Rhys Lewis (novel)

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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").^[1] It is 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.^[2] Although not Owen's first prose work, it was the book that made his name.^[3]

The novel has been adapted for Welsh-language television (S4C).^[4]

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. In 2017 a rare copy of the 1885 private subscription edition published by J. LL. Morris in Mold, was translated into English for the first time by Robert Lomas ISBN 978-1546721574.