Editing John Galsworthy (section)

==Works==

Galsworthy wrote 20 novels; 28 completed plays; five collections of short stories; three volumes of poetry; eleven volumes of essays and sketches; and occasional stories and pamphlets, newspaper articles, unpublished essays and sketches.<ref name=list>Gindin, pp. 609–611</ref> He wrote in longhand, revised extensively, and his wife—the only secretary he ever had—typed his completed [[Manuscript|manuscripts]].<ref>Hart-Davis, p. 294; and Gindin, p. 8.</ref>

===Novels===

[[File:Galsworthy-spines.jpg|thumb|left|upright|alt=three book spines, green binding with yellow labels, reading "The Forsyte Saga, Vol 1, 2 and 3"|261x261px|Galsworthy's ''The Forsyte Saga'']]

Of Galsworthy's 20 novels, nine are about the Forsytes, the last three tangentially so, and the other eleven are all one-off stories.<ref name=list/> In a 1982 study, Alec Fréchet analyses a comment that Galsworthy made in looking back at his works in the mid-1920s, that the novels reflected the battle between the emotional and critical sides of his nature:

{{Blockquote|text=My early work was certainly more emotional than critical. But from 1901 came nine years when the critical was, in the main, holding sway. From 1910 to 1918 the emotional again struggled for the upper hand; and from that time on there seems to have been something of a "dead heat".<ref name=periods>Fréchet, pp. 57–58.</ref>|source=}}

From this, Fréchet divides the novels into five periods: the first consisting of the two early ones, ''Jocelyn'' (1898) and ''Villa Rubein'' (1900). Between 1901 and 1909 there were four novels characterised as "critical"—''The Island Pharisees'' (1904), ''The Man of Property'' (1906), ''The Country House'' (1907)  and ''Fraternity'' (1909). These books reflect the author's disparaging view of various aspects of [[English society|British society]], such as hypocrisy, selfishness and exploitation of the poor and women of all classes.<ref name="periods" /> His censure was seen in conservative circles as scandalous, and the author was regarded by some as a traitor to his own class.<ref>Fréchet, p. 66.</ref> He further offended conservatives by his attacks on [[imperialism]]; in ''The Island Pharisees'' he wrote, "Why should we, a small portion of the world's population, assume that our standards are the proper ones for every kind of race?"<ref>Fréchet, p. 180.</ref>

The next period, from 1910 to 1919, produced six novels categorised as "lyrical" or "war-time": ''The Patrician'' (1911), ''The Dark Flower'' (1913), ''The Freelands'' (1915), ''Beyond'' (1917), ''The Burning Spear'' (1919) and ''Saint's Progress'' (1919). After these Fréchet lists the 1920–1928 Forsyte novels as a category of their own: ''In Chancery'' (1920), ''To Let'' (1921), ''The White Monkey'' (1924), ''The Silver Spoon'' (1926) and ''Swan Song'' (1928). The last group in Fréchet's summary of Galsworthy's classifications consists of the final trilogy: ''Maid in Waiting'' (1931), ''Flowering Wilderness'' (1932) and ''Over the River'' (completed in 1932).<ref name=periods/>

Fréchet comments that the recurring themes of Galsworthy's novels are, in order of importance: beauty, love and suffering, divorce, honour, art and the law. "Beauty comes first, because in every case it coincides with love: the beloved woman is always very beautiful; but not only women: the natural setting for the action is also unfailingly lovely. The beauty of a woman and the beauty of nature are of the same kind."<ref>Fréchet, p. 109.</ref> Money and family are important features, but generally as the background to, rather than the crux of, the plot.<ref>Fréchet, pp. 115 and 120–121.</ref>
===Plays===

{{quote box|width=200px|bgcolor=#E0E6F8|align=right|quote=

''' Galsworthy's plays '''

