How Green Was My Valley

By: Richard Llewellyn

Narrated by: Ralph Cosham

Length: 16 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

How Green Was My Valley is Richard Llewellyn’s best-selling - and timeless - classic, as well as the basis of a beloved film.

As Huw Morgan is about to leave home forever, he reminisces about the golden days of his youth when South Wales still prospered, when coal dust had not yet blackened the valley. Drawn simply and lovingly, with a crisp Welsh humor, Llewellyn’s characters fight, love, laugh, and cry, creating an indelible portrait of a people.

Richard Llewellyn (1906-1983), a Welsh novelist, was born in Hendon, England, in the county of Middlesex. Before World War II, he spent periods working in hotels, wrote a play, worked as a coal miner, and produced his best-known novel, How Green Was My Valley, as well as 19 other novels. After the war, he worked as a journalist, covering the Nuremberg Trials, and then as a screenwriter for MGM.

©1939 1940 by Richard Vivian Llewellyn Lloyd; renewed 1967 by Richard Llewellyn (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“A story of exquisite distinction and vibrant interest; clear and strong as the music under the sky.” ( New York Times Book Review)

A beautiful book and beautifully read.

I read this book when I was much younger, maybe in my mid teens. I thought it was beautiful then and I've thought of it fondly over time. It was my turn to pick a book for my book group and I saw the opportunity to re-read it. I love it as much now as I did then and the reader did a very, very good job. I would recommend it to anybody.

A delight and treat to listen to

This is one of the most beautifully written books I've ever listened to. The prose was like poetry. Some descriptions literally made me stop and sigh. The characters were enduring and memorable. Beautiful, beautiful book.

School Assignment

My daughter needed to read this for school and I loved rereading it, too. Great narration.

reminds me of townspeople in Oblivion

best narrator ever. it's also sectioned well, with short chapters to make it easy to get back in after a car ride.

How Green Was My Valley

this had been my favorite since childhood, loved it the narrator was very authentic

Classic novel. Window into history.

Sentimental and yet gritty, this Dickensian-style classic is a view into late Victorian/Edwardian Wales, in the mining valleys. beautiful and btutal, and the reader does well with it. Have your hankie out. You are likely to need it.

Beautiful

A window into another world. This book is full of beautiful, poetic narrative. Ralph Cosham gives it the best possible narration.

I had a whole life in Wales

Beautifully written, complex characters, engaging storyline, lovely wit, a full portrait of a culture at a turning point.

The rhythm of life... the pattern of words...

I loved it! Written in 1939, it is a classic... I've read and listened to it both now. Coal mining family in South Wales seen though the eyes of the youngest son. I loved the speech patterns, the taste of the food, the honor of work, the cultural flavor and the love of a family. I loved the slowly evolving plots and complex characters. You have to be patient with this book, it is not a Dr. Pepper or bar of chocolate book. It is a rich stew, with hearty vegetables, herbs and tender chuncks of beef. There are strikes, mine collapses, young love trysts, long held grudges, fist fights, pride and sorrow... there is a family that grows, swells and forms a spider web from the valley across the world. I will listen again, if just to jot down some of the Welsh sayings I love the most... like the courting couple they called "Kiss and Scratch' for either they were overly affectionate or fighting. Go you then.

A beautiful classic

Llewelyn has a way of constructing beautiful musings. There are paragraphs that were so good I had to read them again. It was a great story and a classic.