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Famous quotes by J.Galsworthy
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- Literary activity apart from “The Forsyte Saga”.
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Famous quotes by J.Galsworthy:
There are a lot of valuable quotes said by John Galsworthy, which can be interesting for us to appreciate his literary weight. He touched upon different spheres of the social life. For example: “One‟s eyes are what one is; one‟s mouth is what one becomes.”, “Beginning are always messy”, “Headlines twice the size of the events”, “If you do not think about your future you cannot have one”, “A man is the sum of his actions, of what he has done, of what he can do, nothing else”. These quotes are about the general social problems of the human being, which he experienced in his time. Other quotes are about love, which is also was one of the human problems. Also the author himself suffered from love for a decade. We can count some of his valuable words about love: “Love has no age, no limit; and no death”. “There is left in every man something of the primeval love of stalking”, “Marvelous speeder-up of love is War. What might have taken six months was thus accomplished in three weeks”. “Love is no hot- house flower, but a wild plant, born of a wet night, born of an hour of sunshine sprung from wild seed, blown along the road by a wild wind. A wild plant that, when it blooms by chance with the hedge of our gardens, we call a flower, and when it blooms outside we call a weed but, flower or weed whose scent and colour are always, wild”. Love could never come to full fruition till it was destroyed. 12
Literary activity apart from “The Forsyte Saga”. The author began his career with a mood of self-criticism and even self-condemnation. His first four books were published at his own expense under the pseudonym of John Sin-john3. The first book to appear under his own name was “The Island of Pharisees” (1904). Central line of Galsworthy‟s literary activity is the theme of Forsytes‟ property. Galsworthy devoted all his creative life for the description of the Forsytes‟ world, disclosure of the psychology of the man- Forsyte- whose viewpoint is restricted by the framework of his (her) class, behaviours in their circle. His first appearance in literature was very modest, and showed his anxiety. In 1897, he published his first collection of short stories “From the Four Winds” under the pseudonym John Sinjohn. As he said, this collection brought disgrace on him, and even he asked the pub-lisher to burn the copies left. Stories of this collection nearly were unreadable, even it was dif-ficult to charge about the future of the author. Galsworthy himself mentioned that these sto-ries were written under the influence of R.Kypling and Bret Hurt and those were related to the journeys taken by him several years before. The only story of the collection which lay on a real life was the last story of the collection “The Demigods”. Here, the author for the first time refined the hurtful love towards Ada, desperate situation of lovers, which forced them to live separately for a long period. Before the publication of “From the Four Winds” Galsworthy was working on the novel “Jocelyn”, and in 1898, the novel was published. This novel considerably differed from the first book, and even some pages of it can be thought the best pages of the author‟s prose. In the whole, the book was hopeful and was read with great interest. It was also devoted to the desperate love between John and Ada, when the situation was still unbearable and painful. This book reminds a romantic direction. But nearby with autobiographical purposes, the novel has an artistic value being thankful to a character – Mrs. Travis, who is a prototype of Ada‟s mother. Mrs. Travis – having been Jocelyn‟s aunt and a companion in tours, was nearly the only comic character of J. Galsworthy. ____________________ Changing the name of a university fellow Saint John Hornby 13 The sharpness and exactness of Galsworthy‟s observations, “worshiping for property”, which is continued in the Forsytes emerge first time in this novel. The desire of hiding his own name and using pseudonym John Sinjohn is explained with autobiographical background of the novel, because here the author gives the real descrip-tion of his life with Ada. So, he could not directly show his name. Like Ada, Jocelyn hated monotonous grey sky over England. She had an enthusiasm to the Sun, to that shores, where eyes could admire bright colours, where life burns with all its power. Ada was the initiator of the travels made by J.Galsworthy. “Jocelyn” is