• ''The Silver Box'', 1906  <br>•  ''Joy'', 1907  <br>•  ''Strife'', 1909 <br>•  ''Justice'', 1910 <br> •  ''The Little Dream'', 1911  <br>•  ''The Pigeon'', 1912  <br>•  ''The Eldest Son'', 1912 <br>•  ''The Fugitive'', 1913 <br> •  ''The Mob'', 1914 <br>•  ''A Bit o' Love'', 1915 <br> •  ''The Foundations'', 1916  <br>•  [[The Skin Game (play)|''The Skin Game'']], 1920 <br> •  ''Six Short Plays'', 1921 {{refn|The six plays are ''[[The First and the Last (play)|The First and the Last]]'',  ''The Little Man'',  ''Hall-Marked'', ''Defeat'', ''The Sun'' and ''Punch and Go''.<ref name=list/>|group=n}} <br> •   ''A Family Man'', 1921  <br>•  [[Loyalties (play)| ''Loyalties'']], 1922  <br>•  ''Windows'', 1922 <br> •  ''The Forest '', 1924 <br>• ''Old English'', 1924 <br> •  ''The Show'', 1925 <br> •  [[Escape (play)| ''Escape'']], 1926 <br> •  ''The Silver Spoon'', 1926 <br>•  ''Exiled'', 1929 <br> •  ''The Roof'', 1929.<ref name=who/>

|salign = left}}

Like his contemporary [[W. Somerset Maugham|Somerset Maugham]], Galsworthy was known more in his early career for his plays than for his novels. Unlike Maugham, who abandoned the theatre thirty years before the end of his writing career,<ref>Raphael, p. 64.</ref> Galsworthy continued writing plays, from ''The Silver Box'' in 1906 to ''The Roof'' in 1929.<ref>Holloway, pp. 98–100.</ref> As with Maugham, the plays are rarely revived, although the Forsyte Saga and some other novels have been regularly reissued.<ref name=mm/><ref>Morgan, p. 669.</ref>

As a playwright, Galsworthy presented social issues of the time in the manner of the [[modernism|modernist]] school of [[Henrik Ibsen]]. Encouraged by Granville-Barker, Galsworthy wrote about conflicts and inequities within British society.<ref name=mm/> Shaw did the same, but the styles of the two dramatists differed noticeably. ''The Times'' commented that Galsworthy was a dramatist of power with more feeling than Shaw, if less wit, "and as keen a sense of social anomalies, if less readiness to offer theories by which they might be remedied."<ref name=times/> Shaw favoured a forthright presentation of his themes; Galsworthy and Granville-Barker preferred a more subtle, naturalistic approach, which, Shaw said, "makes me blush for the comparative blatancy of my own plays".<ref>Holroyd, p. 338.</ref> Galsworthy seldom took sides; he was known for seeing both sides of most arguments and rarely giving any characters a monopoly of virtue or wisdom.<ref>"The Skin Game", ''The Observer'', 25 April 1920, p. 11; and Gindin, pp. 189, 199 and 252.</ref> The literary critic and academic Michael Molino summarises Galsworthy's technique:

[[File:Galsworthy-Old-English-1924.png|thumb|left|upright=1.1|''Old English'', 1924: Ventnor ([[Laurence Hanray]]) serves Heythorp ([[Norman McKinnel]]) his last dinner|alt=Two white, clean-shaven men: one is a butler, standing, pouring wine for the other, seated]]

{{blockindent|a dramatic situation presents the central thesis of the play; the action is then propelled through realistic dialogue and detail, and the conclusion poses a question to consider rather than presenting a certain resolution to the play's problem.<ref name=mm/>|}}

Not all Galsworthy's plays are of this kind. Two were his adaptations of earlier short stories:  ''The First and the Last'' (1921) and ''Old English'' (1924), which dealt respectively with murder and suicide—the latter by the unconventional method of overeating: the play culminates in the death of the central character, who, faced with imminent ruin and disgrace, defies his doctor's orders and deliberately eats a fatally rich and elaborate dinner, with many courses and as many wines.<ref>Gindin, pp. 406, 493 and 473.</ref> These were exceptions: normally Galsworthy conceived his plots and characters as suitable either for drama or for fiction, but not both.<ref>Gindin, p. 213.</ref>

