|
''Rhys Lewis'' is a novel by Daniel Owen, written in the Welsh language and published in 1885. Its full title is ''Hunangofiant Rhys Lewis, Gweinidog Bethel'' ("The autobiography of Rhys Lewis, minister of Bethel").〔(About Daniel Owen )〕 It is generally agreed to be the first significant novel written in the Welsh language, and is to date one of the longest. It deals with the issues of evangelical Christian faith in a rapidly changing society affected by increasing exposure to outside influences, industrialisation with the inevitable strife that follows, and (perhaps most dangerous of all) the adoption by mainstream popular culture of certain aspects of Christianity whilst completely misunderstanding the essence of it. The novel was originally serialised in a Welsh-language periodical, ''Y Drysorfa'' ("The Treasury") between 1882 and 1885, before publication in a single volume.〔(Welsh Biography Online ). Accessed 24 January 2014〕 Although not Owen's first prose work, it was the book that made his name.〔(''Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia'' (ed. John T Koch), ABC-Clio, 2006. ISBN 1-85109-440-7 )〕 The novel has been adapted for Welsh-language television (S4C).〔(S4C Authority Bulletin July 2002 )〕 The first English translation was made by James Harris in 1888, but is somewhat stilted and has not achieved a wide circulation. A new contemporary English translation by Stephen Morris was published in October 2015, ISBN 978-0-9567031-3-2. ==Synopsis== Most of the action in the novel takes place in Mold, the small town in Flintshire from which the author came. Rhys Lewis is the younger son in a poor family where the father is absent and the only source of income is what his older brother, Bob, earns as a coalminer. Much of this income is creamed off by Uncle James, a poacher and a very violent man who visits the family regularly though he is never welcome. His mother, Mari Lewis, is a devout member of the Calvinistic Methodists and seeks to bring her two boys up in the same faith. Bob, the older brother, despite working as a coalminer is keen on self-improvement. He teaches himself English and the books he reads lead him to doubt the simplicity of his mother's faith; he is excommunicated from the Calvinistic Methodists after badly beating up Rhys's schoolteacher, but continues searching for the truth whilst becoming active as a leader among the miners in their fight against the incompetent English middle-management - who are badly mismanaging the mine to the detriment of the owners and workers alike. After a workers' riot which he tried but failed to prevent, he is imprisoned on falsified charges during which the family declines into deep poverty. Even so, his campaign is successful to the extent that the English steward is fired and replaced by a competent Welshman, who is also a deacon with the Congregationalists, and who sees that the family is provided for and that Bob is reinstated on good terms when he comes out of prison. Bob eventually comes to faith in a deathbed conversion following a mining accident, saying after having been blinded in an explosion "the light has come at last. Doctor, it is broad daylight!". Rhys and his mother are left without any income but are offered a home (and protected against Uncle James) by a simple-minded but generous cobbler called Thomas Bartley, a recent convert. Rhys is apprenticed to Abel Hughes, an elder in the chapel who owns a drapers shop, and moves into Abel's house when his mother dies a short time afterwards. As he grows into adolescence, he falls away from the devout faith that his mother taught him whilst nurturing a secret desire to be a preacher, being dazzled by the status that preachers had in Welsh society at the time. His best friend, Wil Bryan, leads him further and further astray until an incident where they very nearly kill a man brings Rhys to a crisis of conscience. He realises that, despite his upbringing, he was never really a Christian in the proper sense at all. He eventually confesses his predicament to Abel Hughes who, instead of casting him out as he'd expected, treats him kindly and gives him good advice about how to find a true faith in Christ. The light dawns and Rhys becomes a zealous member of the chapel and is set on the path towards being a preacher after all. However, just as he is about to go to college, Abel dies and Uncle James cheats him out of all the savings he had up to that point, leaving him penniless once again. By taking responsibility for the disposal of Abel's business and doing so completely honestly, despite overwhelming temptations to the contrary, Rhys is enabled to go to college with the support of Abel's elderly spinster sister and Thomas Bartley. He does creditably there, despite the disadvantages of his poor upbringing, and is surprised to find himself called to be the minister of the Calvinistic Methodist chapel in which he was brought up. However, he feels he cannot accept the call because of the shame that his family bears due to the antics of his Uncle James and (he suspects) his father. On the same day as he receives the call from his chapel, he learns that Uncle James has died in prison in Birmingham. Desperate to find whether Uncle James might have said anything to anyone about his father before he died, he travels to Birmingham and, following a complex sequence of events, comes face to face with his father. The experience is deeply traumatic, but clears the way for him to accept the call to the ministry and he pursues a short but successful career as a Calvinistic Methodist minister before dying relatively young from a wasting disease (very likely tuberculosis). The whole novel is presented as if it were the autobiography he wrote between being forced to retire from the ministry and his eventual death. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rhys Lewis (novel)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|