“I happen to know something of Welsh religion, and I have written not a little in criticism of it. But the religion which Mr Evans describes I have never met with. We Welsh have many grievous faults, and we have not been as faithful in self-criticism as we should have been. But Mr Caradoc Evans’s book does not describe us. It describes only Mr Caradoc Evans’s own soul; and it is not a pretty sight.”
− Freeman 1:430 Jl 14 ’20 550w
“Mr Evans’s artistic gift is very genuine but hard and narrow. In its present trend one can see little chance for its development. The stories are like rocks—impressive but barren. The preface is written in a more flexible vein and a more ironic mood. In it the language of the English Bible, from which Mr Evans draws, is transmuted for the uses of his artistic intention. In the stories themselves it is employed merely as a weapon. But his work has fierce honesty, concentration, power. It is sanative and, within its definite limits, completely achieved.”
+ − Nation 110:522 Ap 17 ’20 450w
“But does he really traverse the whole stage? We cannot think so. Where there are Goneril and Regan we cry out for a Cordelia, and Mr Evans would, we think, have made his terrible portraits more effective even than they are already if he had introduced more contrast and relief into them.”
+ − Nation [London] 27:77 Ap 17 ’20 600w
“Mr Evans knows the Welsh intimately and searchingly, and his portrayal of their daily lives, their bickerings, prayings and aspirations is altogether ruthless and incisive.” Pierre Loving
+ N Y Call p10 Ap 18 ’20 800w
“The hardy reader who will persist beyond the almost impenetrable idiom of Caradoc Evans will be richly rewarded. Especially do we recommend the book to reformers, utopists, spinners of millennial dreams.”
+ N Y Times 25:160 Ap 4 ’20 600w N Y Times 25:191 Ap 18 ’20 60w Springf’d Republican p13a My 2 ’20 320w