- (Galsworthy) John Galsworthy (Galsworthy, John) (1867 1933) English writer. In literary journalism he defended the principles of realism. 1932 Nobel Prize winner in literature. Aphorisms, quotes Russian people, in many respects... ... Consolidated encyclopedia of aphorisms
- (Galsworthy) (1867 1933), English writer. Socially everyday novels “The Island of the Pharisees” (1904), “The Patrician” (1911), “The Freelands” (1915), etc. In the socio-psychological trilogies about the fate of one large family, “The Forsyte Saga” (1906 21) and ... encyclopedic Dictionary
John Galsworthy (14.8.1867, London, 31.1.1933, ibid.), English writer. Son of a lawyer. Graduated from Oxford University. He began his literary activity as a neo-romanticist (collection “The Four Winds”, 1897; the novels “Jocelyn”, 1898, “Villa ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
- (Galsworthy, John) (1867 1933), English novelist and playwright. Born 14 August 1867 in Kingston Hill (Surrey). He studied at Harrow School and New College, Oxford University, received a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1889, and was... ... in 1890. Collier's Encyclopedia
GALSWORTHY John- GALSWORTHY (Galsworthy) John (18671933), English writer. Forsyte trilogies: The Forsyte Saga rom. “The Owner” (1906), “In the Loop” (1920), “For Rent” (1921) and the adjacent short stories “Forsyte’s Last Summer”... ... Literary encyclopedic dictionary
- ... Wikipedia
Galsworthy, John John Galsworthy John Galsworthy Aliases: John Sinjohn Date of birth ... Wikipedia
John (John Galsworthy, 1867) English novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright and essayist. Creative originality was revealed mainly in the novel. The main image of G.'s fifteen novels is the owner. Accumulation and preservation of private property... ... Literary encyclopedia
John Galsworthy Date of birth: August 14, 1867 (18670814) Place of birth: Kingston Hill, Surrey, England Date of death: 31 ... Wikipedia
- (1867 1933) English writer. Socially everyday novels The Island of the Pharisees (1904), Petritius (1911), Freelands (1915), etc. In the trilogies about the destinies of one family, The Forsyte Saga (1906 21) and Modern Comedy (1924 28) gave an epic picture of morals... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
Books
- John Galsworthy. Collected works in 8 volumes (number of volumes: 8), Galsworthy John. Book Club 'Knigovek' is pleased to present to your attention the 8-volume collected works of John Galsworthy -...
- John Galsworthy. Collected Works in 16 volumes (set of 16 books), John Galsworthy. John Galsworthy is an outstanding English prose writer and playwright, one of the largest realist writers...
The greatest English writer, playwright and poet John Galsworthy during his lifetime was awarded every conceivable literary award of the 20th century, including the Nobel Prize, as well as honorary degrees from the top ten universities in England and Scotland. The writer himself believed that the best way to the reader’s heart is to “imagine life as you see it, with all the sincerity and perfection of which you are capable.” Galsworthy had to go through a long path of self-improvement and knowledge of life in order to arrive at this seemingly simple formula and become on a par with the best English novelists.
John Galsworthy was born in the town of Coome (Surrey) into a wealthy bourgeois family. The only son of John Galsworthy, a successful lawyer, he was educated at the aristocratic Harrow College and Oxford University.
In both college and university, John was an exemplary student. According to the recollections of one of his classmates, at Harrow Galsworthy was not particularly free-thinking. He strictly followed the code of honor of a pupil of an English boarding school. At Oxford, according to those who knew him, Galsworthy was “a sportsman and a gentleman” who attached great importance to impeccability of dress.
Having become a lawyer in 1890, John Galsworthy never began practicing law. “A sportsman and a gentleman” preferred to travel (he traveled around the world to deepen his knowledge of maritime law) and read, and not only specialized literature. The decision to become a writer came to him relatively late - at the age of 28. It arose under the influence of Ada Galsworthy, the wife of his cousin Arthur, with whom John began to develop a romantic relationship. In 1897, Galsworthy, under the pseudonym John Sinjon, published a book - a collection of stories "The Four Winds".
The debut was successful, and a year later the writer’s first novel, “Joslyn,” appeared, the second, “Villa Rubain,” was published in 1900. And a year later, a collection of stories was published, where for the first time there was a mention of the Forsyte family, which he would immortalize in the books of his later period. The first novel that Galsworthy published under his real name in 1904 was called The Island of the Pharisees. The writer worked on it for three years, carefully polishing each chapter.
