For somber portrayal of love, hate, and the dark passions that lie on the outer rim of sanity, Rhys Davies of Wales has few peers. In a score of novels … he has developed a rotund, coldly exact style which seems perfectly tailored to his blend of morality play and Welsh Gothic. True, his offering may seem cheerless, macabre stuff to readers on a bland diet. So, for many of the same reasons, is Dostoevsky cheerless. Yet "The Dark Daughters" … and ["Marianne"] are distinguished by the author's rare mastery over individual scenes and characters and by the force of his indignation, which casts a dull glow over the entire proceedings. In our uneasy present, when many writers are preoccupied with the tensions of the day, Mr. Davies sticks to timeless problems of birth, death, motherhood, family relations and male vs. female.

This is not to say that his skills...