interesting, because here we observe the troublesome of the author, but in the following books he transmits from objective troubles to subjective ones. Unlike “Jocelyn” “The Island of Pharisees” cannot express the author‟s own tortures; it only describes problems and troubles of others. After a short period, the author wrote two novels and also another book of short sto-ries called “A Man of Devon”. In 1898, when his first novel - Jocelyn appeared, he left law in order to continue writing. “The Island of Pharisees” (1904), “The Man of Property” (1906), which became the first novel in “The Forsyte Saga”, extended his audience and increased his reputation. As his popularity grew, Galsworthy published other novels of the Forsyte. At first, “The Forsyte Saga” consisted of “The Man of Property” (1906), “In Chancery” (1920) and “To Let” (1921), and two interludes between novels – “Indian Summer of a Forsyte” (1918) and “Awakening” (1920). “The Country House” (1907), “Fraternity” (1909), “The Patrician” (1911) and “The Dark Flower” (1913) are not novels in the sequence, but they are related to it in time and place. After the World War I, the author created less successful group of novels about the Forsyte clan. “The White Monkey” (1924), “The Silver Spoon” (1926) and “Swan Song” (1928), which are published in 1929 under the title of “A Modern Comedy”, and two interludes included to this trilogy “A Silent Wooing” and “Passers By”. In 1931, Galsworthy was followed by the immense success of the Forsyte cycle with a further collection of stories, “On Forsyte Chance”. When we explore the literary activity of John Galsworthy, we can see a more vivid and important trace left in the field of the English novel. He tried to show the society wholly, and demonstrate problems generally and individually. 14
Another novel - “The Dark Flower”-1913 is devoted to the analysis of the sudden and powerful feeling-love. Here, emerges a deep psychology of the writer, his mastership of dis-closure of slender and difficult troubles of a person. So, the way to “The Forsyte Saga”- crea-tion of a grandiose epopee was such. For two years, in 1931-33, Galsworthy wrote the third trilogy devoted to the Cheryl family, and here include “Maid in Waiting” (1931), “Flowering Wilderness” (1932), “One More River”5 (1933). –This trilogy was called “End of the Chapter”, and was published posthumously. Although the readers know him for his novels, he was also a skillful dramatist. His plays were also sharply social, but in a traditional realistic manner, without inclination to pa-radox and eccentricity. “The Silver Box” (1906), “Strife” (1909) and “Justice” (1911) are realistic plays. In the “Silver Box” there is a legal theme, and it tries to depict a bitter contrast of the law‟s treatment of the rich and the poor. “Strife” is a study of industrial relations; Jus-tice is a portrait of a prison life in realistic tones. The play was against of keeping prisons in solitary cells. Its impact was so much effective that, the minister of Internal Affairs Winston Churchill soon after began the reform of prisons. Galsworthy‟s short fiction had nearly the same influence similar to his novels, criti-cizing upper-middle class of the Victorian society. Though he also was born in a well to do family, the author displayed a liberal viewpoint, and opposed to the rigid doctrines of morality and religion. He has several short stories which are more remarkable and striking such as “A Man of Devon” and “The Apple Tree”; in both of which the events take place in the De-vonshire countryside. They are dealt with a social justice, poverty and an old age, as well as love, beauty and nature. _____________________ J.Galsworthy‟s first novels Originally the English edition was called Over the River 15 It is also interesting that, these stories are passionate tales of Romans. The author convinced himself that, justice was dependent to the individual and on faith in humanity. In “The Apple Tree”, the story which began in “A Man of Devon” was continued. This short story, “The Apple Tree”, was called “the most symbolic and poetic tale of J.Galsworthy” by Sanford Sternlicht. Other stories of J.Galsworthy are also interesting from different aspects; generally, his stories tend to focus mostly on characters and the environment they exist, rather than the plot. Galsworthy tried to highlight the characters who were outcasts, who were thought to be odd ones and aren‟t appreciated in the society even they had strong feeling of kindness and hu-manity inside. Only individuals understood and highly appreciated goodness and beauty in others; so, those individuals were the characters who Galsworthy works