After the death of his father in 1904, Galsworthy received a good fortune, which provided him with financial independence. Ada moved in with him, a year later her divorce proceedings ended, and the young people got married. The opportunity to live together, without hiding, without hiding, after nine years of sharp reproach and condemnation from family and friends, inspired Galsworthy to write the novel “The Owner,” which was completed in 1906. It describes the unsuccessful marriage of Ada using the example of Soames and Irene Forsyth . This novel is the pinnacle of Galsworthy's work. It became the first volume of the Forsyte Saga trilogy.
The writer found prototypes of the heroes in his own family. In the family photo of the Galsworthy clan, you can easily recognize many of the characters in the saga. The stern expression on their faces and tightly compressed lips indicate that they feel like guardians of the age-old foundations of not only the family, but also the state. Galsworthy, breaking himself, overcoming his “bourgeoisism,” managed to look at the Forsytes, so similar to his family, as if from the outside, unbiased. In one of his letters he admits: “I am driven by hatred of Forsythism.” It was probably also hatred of certain features of Forsyteism in himself, which was one of the main sources of the writer’s artistic strength.
The writer did not return to the Forsytes until the end of the First World War. But during this time from 1907 to 1911. he wrote three more novels: "The Manor", "Brotherhood" and "Patricia".
As a playwright, Galsworthy seriously announced himself with the play “The Silver Box,” staged on stage in 1906. And his next two plays, “Struggle” and “Justice,” which exposed social abuses, made him a famous playwright. By the way, William Churchill became interested in the play “Justice,” which condemns the practice of solitary confinement, and even stated that it had a serious influence on his prison reform program.
Actively engaged in social activities, Galsworthy spent half of his income on charity, advocating social reforms, campaigning for the revision of laws on censorship, divorce, minimum wage, and women's suffrage. Already terminally ill, the writer ordered that his Nobel Prize be transferred to the PEN Club, an international writers' organization that Galsworthy organized in October 1921. And at the same time, Galsworthy refused a knighthood in 1917, believing that writers and reformers should not accept titles.
In 1919, the writer returned to the Forsyte family again, the second part of the trilogy of the saga “In the Loop” was published, and next year the third, “For Rent.” The one-volume Forsyte Saga, published in 1922, was a huge success. Galsworthy becomes a leading figure in Anglo-American literature.
The writer completed the second trilogy about the Forsytes, entitled “Modern Comedy,” in 1928. At the same time. began work on his latest trilogy. Sharing his plans, he wrote to his friend the French writer André Chevrillon: “I have begun to write about another family, the Charwells, who represent an older type of family, with a greater sense of tradition and duty than the Forsytes. I have already finished one novel and hope, with luck, write a trilogy about them. This is a 'stratum' of service people that has not received enough attention and which still exists in England."
The End of a Chapter trilogy, which included the novels A Girl is Waiting, The Desert in Bloom, and To the Other Shore, was published by Ada Galsworthy in 1933 after the writer’s death.
In 1929, Galsworthy was awarded the British Order of Merit, and in 1932 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for the high art of storytelling, the pinnacle of which is The Forsyte Saga.” As Anders Oesterling, a representative of the Swedish Academy, noted: “ The author has traced the history of his time over three generations, and the fact that the writer has so successfully mastered extremely complex material, both in volume and in depth, does him credit.”
Galsworthy was seriously ill (brain tumor) and was not present at the award ceremony. On January 31, 1933, less than two months after he was awarded the Nobel Prize, the writer died.
After Galsworthy's death, the Society of English Writers requested that his ashes be interred in Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner, where literary celebrities are buried. The abbot of the abbey did not consider it possible to support this petition - this is how the church finally settled its scores with the irreconcilable opponent of religion. And then John Galsworthy’s wish, expressed in his poem “Scatter My Ashes!” was fulfilled. - on the top of the hill, far from the road, the ashes of one of the most worthy people of his time were scattered.
English novelist and playwright. Born in Kingston Hill (Surrey). He studied at Harrow School and New College, Oxford University, received a bachelor's degree in law in 1889, and was admitted to the bar. He spent several years traveling and practicing law. At the age of 28 he began to write; He published his first book, Under the Four Winds, in 1897. He published the novels Jocelyn and Villa Rubein under the pseudonym John Sinjon.
