PLACE IN LITERATURE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 31, 6 February 1932, Page 17

PLACE IN LITERATURE

"Above all things Galsworthy has the historical mind," writes Mr. Hugh P. Austin, in the Dublin "Eeview," in a lengthy appreciation of Mr. John Galsworthy,

"That then is Galsworthy.V greatness, and shown . particularly in the Forsyte chronicle," adds Mr. Austin. ''That ability to show a type and make him or her it the same time an individual, and to show his characters in perfect relationship to the period- bo that it may be said that the man is typical of .his time .and the time represents the man.

"And;l think the work has been achieved because Galsworthy has realised that neither extreme is ever typical of its time. Between the champagne and the homely cup of tea there is a vast body ■ that has its virtues and its vices, its enthusiasms that are not too pronounced, and its aversions for which it can find often, an amount of pity, its ideals and its little contentments,' and it is that majority which in the. end makes its atmosphere and moulds the history of the period. "A inoeker mocked at the Victorian horsehair sofa. That the sofa was ugly may be granted, but the sofa was representative of its time, it was like the people who sat. on- it, and it had therefore an historical if not an aesthetic merit. The mocker was an extreme, 'full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.' ' .' ■-••■'• ' • ■

''For those who desire brilliance of epigram and the sensation produced by eroticism and cynicism the work of John Galsworthy will have little meaning or attraction. For those, however, who believo in characterisation, in atmosphere that is sincere and that melts into the characterisations, for those who have-an interest ia tiinos that are passing now and will soon be of historical importance only, for those to whom there is something appealing in tho everyday life of everyday people shown with a graciousness that shows a sympathy and an understanding both for shortcomings and for over-expres-sion, for those who see a virtuo'in moderation, and. in a carefulness of craft, there will be a love for the pboplo whom Galsworthy has given us. "There will also be a sincere meed of admiration for a creator who within the limits of a large-hearted common sense has mirrored the characteristics of a,great.part of his country in the persons; of a few carefully-chosen characters without blame, without favour, without ostentation, but firmly and with courage. . ■.... ■-.-,. "Galsworthy has claimed only to mirror tho upper .middle ..class, but we may grantj him more than that; he may be 4aid t to have mirrored England itself within: the-period he has chosen. Leaving. aside the : minor point of extorior manners, and forms of sp'oech, the soul of can be' seen as much iti the rlittle details and the minor characters'as in. ,the full-length portraits, for that'to-havo-and-to-hold spirit permeates every class; of society, just as morals .are not. peculiar to one section of! the community, but are common I property. As'Eudyard Kipling puts it:, 'The colonel's lady and Judy I Q'Grady; are sisters undor their skins.'

"So when we admit Galsworthy's' <slaimw.e admit that claim on a far wider basis, and our admittance means that we have been given, a piece of litterature.that is already classic.and that will endure."