Denov state university of department of english language and literature course paper

John Galsworthy and his contribution to English literature

John Galsworthy (1867-1933) was educated at Harrow and studied law at New College, Oxford. He travelled widely and at the age of twenty-eight began to write, at first for his own amusement. His first stories were published under the pseudonym John Sinjohn and later were withdrawn. He considered The Island Pharisees (1904) his first important work. As a novelist Galsworthy is chiefly known for his roman fleuve, The Forsyte Saga. The first novel of this vast work appeared in 1906. The Man of Property was a harsh criticism of the upper middle classes, Galsworthy’s own background. Galsworthy did not immediately continue it; fifteen years and with them the First World War intervened until he resumed work on the history of the Forsytes with In Chancery (1920) and To Let (1921). Meanwhile he had written a considerable number of novels, short stories, and plays. The Forsyte Saga was continued y the three volumes of A Modern Comedy, The White Monkey (1924), The Silver Spoon (1926), Swan Song (1928), and its two interludes A Silent Wooing and Passersby (1927). To these should be added On Forsyte Change (1930), a collection of short stories. With growing age Galsworthy came more and more to identify himself with the world of his novels, which at first he had judged very harshly. This development is nowhere more evident than in the author’s changing attitude toward Soames Forsyte, the «man of property», who dominates the first part of the work.
Galsworthy was a dramatist of considerable technical skill. His plays often took up specific social grievances such as the double standard of justice as applied to the upper and lower classes in The Silver Box (1906) and the confrontation of capital and labour in Strife (1909). Justice (1910), his most famous play, led to a prison reform in England. Galsworthy’s reaction o the First World War found its expression in The Mob (1914), in which the voice of a statesman is drowned in the madness of the war-hungry masses; and in enmity of the two families of The Skin Game (1920).
From the Four Winds, a collection of short stories, was Galsworthy's first published work in 1897. These and several subsequent works were published under the pen name of John Sinjohn, and it was not until The Island Pharisees (1904) that he began publishing under his own name, probably owing to the recent death of his father. His first full-length novel, Jocelyn, was published in an edition of 750 under the name of John Sinjohn—he later refused to have it republished. His first play, The Silver Box (1906),—in which the theft of a prostitute's purse by a rich 'young man of good family' is placed beside the theft of a silver cigarette case from the rich man's father's house by 'a poor devil', with very different repercussions, though justice was clearly done in each case—became a success, and he followed it up with The Man of Property (1906), the first book of a Forsyte trilogy. Although he continued writing both plays and novels, it was as a playwright that he was mainly appreciated at the time. Along with those of other writers of the period, such as George Bernard Shaw, his plays addressed the class system and other social issues, two of the best known being Strife (1909) and The Skin Game (1920)
He is now far better known for his novels, particularly The Forsyte Saga, his trilogy about the eponymous family and connected lives. These books, as with many of his other works, deal with social class, and upper-middle class lives in particular. Although sympathetic to his characters, he highlights their insular, snobbish, and acquisitive attitudes and their suffocating moral codes. He is viewed as one of the first writers of the Edwardian era who challenged some of the ideals of society depicted in the preceding literature of Victorian England. The depiction of a woman in an unhappy marriage furnishes another recurring theme in his work. The character of Irene in The Forsyte Saga is drawn from Ada Pearson, though her previous marriage was not as miserable as that of the character.
“John Galsworthy was one of the last representatives of Critical Realism in English literature. He was a novelist, dramatist, short story writer and essayist taken together. His works give the most complete and critical picture of English bourgeois society at the beginning of the 20th century.
The author deals with contemporary social problems. He is critical of injustice, tyranny and all the evils of life, but his criticism is not destructive: he himself was too much a member of the privileged classes to wish to rebuild the world he lived in. His characters are mostly of the upper middle class and the aristocracy with which he was wholly familiar Galsworthy tried to revive the realistic traditions of his predecessors -"the brilliant school of English novelists".