From the very first novel, “The Island of the Pharisees,” published under his own name, Galsworthy consistently criticized English society - the novels “The Proprietor,” “The Manor,” “The Brotherhood,” and “The Patrician.” They satirically depicted the manners, morality and beliefs of businessmen, landowners, the artistic community and the ruling aristocracy.
Among the novels that criticize English life, one should exclude "Dark Flower", "Freelands", "Stronger Than Death" and "The Way of a Saint", each of which touches on a certain social problem and, as a rule, sets out a love story.
In addition to 16 novels, Galsworthy wrote 25 plays (six of them one-act plays). In them, the author develops mainly social themes of property, class justice, hypocrisy of the upper strata of society in the field of morality, etc. The most famous are “Silver Box”, “Struggle”, “Justice”, “Simp”, “Fugitive”, “Crowd” " and "Death Grip."
In his three collections of stories, included in the collected works under the general title “Caravan,” he reveals himself primarily as a social artist. Such are the stories "The Devon Lad", "The Prisoner", "The Workers", "The Forest", "The Feud", "The Blackmailer", etc.
A number of short stories testify to Galsworthy's skill in analyzing the human psyche ("The Miller of Dee", "The Farewell", "The Awakening" - an interlude from the "Forsyte Saga", - "The Hedonist", "Silence", etc.). In addition to these books, he published a collection of poems, “New and Old Poems,” and three collections of articles and essays.
In 1917, Galsworthy returned to The Owner, critically his most powerful novel, and, adding to it first the interlude “Forsyte's Last Summer,” then “In the Loop,” and “For Hire,” he created his great trilogy, “The Saga.” about the Forsytes." It was followed by a second trilogy, "Modern Comedy", which included "White Monkey", "Silver Spoon" and "Swan Song". “The Forsyte Saga” and “Modern Comedy” is the story of three generations of a typical wealthy family, an epic of English life at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. In November 1932
Galsworthy won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Galsworthy's work combines impressionism and realism > moral preaching and humanism. He deeply felt the beauty of life and at the same time was a chronicler of society, concerned about social injustice.
“Galsworthy is a philosopher and poet, a mystical poet, and also an extremely convincing and systematic of realists.
I am not writing these words to put him into any category. I do not think of his manner of expression, but of his art, varied according to his point of view, which, like all great artists, is expressed by the desire to capture and display a fact. Not a fact visible with a simple glance, but a spiritual essence, a mystery that haunts the artist, the power of an idea, an intuitive understanding of what is under the visible shell of a being or thing, an understanding that they are trying to convey to us, interpreting what they see in their own way.. ."
John Galsworthy (eng. John Galsworthy), English prose writer and playwright, author of the famous cycle “The Forsyte Saga”. Born August 14, 1867 in Kingston Hill (Surrey, England). Father John Galsworthy Sr. was a city dweller whose family quickly climbed the social ladder. He headed a law office that had several branches in the city. His marriage in his fifties in 1862 to Blanche Bailey Bartlett, a twenty-five-year-old girl from a well-connected family, further strengthened his position in society. Blanche was the daughter of Charles Bartlett, a justice of the peace, highly respected in Worcestershire. Blanche never forgot that she had married a man of a much lower social position than herself, and that the Galsworthy family was nothing compared to her own. Galsworthy's father, later portrayed as old Jolyon in The Forsyte Saga, always played an important role in the lives of his children. There was a huge age difference between him and his children; he was a very old man by the time the children grew up.
When John was nine years old, he left the nursery forever and headed to Bournemouth to Sogin Preparatory School. In the summer of 1881, Galsworthy was transferred from Sawgin to Harrow. Outwardly, Galsworthy was an ordinary schoolboy, not very diligent in his studies, but achieved great success in the sports field. In his senior year he was both class president and Morton House prefect. According to the memoirs of the former headmaster of Harrow, Dr. J. E. Weldon, “He was a calm, modest, unassuming boy ... behaved strictly and with dignity, made good progress both in his studies and in other areas of school life; however, he did not have that promising beginning by which one could guess his brilliant future.” From September 29, 1886 he studied law at New College, Oxford University. There he became very actively interested in horse racing and cards. Jolyon Jr. later suffers from this hobby in the story “A Sad Affair.” At Oxford, he became a member of the Oxford University Dramatic Society, wrote the play Gooddirore, a parody of Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddigore, and played the role of Spooner, an eccentric teacher. In 1889 he graduated from the university with a bachelor's degree in law, and in 1890 he was admitted to the bar.
