John Galsworthy (1867—1933)，one of the most prominent of the 20th century English realistic writers，was born into an bourgeois family. The publication of his early books attracted little attention. He then learned from French and Russian novelists，and admired Maupassant for the economy and clarity of writing，and Tolstoy for the depth of insight and the breadth of character drawing. The Man of Property，showing maturity and consummate craftsmanship，was a landmark in the development of his art.
The idea of composing a series of novels portraying the history of English bourgeois life occurred to him while he was writing next novel，In Chancery. The project was carried out in his masterpiece The Forsyte Saga，which is actually a title to the collection of two trilogies，each consisting of three novels and two interludes. It took him 22 years to accomplish this monumental work，which gives a profound and true-to-life picture of the English bourgeois society during a period of 40 years，beginning from the eighties of the 19th century up to the twenties of the 20th century. The theme of this novel is that of the predominant possessive instinct of the Forsytes and its effects upon the personal relationships of the family with the underlying assumption[5] that human relationships of the contemporary English society are merely an extension of property relationships. The harsh satire is brought out very effectively in the early chapters，but is changed into a more tolerant one，and finally is reduced to a distinctly sentimental one，thus weakening the effect of the novel.
Galsworthy also distinguished himself as a playwright. Throughout his life，he was preoccupied with the social injustice in his time. He regarded human life as a struggle between the rich and the poor. And his sympathy always went out to the suffering poor. In his late years，he enjoyed a high international reputation and received the Nobel Prize in literature in 1932.
发表于 2021-9-21 11:50:14
