Collected Stories

Collected Stories

<p>This gathering of all Dylan Thomas's stories, ranging chronologically from the dark, almost surrealistic tales of Thomas's youth to such gloriously rumbustious celebrations of life as <em>A Child's Christmas in Wales</em> and <em>Adventures in the Skin Trade,</em> charts the progress of "The Rimbaud of Cwmdonkin Drive" toward his mastery of the comic idiom.</p><br /><p>Here, too, are stories originally written for radio and television and, in a short appendix, the schoolboy pieces first published in the <em>Swansea Grammar School Magazine</em>. A highpoint of the collection is Thomas's <em>Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog</em>, a vivid collage of memories from his Swansea childhood that combines the lyricism of his poetry with the sparkle and sly humor of <em>Under Milk Wood</em>. Also here is the fiction from <em>Quite Early One Morning</em>, a collection planned by Thomas shortly before his death.</p><br /><p>Altogether there are more than forty stories, providing a rich and varied literary feast and showing Dylan Thomas in all his intriguing variety-somber fantasist, joyous word-spinner, comedian of smalltown Wales. The book includes an entertaining, informative reflection on Thomas by another Welsh poet and storyteller, Leslie Norris, as well as a brief listing of publication details by Professor Walford Davies, editor of <em>Dylan Thomas: Early Prose Works</em>.</p>