By the early summer of 1892, John Galsworthy Sr. decided to send his eldest son abroad so that John Jr. could better study maritime law. Galsworthy planned to go to Australia, then to New Zealand and the southern seas, where he expected to meet Robert Louis Stevenson on the Samoan Islands, being a passionate admirer of the writer’s work. In Sydney he abandoned his original plan to sail to Samoa and instead sailed to New Caledonia, the Fiji Islands. Then on to Noumea, an island in the South Sea, where there was a settlement of French convicts, who made a huge impression on John, who then used some of the stories he heard from them in books. This was probably Galsworthy's first meeting with human beings languishing in captivity. It was here that the very basis of Forsyte's complacency was undermined, which would later lead him to visit Dartmoor prison to become acquainted with the conditions there, lead him to write Justice and, ultimately, to launch a campaign to improve the conditions of life of prisoners, and especially against the appalling the inhumanity of solitary confinement. From the island of Noumea he continued his journey to Levuka, then proceeded to Ba. In Auckland, New Zealand, he decided to return to England aboard the clipper Torrens in time for his sister's wedding. This journey had far-reaching consequences for Galsworthy: during it he made a new friend. It was Joseph Conrad, with whom they had been at sea for fifty-six days. Throughout his life, Galsworthy remained a passionate traveler; in 1894, he visited Russia. John returned home from his trip with a complete lack of desire to work in the legal profession. He wrote at Craig Lodge in Scotland "...How I wish I had talent - I really think that the most pleasant way to make a living is to be a writer, unless writing is not an end in itself, but a way of expressing one's thoughts; but if you are like a shallow, dry pond, in which there is no life-giving cold water, and in the depths there are no bizarre but beautiful creatures, what is the point of writing?...” Galsworthy’s vague desires were formed in an instant during which his whole life changed. It was a meeting at Easter 1895 at the Gare du Nord in Paris, where he saw off Ada Pearson and her mother. Ada then said: “Why don’t you write? This is what you were created for."
Galsworthy read widely, preferring the works of Kipling, Zola, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Flaubert, before becoming a writer at age 28. He published his first book, From the Four Winds, in 1897 under the pseudonym John Sinjohn and left the practice of law. The collection of short stories was followed by the novels Jocelyn (1899), Villa Rubain (1900) and the collection The Man from Devon (1901), later republished under the author's real name.
In 1905, Galsworthy married Ada Pearson, the former wife of a cousin. For ten years before this marriage, Galsworthy secretly met with his future wife. The opportunity to live together without hiding inspired Galsworthy to write The Man of Property, which was completed in 1906 and depicts Ada's failed marriage through the relationship between Soames and Irene Forsyth. This novel, which brought the author a reputation as a serious writer, became his most famous work. "The Owner" was the first volume of the Forsyte Saga trilogy.
From the very first novel, “The Island of the Pharisees” (1904), published under his own name, Galsworthy consistently criticized English society. The novels “The Owner,” “The Estate” (1907), “Brotherhood” (1909) and “The Patrician” (1911) satirically depicted the manners, morality and beliefs of businessmen, landowners, the artistic community and the ruling aristocracy.
Galsworthy's work was especially admired in America. When it became known in 1916 that he had completed the novel Stronger Than Death (1917), the editors of the American magazine Cosmopolitan immediately sent him a check for the rights to serial publication “with gratitude for the excellent quality of the work.” However, the writer himself had no illusions about the artistic value of his novel and in 1923 he released it in a revised form. And yet, from 1917 to 1938, the novel “Stronger than Death” was reprinted 15 times.
Between 1906 and 1917 Galsworthy wrote and directed most of his plays. The most famous are “The Silver Box” (1906), “The Heat” (1909), “Justice” (1910), “The Pigeon” (1910), “The Runaway” (1913), “The Crowd” (1914) and “No Gloves.” (1920). As in the novels, Galsworthy's plays exposed specific ills of society: cruelty to animals, solitary confinement of prisoners, sending the poor to insane asylums after examination by a single doctor.