with, and emphasized admirably. Love, also is of great importance in the creative activity of John Galsworthy. Com-mentators try to prove that, most of his works of love were written according to the real facts of life, even, some relate these events with his own love affairs, but, in fact, his only wife was Ada Nemesis Person Cooper. He married her, in 1905, who was her cousin‟s, Arthur Gals-worthy‟s wife, even if, the author was in a secret relation since 1895. With the death of his father, in 1904, Galsworthy became financially independent and married Ada Person, who he lived to the end of his life with. Ada was a talented musician, and played the piano, and it is not accidentally that, in most of his works, and also in “The Apple Tree” there are a lot of scenes with music. As a notable musician Ada wrote music for J.Galsworthy‟s works per-formed at the stages of London. “The Forsyte Saga” also was dedicated to his beloved wife. We should especially mention that, J.Galsworthy‟s creative activity displays and also examines the transition period, and contrast between pre and post World War I England, especially upper-middle class society, to which he belonged himself. “Villa Rubein” and “A Man of Devon”, first of all were published under the pseu-donym “John SinJohn”. “Villa Rubein” was a successful work of Galsworthy for that mo-ment. Being published, in 1900, “Villa Rubein” had succeeded more and had been appre-ciated by his friends. In his letters, Ford Maddox pointed out that, the main value of this book lay on its delicacy. But it lacked sharpness of feelings, which is so obvious in “Jocelyn”. “There is no vinegar in salad. You are too polite with your characters, you are short of con-tempt”. (translation by Farida Shirinova from 32, p.61) The background of the novel “Villa Rubein”, constitutes his sister Lillian and her mar-riage with an artist George Sauter. After a very personal novel – “Jocelyn”, Galsworthy ap- 16
As it was mentioned in the foreword to the publication, which was published, in 1921, it also gave him opportunity to become more objective towards narration of event. In the novel “Jocelyn” we can see position of observer, in “Villa Rubein” report on what he observes, and only in “The Man of Property” he achieves the juncture of these two important elements; to find a harmony of subjective and objective, of which he has a positive opinion. So here, in “Villa Rubein”, is spoken about the English bourgeois family, whose whole life is obedient to the deep rooted traditions. The successive follower of these traditions is Nicholas Treffry. In him lives “A Man of Property”, which is typical to his class. The value of a person for Treffry does not lie on his personal dignity, but on his amount of property. Galsworthy gives such a question that, “Is it a guilt not to born a gentleman?” The attack of J.Galsworthy to “forsytyzm” and “falsiveness” began with this way. A new short story collection appeared in 1901, under the name-“A Man of Devon”, and Galsworthy announced that, his talent for satire appeared precisely in this collection. When the author spoke about it, he said: “I‟ve liability towards a lot of people for creating Suisin, cause he “opened” satire in me, also this is my only character, who has been killed by me, first I gave him a real life, later he‟d reborn in “The Man of Property”. His friend and biographer Mottram Ralph in his work shows that, the story “The Sal-vation of a Forsyte” became the turning point in the activity of the author. This allegorical story, though the characters don‟t suit Ada and John, are somehow like them. Both Suisin and John made a mistake, thinking that life could give only a chance, not realizing that, only the person who was open and susceptible to everything on the way could enjoy the donation of life. This story is a first example to what Galsworthy entitles as “a negative way of writing”. While narrating the life story of Forsyte he makes the dying person come to a horror result – which he never lived. In fact Galsworthy speaks of his own life, but conversely. Joseph Conrad had a very special role in the destiny of publication of this book; his efforts helped the publication. The other interesting fact is that J.Conrad valued Galsworthy‟s ability of imaging such: “Those who catch your interest and you respect them”. Here ap-peared the negative way of writing, which brought success with Suisin and is continued later in the character of Soames. In his circle of writers and critics he proved himself as a promising author, but the book which would catch attentions of wide readership audience was still ahead. Catherine 17
