Spanning the twentieth century, Outside the House of Baal is the story of the conflict between public duty and personal love.
In the course of a day J.T. Miles looks back over his life, a "Good Man" confronted by the choices of living. He is forced to contemplate the modern world (of which he feels no part) and his betrayal of his Welsh-speaking heritage; the unsuitability of his marriage and his relationship with the woman who now shares his house; his self-defined mission to bring about social change and his own inability to pass on love. It has been a life of drama, and defeat; a life which mirrors the fate of his country in the twentieth century.
This classic novel has been completely revised for this edition, which includes an introduction by the author, and notes on the text.
"In a phrase or two Mr Humphreys's people are solid and present. If novels are about the human heart then this is an impressively central one"
The Sunday Telegraph
"One of the most gifted of novelists. He has an instinctive sense of the ways in which men and women are shaped by their environment, an eye for the incident that reveals character, a deep feeling for the poetry which is a part of everyday life, the sharp and loving clarity of some Dutch master"
Goronwy Rees
In the course of a day J.T. Miles looks back over his life, a "Good Man" confronted by the choices of living. He is forced to contemplate the modern world (of which he feels no part) and his betrayal of his Welsh-speaking heritage; the unsuitability of his marriage and his relationship with the woman who now shares his house; his self-defined mission to bring about social change and his own inability to pass on love. It has been a life of drama, and defeat; a life which mirrors the fate of his country in the twentieth century.
This classic novel has been completely revised for this edition, which includes an introduction by the author, and notes on the text.
"In a phrase or two Mr Humphreys's people are solid and present. If novels are about the human heart then this is an impressively central one"
The Sunday Telegraph
"One of the most gifted of novelists. He has an instinctive sense of the ways in which men and women are shaped by their environment, an eye for the incident that reveals character, a deep feeling for the poetry which is a part of everyday life, the sharp and loving clarity of some Dutch master"
Goronwy Rees