Daniel Owen

Daniel Owen is widely acknowledged as a seminal figure in the development of the Welsh-language novel. His literary fame rests on a small body of work - four novels, a novella and a few stories, essays and printed sermons - but as a realist novelist of power and focused moral purpose he left his successors with a formidable benchmark. By the time of his death, aged fifty-nine in 1895, Daniel Owen had produced fiction that had challenged, captivated and provoked his readers, reproducing resonant scenes of Welsh life, creating characters and phrases that were assimilated into the popular culture, and denouncing the hypocrisy which he saw as rampant in all circles. This introductory study opens with an examination of the relationship between Daniel Owen's work and the English-speaking readership and is followed by a concise biography. Robert Rhys then moves on to discuss the religious and social context and content of Owen's work and to consider the images of industry and work, race and gender, and time and place projected in the novels. This analysis of the life and work of Wales's foremost Victorian novelist concludes with a look at Daniel Owen's significance within the wider context of the Victorian novel and his influence on the development of the Welsh novel in both languages.