By the beginning of the First World War he was very worried and depressed. “August 4, 1914. We, too, are drawn into the war... Horror rolls in in waves, and happiness has left us. I can't keep calm and I can't work." In addition to the moral torment caused by the constantly deteriorating political situation, Galsworthy also had family problems: 77-year-old mother Blanche Galsworthy died on May 6, 1915. Things fared very poorly for Galsworthy's son-in-law, the artist Georg Souter, who was officially recognized as belonging to an enemy nation and thus subject to the law on the internment of foreigners living in England. Galsworthy sees the solution to his doubts in working with redoubled energy and determination. From now on, he donates all the money earned by literature to military needs; He believes, not without reason, that in this way he will bring more benefit than through his participation in hostilities. Published in August 1915, the novel “Freelands” did not bring much success to its author. This book is considered the most "asocial" of all Galsworthy's books. In Sheaf, a collection of essays published in 1916, his thoughts jump from topic to topic, until the final paragraph, which reveals the true cause of all his sorrows - the war: "This is the great defeat of all utopians, dreamers, poets, philosophers, humanists, fighters for peace and art lovers - humanity has thrown them out with all their belongings, their time has passed.” In November 1916 he went to France, where he massaged wounded French soldiers. By November 21, he had established a definite daily routine, starting with breakfast at 8.15, followed by a series of three massages and one class on the Muller system. He gave his last massages at ten o'clock in the evening. A photograph has survived showing John and Ada among several Frenchmen - John dressed in the uniform of a British army officer. The work was not limited to just massage, they took an active part in the fate of their patients - French soldiers, and the story "Wreckage" (Flotsam and Jetsam) is a vivid and sympathetic description of the stories of two of their charges. The experience gained in the hospital increased his interest in the problems of those demobilized due to injury. What awaits them in the future, will they be able to learn something and adapt to life in the post-war world? Or is there a danger that the country they served will forget about them as soon as peace comes? In 1917, John refused a knighthood, believing that writers and reformers should not accept titles. John Galsworthy spent at least half of his income on charity and actively advocated social reforms, campaigning for the revision of laws on censorship, divorce, minimum wage, and women's suffrage.
Returning to England, Galsworthy immediately took up his pen, starting work on a story called “Forsyte's Last Summer.” On July 25, 1918, the collection “Five Stories” was published; this was a qualitatively higher level compared to the novels “Stronger than Death” and “The Path of a Saint.” "Apple Blossom" and "Forsyte's Last Summer" could rightfully take their place next to Galsworthy's best works, and their author was aware of this. The new collection had a very eloquent subtitle: “Life calls the tune, and we dance to it.” In August he began work on the second part of The Forsyte Saga. He will write “The idea of making “The Owner” the first part of a trilogy and connecting with the second part with the interlude “The Last Summer of Forsyte” and another small insert came to me on Saturday, July 28, and on the same day I set to work. Thanks to this plan, if I succeed in realizing it, the volume of the Saga will be about half a million words, and the novel itself will become the most durable and serious work belonging to our generation. For if I can do this, it will be a more coherent book than the sentimental N trilogy. But can I follow through? When the Forsyte Saga trilogy was published simultaneously in London and New York in 1922, readers simply snapped up the book. In a short period of time, the number of copies of "Saga" sold on both sides of the Atlantic reached six figures.
It was followed by a second trilogy, Modern Comedy, which included The White Monkey (1924), The Silver Spoon (1926), and Swan Song (1928). The Silver Spoon also became a bestseller in both England and America, although it was not very well received by critics. “Modern Comedy” was completed by Galsworthy in 1929, by which time the first trilogy - “The Forsyte Saga” - had already been republished 21 times only in English-speaking countries.
The last of Galsworthy's End of Chapter trilogies, A Girl Waits (1931), Desert in Bloom (1932) and Across the River (1933), follows the next generation of British high society.
In 1919, he became chairman of the English branch of the international organization of liberal writers - Penclub. He considered the main task of his social activities to unite writers against the threat of war.
In 1927, John Galsworthy published a collection of his speeches, essays, critical studies, memoirs and meditations, Castles in Spain and other stories, 1927, containing a series of confessions of the writer and explanations of his works, as well as revealing the secrets of his creative laboratory .
