Short stories
The Dark Philosophers
Gwyn Thomas · 1946
Synopsis
A southern valley emptied by the Depression. Four men without work meet in an Italian café on the terraces to comment on what they see, and call themselves philosophers. They tell the story of a preaching shopkeeper installed in a widow's house, who has taken her daughters in hand and silenced the neighbourhood. The four decide that something must be done, discuss at great length what, and the revenge they plot ends badly.
Context
The volume appeared in 1946 and brings together three stories, including the one that gives it its title; it comes from a man who had seen his valley without work for ten years. Its method is chatter: the characters talk, comment, digress, and the action makes its way between the sentences. The comedy is constant and the subject matter is not, which long made its author pass for an entertainer. He refused Welsh and wrote about the Welsh, a position that made him suspect to both camps. A national collection reissued it in 2005.
Who it is for
One hundred and fifty pages in English, never translated. The narrative is made of conversations and one has to enjoy listening to people talk.
Prizes and reception
The most widely read of its author's twenty books, and one of the few to give an image of unemployment that is comic.