How Green was my Valley, by Richard Dafydd Vivian Llewellyn Lloyd (1906-1983) is a favorite of mine.maiamalanee wrote: ↑29 Aug 2017, 12:38 Classics as required reading have a purpose. Besides the classic, "read this and we'll discuss it next week," that we've all been through in high school, I've taken a lot of literature classes that really make you think about the books in different ways. For me, The Great Gatsby, Moby Dick, and Pride and Prejudice are the most overrated classics.
I can name a number of classics that I consider underrated (these might not even be considered classics, but I think of them as such):
The Once and Future King by T.H. White
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew by Margaret Sidney
How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn (this is my father's favorite book)
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
anything by Alexandre Dumas
anything by Dashiell Hammett
This particular passage appeals to me as I love the sound of Welsh voices.
"Sing then. Sing, indeed, with shoulders back, and head up so that song might go to the roof and beyond to the sky. Mass on mass of tone, with a hard edge, and rich with quality, every single note a carpet of colour woven from basso profundo, and basso, and baritone, and alto, and tenor, and soprano, and alto and mezzo, and contralto, singing and singing, until life and all things living are become a song. O, Voice of Man, organ of most lovely might."
In some ways it can be viewed as a nostalgic look at what life was like, but I always felt it showed enough of the harshness of a miner's life and it made one think about what was lost in the process of industrialization.