The popularity of the work of John Galsworthy and his novel “Stronger than Death” (1917) was in the first third of the 20th century. so great that the novel was translated into Russian in 1927, and in 1929 a collected works of the English writer in 12 volumes was published in Leningrad.
Strictly observing the rule of writing every morning, Galsworthy created an impressive volume of literary output, which includes 20 novels, 30 plays, 3 collections of poems, 173 novels and short stories, 5 collections of essays, at least 700 letters and many essays and notes of various contents.
In 1929, Galsworthy was awarded the British Order of Merit, in 1931 Princeton University awarded the writer an honorary academic title, and in 1932 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for the high art of storytelling, the pinnacle of which is The Forsyte Saga.” At this time he was suffering from severe headaches as a result of a steadily growing brain tumor, and English writers were able to congratulate their colleague only in absentia.
On January 31, 1933, Galsworthy's temperature suddenly began to rise sharply; in the morning it reached 107 degrees (above 41 degrees Celsius). He was given a morphine injection and fell into a coma. John Galsworthy died at 9:15 a.m. after suffering agony.
John Galsworthy was cremated in Woking on 3 February, and a funeral ceremony took place in Westminster Abbey on 9 February, although its rector, Dr Foxley Norris, refused W. W. Lewis and the Society of Writers' request to bury Galsworthy in the Abbey.
On March 25, in accordance with the wishes of the deceased, his ashes were scattered by his nephew Rudolf Souter in the mountains surrounding Bury. Finally, this man found freedom, and his ashes rested on those hills and in those lands that he loved so much.
Scatter my ashes!
I don't want to rot in my grave,
When my turn comes.
My ashes are like a handful of dust,
Let the wind take its toll!
Scatter my ashes!
The fantastic side of the dreamer Galsworthy is little known to the Russian reader. It is mainly expressed in poetry, which has not been translated into Russian. This is a sea nymph in a mantle of sea water talking with Pan (“Rhyme of the Land and Sea”), the soul of Francis Drake rushing to the rescue (“Drake’s Spirit”), a newborn Venus (“Birth of Venus”), the burning eyes of street lamps (“Street Lamps”), the slutty moon (“Moon at dawn”) and others.
The author's first mystical story, “The Doldrums,” was published in 1897. In it, young Raymond sees the ghost of the ship's doctor. The soul appears before him on the deck of a ship, with its head thrown back and arms thrown up, with the terrible “dead face of a living person.” In the allegorical play “The Little Dream” (1911), Mount Great Horn calls the young innkeeper Silchen to him, and other mountains and flowers also talk to her. In 1912, Gosworthy explained the importance of the symbolism of this work in the following words: “In my play the little soul (Silchen) passes from this world of conflicts to the path of an unknown, mysterious and eternal peace or Harmony...”. He then published the story “A Voice from Above,” a story about a Brazilian beauty whose humanity is questioned and a “voice” that could only be the voice of God. Galsworthy's stories were published in the genre anthologies "The World's 100 Best Short Stories: Vol. 9, Ghosts", "And the Darkness Falls", "The Lucifer Society: Macabre Tales by Great Modern Writers", "Classic Tales of Horror", "Greasepaint and Ghosts".
Galsworthy's poem "The Moor Grave" was inspired by the grave of Kitty Jay, one of Dartmoor's landmarks, which is still always covered in flowers. The Legend of Jay is the story of a girl who committed suicide because of love, who was forbidden to be buried on consecrated ground, and who sometimes returns to her grave as a beautiful ghost:
I was buried here... And in the light of day
I'll lie here in the light of the stars.
I was buried here, and not for me,
Murdered by love - a tombstone and a graveyard.
I was buried here... Overgrown with grass
Grave in the wasteland. Only sometimes in silence
The horse's hooves will sound over my head.
I will not be resurrected on Judgment Day, but I sleep peacefully.
The story "Apple Blossom" is also inspired by the story of Kitty Jay.
The mystery of death fascinated the writer; he returned to it more than once. In her latest play, “The Roof,” the nurse talks about the death of an old woman, whose face before her death was “...darkened and sunken.” Suddenly it brightened, she smiled faintly sweetly, and walked away. Why - why would she smile if nothing opened before her?
Galsworthy was also interested in the psychology of horror. The description of fear given in the novel “Dark Flower” was so successful that it is now included, as an example, in the interpretation of the words “Uncanny” and “Unearthly” in many English-language dictionaries and encyclopedias.