It was somehow strange that, in that period, between 1901 and 1905, Galsworthy de-cided to work on two books together, “The Island of Pharisees” and “The Man of Property”. Relying on his own words we can say that, both the two books were finished for three years, what is more the first one ,“The Island of Pharisees”, was rewritten by him or Edward Gar-nett. If “Jocelyn” is an open story of John Galsworthy, his feelings towards Ada, of his per-secution, which was the result of his feelings, love to a married woman, the character of “The Island of Pharisees”, Richard Shelton expressed his irreconcilability and imprudence towards social stability. In general, in this novel, there is given a very sharp criticism and social injustice, pha-risizm, immorality, unjustified haughtiness of bourgeois aristocracy of the upper classes. The main character of the novel Dick Shelton traveling around the world gets acquainted with Fer-rand, who broke up with his bourgeois surrounding and opened his eyes to the reality which was quite normal for him previously. Returning to England, Shelton tries to know different sides of the English society and be sure of hypocrisy and shallowness of that society. Reject-ing a rich fiancée Shelton breaks up with his surrounding. The novel has a satiric beginning. Even the name of it carries in itself a generalizing meaning. The island of Pharisees, the island of hypocritical people were called by J.Galsworthy the whole bourgeois society of England, disclosing the true face of its political figures, clergymen, figures of science and Art. The main theme of the novel is awakening of social conscience in the character, a young architect Shelton, who belonged to the upper class of the society. Here we can ob-serve of having no desire to compromise, because the character has changed so much that, he is sure of being right. None of the Galsworthy‟s characters had so much growth, so much crit-icism before Shelton. ____________________ The book was called “John Galsworthy A biography” 18 In “The Island of Pharisees” Galsworthy could not reach that deep disclosure of cha-racters, which is typical to the characters of the “Saga”, but in this novel he courageously put the theme of two opposite worlds- one‟s life is golden and the other‟s is shabby and gave an intransigent resolution of the story. John Galsworthy also was an outstanding critic and specialist in literature. Beginning with the article “Vague Thoughts on Art” he stands up for realism and says that true source of Art – life, demands from literature deep criticism and completeness of realism. In the 20th of century he creates a series of critical articles “Silhouette of six writers”-1924, and “More four Silhouette of writers”-1928, Foreword to translation of “Anna Karenina” by L.Tolstoy into English. Turgenev and Tolstoy were his favourites writers and both of them influenced the formation of his literary activity. In general aesthetic position of J.Galsworthy is explained with his strong ties with reality. Arguing with O.Wilde and other supporters of “Pure Art”, he explains the notion of Art as a “beautiful lie” and puts his vision of life in realistic colours. The point of view put forward in the article “Allegory about the author”-1909, about the pub-lic appointment of literature is the main line in the forthcoming literary-critical works of the author. It is repeated in the article “Vague Thoughts about Art”-1911. The article deals with the idea of “the duty of Art is to create realistic works”, then again “Art and War” deals with the idea “Art gives inspiration to life”. The main realistic status of John Galsworthy is formed in his articles “Literature and Life”-1930, and “The creation of Characters in Literature”-1931, which can be called manifestos and demonstrations of realism. In 1917, John Galsworthy was offered a knighthood, but he rejected and argued that, a writer should not accept such offers and become dependent on social institutes, but later he accepted the “Order of Merits” for his literary achievements. Also the author was a president of PEN7 for 12 years, honoured doctor of Trinity College, Cambridge, Dublin, Oxford, Prin-ceton Universities. In 1932, a month before his death Galsworthy was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. In the chapters we shall try to investigate mainly “The Man of Property” which is very valuable source of knowing the period, the people of the period and the lost values which are so important for the human being. ____________________ Poet, Essayist, Novelist-The International Writers‟ Organization 19 Yüklə 477,5 Kb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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