His mastery as a writer lies in his keen criticism of national prejudices, his exciting pints and a realistic observation of life and characters.”
The writer was born at Coombe, Surrey, on August 14, 1867. He came from a well-to-do bourgeois family. His father was a rich lawyer, and he wanted his son to follow the career John studied law at Oxford, but he was more interested in literature than in law. Probably due to this fact he gave up his practice a year after graduation and went travelling all over the world.
In 1891 Galsworthy came to the Crimea. His stay in Russia, short as it was, produced a deep impression upon the future writer and awakened his interest in the country, its people and literature.
Through his writings Galsworthy campaigned for a variety of causes, including prison reform, women's rights, and animal welfare, and also against censorship. Galsworthy was a supporter of British involvement in the First World War. In an article for The Daily News on 31 August 1914 Galsworthy called for war on Germany to protect Belgium. Galsworthy added "What are we going to do for Belgium — for this most gallant of little countries, ground, because of sheer loyalty, under an iron heel?" During the First World War he worked in a hospital in France as an orderly, after being passed over for military service, and in 1917 turned down a knighthood, for which he was nominated by Prime Minister David Lloyd George, on the precept that a writer's reward comes simply from writing itself.
Galsworthy opposed the slaughter of animals and fought for animal rights. He was also a humanitarian and a member of the Humanitarian League. He opposed hunting and supported the League for the Prohibition of Cruel Sports.
Galsworthy was offered a knighthood in 1918, but he refused it. He was erroneously awarded the rank in the published list when his letter declining the honor went astray, but he was never given the accolade, and the honor was later withdrawn.
In 1921 Galsworthy was elected as the first president of the PEN International literary club and was appointed to the Order of Merit in 1929. He was awarded the 1932 Nobel Prize for Literature, having been nominated that same year by Henrik Schück, a member of the Swedish Academy. He was too ill to attend the Nobel Prize presentation ceremony on 10 December 1932, and died seven weeks later. He donated the prize money from the Nobel Prize to PEN International.
From the Four Winds was Galsworthy's first published work in 1897, a collection of short stories. These, and several subsequent works, were published under the pen name John Sinjohn, and it would not be until The Island Pharisees (1904) that he would begin publishing under his own name, probably owing to the death of his father. His first play, The Silver Box (1906), became a success, and he followed it up with The Man of Property (1906), the first in the Forsyte trilogy. Although he continued writing both plays and novels, it was as a playwright that he was mainly appreciated at the time. Along with other writers of the time, such as Shaw, his plays addressed the class system and social issues; two of his best known plays were Strife (1909) and The Skin Game (1920).
Over time his reputation shifted; he is now far better known for his novels and particularly The Forsyte Saga, the first of three trilogies of novels about the eponymous family and connected lives. These books, as with many of his other works, dealt with class, and in particular upper-middle class lives. Although sympathetic to his characters, he highlights their insular, snobbish, and acquisitive attitudes and their suffocating moral codes. He is viewed as one of the first writers of the Edwardian era; challenging in his works some of the ideals of society depicted in the proceeding literature of Victorian England. The depiction of a woman in an unhappy marriage furnishes another recurring theme in his work. The character of Irene in The Forsyte Saga is drawn from Ada Pearson even though her previous marriage was not as miserable as Irene's.
His work is often less convincing when it deals with the changing face of wider British society and how it affects people of the lower social classes. Through his writings he campaigned for a variety of causes, including prison reform, women's rights, animal welfare, and censorship, but these have limited appeal outside the era in which they were written.
Though the profession of a lawyer was considered to be more honourable and more profitable than that of a writer, Galsworthy gave up law for literature. His cherished desire was to expose all the evils of society and to reveal the truth of life, and he hoped that the profession of a writer would help him to realize his lifelong dream. Galsworthy enjoyed popularity in his lifetime. Much of his energy was devoted to the Pen-club, an association of writers of which he was president until his death in 1933