Welsh Ballads of the French Revolution: 1793-1815 (Wales and the French Revolution) - Softcover

Jones, Ffion Mair

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0708324614 ISBN 13: 9780708324615

Publisher: University of Wales Press, 2012

Synopsis

Welsh Ballads of the French Revolution is a collection of ballads composed in reaction to the momentous events of the French Revolution and the two decades of war that followed. Ballad writers first responded in 1793, when the French monarchs were executed and France declared war upon Britain, but as the decade proceeded, sang in thanks for the victory of British forces and to the extensive mobilization of militia and volunteer forces. This volume, complete with parallel English translations of the original Welsh texts and copious contextualizing notes, introduces readers to this telling corpus for the first time and to a host of little-known authors.

About this title

About the Author

Ffion Mair Jones is a research fellow at the University of Wales’s Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies. She is the author of ‘The Bard Is a Very Singular Character’: Iolo Morganwg, Marginalia and Print Culture, also published by the University of Wales Press.

Review

The vibrancy and colour of the Welsh ballads of the French Revolution are brought to life in this ground-breaking anthology edited and translated by Ffion Mair Jones. Offering a detailed analysis of ballads responding to the upheavals of the French Revolution, this volume reveals how the traumatic events of the period were interpreted and presented to Welsh audiences at the time. Ffion Mair Jones argues that despite being overwhelmingly loyal to the British crown, these ballads are far from being monotonous in their conservatism and she uncovers the historical and contemporary impulses that encouraged loyalty and discouraged dissent among the popular poets of the day. By making these ballads accessible to a wider audience, this volume will shed new light on Welsh popular responses to the most dramatic and important event in eighteenth-century Europe. Dr Siwan Rosser, School of Welsh, Cardiff University

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Wales Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0708324614
• ISBN 13: 9780708324615
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 486