The writer believed in the cosmic order of things, which he called the principle of many layers wrapping around each other. This point of view was expressed in the preface to the collection “Hotel of Tranquility” in the 1923 edition: “I can only accept what is destined to be. We come from the sacrament, and we return to the sacrament... the endless world is all that is given to me.”
In “Swan Song” Galsworthy gives his definition of human life: “What a world! What a work of the Eternal Beginning! And when you die, like an “old man,” you will lie down to rest under a wild apple tree - well, this is only a moment’s rest for the Beginning in your quiet body. No, it’s not even rest - it’s movement again in a mysterious rhythm called life! Who will stop this movement, who would want to stop it? And if one weak money-grubber, like this poor old man, tries and succeeds for a moment, the stars will only twinkle once more when he is gone. To have and to keep - how can this really happen!”
The Forsyte Saga is considered one of the best works of English literature of the twentieth century. For this monumental work, its author received the Nobel Prize in Literature. In addition, John Galsworthy, whose biography will be discussed in this article, along with Katherine Amy Dawson Scott, is the founder of the PEN club. This organization still operates to this day, protecting the right of people to freely express their thoughts.
Parents
John Galsworthy was born in 1867 near London, in the city of Kingston upon Thames, into the family of a successful lawyer. His father loved literature and art. He read Dickens and Thackeray and highly valued Turgenev. Being the grandson of an ordinary farmer, John Galsuori Sr. not only managed to become a lawyer, but founded and headed several industrial companies, including overseas ones. It was from his father that the writer inherited his literary gift. As for his mother, she was the daughter of a large manufacturer.
John Galsworthy: biography in his youth
While still a teenager, the future Nobel Prize laureate decided to continue the family tradition. He graduated from Harrow School and then went to Oxford University to become a barrister. At university, John Galsworthy was known as a successful athlete. In addition, during his studies he was fond of reading Dickens, Thackeray and Melville, and loved listening to Beethoven.
After graduating from Oxford, Galsworthy realized that he did not want to practice law and went abroad. There he was supposed to oversee the family shipping business.
Meeting with J. Conrad
John Galsworthy had no desire to do business at all. Instead, he became interested in reading and traveling. During one of his trips on a flight from Australia, John met the then unknown Joseph Conrad (Józef Korzeniewski), who was serving as the captain's mate at the time. The young people quickly became friends based on common interests. This meeting turned out to be fateful for Conrad, as Galsworthy convinced him to publish his stories.
Fateful meeting
Shortly before the writer received his Oxford diploma, he was invited to his cousin's wedding. Major Arthur Galsworthy was about to marry Ada Cooper. This was a very attractive girl who, being without a dowry, decided to go down the aisle to get rid of poverty.
The couple's family life did not work out. And how could it be otherwise? Ada was illegitimate, and her mother's husband wanted to get rid of her as quickly as possible. Mrs. Cooper was forced to travel with her daughter to 74 cities in search of a groom. However, wealthy young men did not seek to marry a penniless girl. The only contender for her hand was Arthur, who did not evoke any tender feelings in her.
A lifelong romance
Returning to England, the writer John Galsworthy had the opportunity to get to know a new relative who often visited his sisters. From them he learned that the young woman was unhappy in her marriage, since cousin Arthur behaved like a dork. It was Ada who became, so to speak, his godmother in literature and his muse for many years. During a chance meeting in Paris, Mrs. Galsworthy advised John to start publishing his stories.
Galsworthy left home and rented a small apartment, which caused a negative reaction from his father. However, he still decided to provide his son with a crew and pay him a small amount every month. This allowed John to be creative in peace. In addition, living separately from his parental family allowed the writer to secretly meet with Ada, with whom they became lovers.
By the way, the fact that the young people had the same last name allowed them to travel under the guise of spouses abroad, where they were accommodated in double rooms without any problems. However, such happy moments in their lives were extremely rare. Although Ada was ready to divorce her husband, John understood that after she was free, he would still not be able to marry her, since such an act would kill his father.
Beginning of a writing career
Galsworthy's first collection of stories, The Four Winds, was published in 1897. It was followed by the novels Jocelyn, Villa Rubain and The Silver Box. All of them were published under the pseudonym John Sinjong. All these works were written in the then popular style of late English romanticism.
