enigmatic "A Garland of Earth"-are small masterpieces sure to by enjoyed by a whole new generation.

Drawing upon his Welsh and Jewish heritage, Dannie Abse presents a rich autobiography that chronicles his life as both a doctor and an author. Humorous and poignant, this new edition not only includes the acclaimed first volume A Poet in the Family, but also discusses the changes in the political and literary landscape over the last century. With a chapter featuring brand new material by the author, this must-read autobiography will entertain those interested in history, politics, and literature.

A forgotten Welsh novel, first published in 1925, this love story is also a portrait of class conflict and the plight of rural women. The plot turns on young Rhys Lloyd's interest in the ideas of Social Darwinism and the League of Nations, which make him a dangerous figure in his village. To complicate his life further, Rhys is the son of a Welsh-speaking Nonconformist-but he is falling in love with the church-going Esther. The couple suffers from the disapproval of their neighbors, until-over time-the stoic and determined Esther calmly transcends the casual brutality of her agricultural upbringing, improves the lot of the other villagers, and finds new strength and organic spirituality.

When railway signalman Harry Price suddenly suffers a stroke, his son Matthew, a lecturer in London, makes a return to the border village of Glynmawr. As Matthew and Harry struggle with their memories of personal and social change, a beautiful and moving portrait of the love between a father and son emerges.