Unabridged Daniel Owen novel returns after 130 years
Melin Bapur releases a full edition of Profedigaethau Enoc Huws, restoring the classic Welsh novel to its original length and correcting decades of cuts.
Welsh publisher Melin Bapur has issued a new unabridged edition of Daniel Owen’s 1891 classic Profedigaethau Enoc Huws, restoring the novel to its original length after more than a century of heavily edited versions.
The novel, first serialised before its book form appeared in 1891, follows the duplicitous Captain Trefor and the naïve shopkeeper Enoc Huws, whose unrequited love for the captain’s daughter Susi drives the plot of deceit and social embarrassment.
Editor Adam Pearce explains that, although the story has remained popular, almost every edition after the first has been trimmed. “Conciseness was fashionable among Welsh critics in the first half of the twentieth century, and the versions of the story which were published in the 30s and 1960s, the 80s and even the twenty‑first century are actually quite heavily edited down.”
Pearce adds that the cuts amount to roughly 20,000 words, about 15 percent of the original text, and that similar reductions affect Owen’s other two best‑selling novels, Rhys Lewis and Gwen Tomos.
Complete editions of the three novels were produced in the 1990s by E. G.
Millward, yet those copies are now scarce. “It’s probably easier to find the Victorian first editions than the modern complete ones that E.”
G. Millward did in the 1990s, which were the model for our new edition,” Pearce says.
What makes the new release noteworthy is the absence of any indication that earlier prints were abridged. “I don’t want to say that these editors deliberately misled readers because that implies an actively malicious intent,” Pearce notes, “but whilst the editors are credited, the fact remains that there is nothing in the editions that makes it clear to the reader that so much material has been cut.”
He warns that many contemporary readers may never have experienced Owen’s work as the author intended. “When I tell people about it, it’s almost always a surprise.”
I suspect that most of the people alive today who think they have read Daniel Owen’s books have not, in fact, read them as their author intended.”
Pearce argues that Owen’s narrative style, though rambling, is comparable to that of Dickens or Eliot and deserves the space it originally occupied. “It’s true that Daniel Owen’s style can be a bit rambling, but no less so than Dickens or Eliot or any number of Victorian writers in English,” he says.
He contends that the heavy editing diminishes key characterisation. “In Gwynn’s edition, Captain Trefor is less long‑winded and verbose, which completely misses the point of that character.”
He also cut parts of the subplots, which are all crucial to Owen’s vision.”
According to Pearce, the cuts also strip away the novel’s front matter, including Owen’s preamble and introduction, which are present in all full editions. “A quick way to see if your version is full is whether it kicks straight into Chapter 1 with the famously biting opening line, ‘Mab Llwyn a Pherth oedd Enoc Huws, ond nid yn Sir Fôn y ganwyd ef.’ or whether it includes the proper Rhagarweiniad, and the Rhagymadrodd that he added for the first publication in book form.”
The editor’s personal connection to the work runs deep. “I have a great personal affection for this book, because it was the book that really got me into Welsh literature when my GCSE Welsh teacher pressed a copy (of an abridged edition!) into my hand and said, ‘read this’,” he recalls.
His academic research later uncovered the pattern of abridgement, prompting the current project. “Daniel Owen ended up the subject of my PhD, which is where I first learned about the strange history of abridgement.”
I’m very pleased to be able to correct this with a new full edition in our Llyfrgell Gymraeg,” Pearce says.
Melin Bapur’s release also coincides with a small slate of new Welsh titles, including a collection of Robert ap Gwilym Ddu’s poetry and Gerald Coles’ debut novel Enigma, signalling a broader revival of Welsh literary publishing.
The unabridged Profedigaethau Enoc Huws now joins the national library’s catalogue, offering scholars and readers alike the chance to engage with Owen’s work in its complete, unaltered form.