Some critics felt that Galsworthy was apt to show the underdog in a sympathetic light even when the character deserved little sympathy. ''Windows'' (1923), centring on a vicious young woman, led the reviewer in ''The Times'' to quote [[Samuel Johnson]]: "Sir, do not accustom your mind to confound virtue and vice."<ref>"Windows", ''The Times'', 26 April 1923, p. 12.</ref>

=== Notable adaptations ===
''[[The Forsyte Saga]]'' has been filmed several times:
* ''[[That Forsyte Woman]]'' (1949), dir. by [[Compton Bennett]], an [[MGM]] adaptation in which [[Errol Flynn]] played a rare villainous role as Soames.
* [[The Forsyte Saga (1967 TV series)|''The Forsyte Saga'' (1967 TV series)]], directed by [[James Cellan Jones]], [[David Giles (director)|David Giles]], starring [[Eric Porter]], [[Nyree Dawn Porter]], [[Kenneth More]], and [[Susan Hampshire]], 26 parts.
* [[The Forsyte Saga (2002 TV series)|''The Forsyte Saga'' (2002 TV series)]], dir. by [[Christopher Menaul]], starring [[Gina McKee]], [[Damian Lewis]], [[Rupert Graves]], and [[Corin Redgrave]], 13 parts.

''The White Monkey'' was made into a silent [[The White Monkey|film of the same name]] in 1925, directed by [[Phil Rosen]], and starring [[Barbara La Marr]], [[Thomas Holding]], and [[Henry Victor]].

''[[The Skin Game (play)|The Skin Game]]'' was [[The Skin Game (1931 film)|adapted and directed]] by [[Alfred Hitchcock]] in 1931. It starred [[C.V. France]], [[Helen Haye]], [[Jill Esmond]], [[Edmund Gwenn]], [[John Longden]] and [[Phyllis Konstam]].

''[[Escape (play)|Escape]]'' was filmed in 1930 and 1948. The latter was directed by [[Joseph L. Mankiewicz]], starring [[Rex Harrison]], [[Peggy Cummins]], and [[William Hartnell]]. The screenplay was by [[Philip Dunne (writer)|Philip Dunne]].

''[[One More River]]'' (a film version of Galsworthy's ''Over the River'') was filmed by [[James Whale]] in 1934. The film starred [[Frank Lawton]], [[Colin Clive]] (one of Whale's most frequently used actors) and [[Diana Wynyard]], and featured [[Mrs. Patrick Campbell]] in a rare sound film appearance.

''[[The First and the Last (play)|The First and the Last]]'', a short play, was adapted as ''[[21 Days]]'', starring [[Vivien Leigh]] and [[Laurence Olivier]].

Galsworthy's short story ''The Apple Tree'' was adapted into a radio play for [[Orson Welles]]'s ''Lady Esther Almanac'' radio series on [[CBS]], first broadcast on 12 January 1942; the play was again produced by Welles for CBS on ''The Mercury Summer Theatre'' of 6 September 1946. The 1988 film ''[[A Summer Story]]'' was also based on ''The Apple Tree''.

The ''[[NBC University Theater]]'' aired radio adaptations of his plays ''[[Justice (play)|Justice]]'' on 31 October 1948 and ''The Patrician'' on 26 February 1950.

The Mob, adapted by John Foley in 2004 for the [[BBC Radio World Service]].

===Other writing===

Galsworthy was an accomplished writer of short stories; the most popular collection is ''Five Tales'' (1918). Opinions vary about his poetry. In ''[[The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'' (2004), Geoffrey Harvey considers that Galsworthy's poems rarely transcend the conventional.<ref name=odnb/> Gilbert Murray thought that the ''Collected Poems'', posthumously published, showed that Galsworthy could have been a considerable poet if he had not already found his milieu in prose.<ref>Murray, Gilbert. [https://doi.org/10.1093/odnb/9780192683120.013.33314 "Galsworthy, John (1867–1933)"], ''Dictionary of National Biography'', Macmillan, 1949. {{ODNBsub}}</ref>

Harvey judges Galsworthy's essays and published lectures to be "thoughtful but unremarkable".<ref name=odnb/>