Despite their success, the writer decided to abandon this literary direction. Influenced by the works of Dickens, Thackeray, Maupassant, Turgenev and Tolstoy, John Galsworthy planned to create a series of realistic novels telling about the fate of a large family belonging to the big bourgeoisie.
Marriage
In 1904, the writer's father died. As a result, John Galsworthy, whose books have been published in our country for more than 70 years, became financially independent. He went to Italy and lived openly with Ada for several months as husband and wife. This forced his cousin Arthur to agree to a divorce. In 1905, Galsworthy was finally able to formalize a legal marriage with his beloved woman. Most relatives and acquaintances of the newlyweds refused to communicate with the couple who challenged Victorian morality. But Ada and John Galsworthy (the writer’s novels are still popular all over the world to this day) were so happy that nothing could overshadow their joy.
The first short story about the family, using the example of which John Galsworthy decided to explore the problems of English bourgeois society, was published in 1901 under the pseudonym John Sinjon. It was entitled "The Rescue of Forsyth." In it, the writer first introduced the reader to Mr. James. Although in the novella he is shown briefly as the patriarch of the family, whose children and grandchildren became the heroes of the remaining novels, stories and short stories, collectively called “The Forsyte Saga.” Work on these works lasted 27 years. It included:
- novel "The Owner";
- short stories “The Last Summer of Forsyte” and “The Awakening”;
- novels “In the Loop”, “For Rent”;
- cycle “Modern Comedy”, etc.
The prototype of one of the heroes of the saga was Galsworthy's cousin Arthur. In particular, the part where Soames Forsyth rapes his wife is based on events that happened to Ada and her ex-husband.
"Isle of the Pharisees" (John Galsworthy)
This novel is one of the writer’s interesting and socially significant works. "The Island of the Pharisees" reveals the vices of English bourgeois society. The novel tells the story of a young aristocrat, Dick Shelton, who, after getting engaged to a girl from a wealthy family, is forced, at the request of her parents, to separate from his bride for a while in order to test his feelings. By chance, he meets people from the people and learns about their concerns, worries and problems.
As a result, the young man decides to abandon the engagement and break with high society, which appeared before him in the most unsightly light.
Galsworthy the playwright
The writer also created several plays that were successfully performed on many stages in Great Britain, Europe and the USA. His works raised issues of social inequality in British society. In “The Silver Box” the writer directly says that there are two laws: for the rich and for the poor.
The play “Justice,” in which Galsworthy advocated judicial reform, also caused a lot of controversy. She made a great impression on Winston Churchill, forcing him to reconsider his views on the prison system.
A fleeting romance
In 1911, when John Galsworthy was already a celebrity, dancer and successful choreographer Margaret Morris participated in one of the performances based on his play. The girl was much younger than the writer, but fell in love with him at first sight. Her adoration could not leave the forty-year-old man indifferent. However, their romance remained only platonic. John learned that Ada was terrified that she might lose him, and wrote a letter to Margaret, in which he told her that he did not want to build his happiness on the tragedy of a loved one.
last years of life
John Galsworthy, whose biography is reflected in many of his works, received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1932. At the time of the award ceremony, the writer was already seriously ill, so he did not take part in it.
Galsworthy died in January 1933 in London at the age of 65 due to the growth of a brain tumor.
A group of the most famous writers in Great Britain of that time took the initiative to bury the writer's ashes in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. However, in his works, Galsworthy so often ridiculed the church and its ministers that the request was refused. Then his remains were cremated and his ashes were scattered over England.
Social position
Throughout his creative life, John Galsworthy, whose books were published in millions of copies, gave half of his earnings to charity. He actively fought for the revision of laws on censorship, women's suffrage, divorce and the minimum wage. By personal order of the writer, his Nobel Prize was transferred to the PEN club he founded. At the same time, in 1917, Galsworthy refused to accept a knighthood from King George the Fifth.
After the death of the writer, his works began to gradually lose their popularity. Interest in them was revived after several successful film adaptations of the Forsyte Saga were made. The works of John Galsworthy are among the best pages of English literature.
Ada Galsworthy survived her husband by thirteen years. Before she died, she burned all the love letters John had ever written to her. There is only one poem left, which the writer dedicated to his beloved friend and wife.
Now you know what a huge role love played in the work of John Galsworthy, as well as the history of the creation of the monumental “Forsyte Saga”.