SOURCE: “The Short Stories of Alun Lewis,” in The Anglo-Welsh Review, Vol. 14, No. 34, Winter, 1964-65, pp. 16-25.

In the following essay, Williams examines major themes in Lewis's stories, contrasting them with the themes of Lewis's poems.

The short stories of Alun Lewis were first published in periodicals as different as Lilliput and The Welsh Review. Twenty-three of them were collected in The Last Inspection, published by George Allen and Unwin in 1942, and six appeared, with selections from his letters, in In the Green Tree, also published by Allen and Unwin, in 1948. Another story, “Manuel,” was re-printed in First View, a collection of short stories chosen by G. F. Green published by Faber and Faber in 1950. His achievement in this genre is perhaps easier to assess than his achievement as a poet. Certainly some critics who, like Glyn Jones, found it difficult to ‘get the wavelength’ of the poet...