My People

The appearance of My People in 1915 caused a literary sensation. In England critics praised it as a work of art comparable with Zola and new writers such as Joyce. In Evans's native Wales there was outrage at his portrayal of rural west Wales.

Instantly Evans became the most reviled man in his country: his books were burned, his plays disrupted. For his astonishing attack on what he perceived to be a corrupt Liberal Nonconformist hierarchy Evans created a mean world with particular clarity. Its leaders appear as amoral demons speaking a language of literally translated Welsh and Old Testament phrases, using the Bible to justify acts of gross hypocrisy and self-gratification. The fate of its downtrodden victims has appalled and fascinated readers for over eighty years.

This edition includes John Harris's informative essay on the background to these classic stories.

"A book of great literary merit"

Daily Mail

"Easily the literary sensation of the moment"

The Globe

"The power is undeniable. For page after page Mr Evans holds you, as the Ancient Mariner held the Wedding Guest"

Punch

"Each story is a triumph of art"

The Bystander

"He would appear to have raked in the garbage of the countryside for his characters. A squalid and repellent picture ... a farrago of filth ... every page teems with clotted idiocies ... the literature of the sewer"

Western Mail

Caradoc Evans (1878-1945), short story writer and novelist was born in west Wales. A controversial figure he worked in Carmarthen and London in the drapery trade before becoming a journalist and editor. His first book of stories, My People (1915) brought instant infamy for its portrayal of the west Wales peasantry and made him, for many years, the most hated man in Wales.