The beginning of the xxth century

In English literature the dominant realistic movement that began in the middle of the 19th century reached well into the 20th century although some novelists have turned to naturalism.

Naturalism & realism can be viewed from different perspectives. Naturalism is different from realism in social aspects. If realistic writers were interested in character’s formation, we can say that naturalism is more interested in social forces. It’s concerned for the most part the sordid, the shocking & the depressing sides of existence. By this criteria there are naturalism features in Dostoyevsky & Galsworthy being socially oriented. Naturalism is pseudo-scientific in its approach. Writers tend to treat human being as a biological pawn. Realists treat human being as an adult of free will. Naturalist authors do not tend to judge characters or to comment upon their actions. They insert people into critical situations & then pretend to stand back & to watch them. They write novels to cover every sheet of their life. They write characters that are not characters, but personifications of a certain class. They write novels on specific occupations. For them literature does not belong to the realm. It becomes the social science. They avoid metaphors & other tropes & figures of speech. They don’t rely upon the achievements of the past. The naturalist author is often pawn toward the brutal, the cruel, and the degraded. They seem to be impatient. Sometimes they are representatives of the class & then they represent their class in fiction. Freedom of the will disappears in the works of naturalists. Life is controlled by modern fates of heredity & environment.

John Galsworthy (1867 – 1933)

“The Island of Pharisees” (1904)

“The Silver Box”; “The Man of Property”

“Strife” (1909)

“Justice” (1910)

“The Apple Tree” (1916)

“The Chancery” (1920)

“To Let” (1921)

“The White Monkey” (1924)

“Escape”; “The Silver Spoon” (1926)

“Swan Song” (1928)

“Mail in Waiting” (1931)

“Flowering Wilderness” (1932)

“Over the River” (1933)

Galsworthy is an aristocrat by background & inclination. He shows none of the preoccupations with poverty & degradation that was so much a characteristic of the naturalism. But he was a naturalist to an extent, because he was so much interested in the social aspect of life. We can treat his “Forsyte Saga” as an illustration of decline of the bourgeois family from the period of 1886 to the beginning of the 20th century. Galsworthy was an educated man. He read a lot in Turgenev & French realists. From Tolstoy & Turgenev he learned compassion. He was a writer of a great fame in his day; he had an international reputation. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. His books are not rude as he always managed to keep balance between satire & objective description. He loves Beauty but without extravagance. He loves tradition without idolatry. He loves nature as a setting & arts as a grace & justification of wealth. He never forgot the poor. He understands that every of us is a Forsyte because the proprietal instinct plays a great role in our life. Human life very much depends upon the “take”& much less upon “give”. That’s what makes Galsworthy upset.

The Forsytes are spiritual descendants of Thackeray’s Osbornes. This spiritual inheritance makes us see the way of the Forsytes to the top of the world. They live entirely in terms of property. Money takes place of family’s affection, but it’s the link that binds all Forsytes. The sense of property is as powerful as it has distorted their feelings & produced in them sclerosis of imagination.

They are incased in property & sometimes they look lamentable without realizing it. If we consider “The Man of Property” this side of Forsytes is done very well, but Galsworthy had some other intentions – he wanted to show the sclerosis of imagination against the background of Beauty to give it volume & make it more vivid. He did not manage to do that. Representatives of beauty (Irene & Bossini) are depicted as “parasites upon parasites”.

Soames

He’s the man of property. He buys everything as he bought his wife. He’s all against committing adultery. He’s blamed for that.

Later Forsytes are depicted as human beings, not as a class.

Galsworthy becomes not another Tolstoy. Sometimes his “Man of Property” is compared to “Anna Karenina”. It’s derived from “Anna Karenina” but the comparison is damaging.

Galsworthy’s symbolism is too vivid. Dialect is incredible. There’re many ways in which his work is enjoyable. Soames & the rest are recognized as typical Englishmen.

Soames is “not an easy man to know, but one felt. – something gave way in Grand man & he spoke: “Ah! I knew him for a little – took him to his first school – taught him to draw a lease – never knew him to do a shady thing, very reserved man, Mr. Soames, but no better judge of an investment, except his uncle Nickolas. He had his troubles, but he never did anything of them; good son to his father – good brother to his sisters – good father to his child, as you know, young man”

Galsworthy’s later work is more & more taking the inside point of view. As it comes to the Forsyte novel following the Saga proper, the novels are grouped together as a modern comedy. Soames Forsyte reminds you very much Galsworthy himself. The “Forsyte Saga” was completed in 1922. A modern comedy & new novels are linked by 2 short stories that followed in 1923. in his novels Galsworthy did not present the whole of England, but the limits suited to his genes.

“Galsworthy was born biographer of “the man of the property”. The style of Galsworthy matches his model of the world. It’s a civilized style, quite natural & assured without tricks of fuss.” (Lawrence)

The Forsytes are very English as their creator. Both would prefer understatement to overstatement. Galsworthy didn’t have to make any conclusions to modernism. He had his own style & approach to life & he managed to keep it till the end of his days. Galsworthy is not a pessimist. His sense of humor is very English. As far as the human comedy goes “The Forsyte Saga adds one more page to the description of it.

William Somerset Maugham (1874 – 1965)

Maugham began as a modernist writer. By and by he came to realize that it would bring him more fame & money if he starts writing in a manner comprehensive to most people.

Most critics incline to treat Maugham as a competent story-teller than as a major novelist. In his best he is in his “Of Human Bondage” & “Cakes & Ale”. The human types he produces are dramatic & sometimes original. At his weakest he is a commercial magazine writer. He produced superficial popular magazine fiction. Although Maugham gives an illusion of objectivity & detachment in his characters most of his fiction is based upon personal experience. His own background & career contribute to many of his works. His travels also provided him with material.

Maugham was born in Paris where his father was an attaché in the British embassy. He was bilingual from the time he began to speak. Orphan at ten, he was sent to live with his uncle, a Kentish clergyman, where he acquired his experience, which he was to fictionalize in his “Of Human Bondage”. He was to express his attitude to life & to his own predicament in a book, in which the main character is physically disabled. His Philipp Carey was a clubfoot. In fact Maugham had a pronounce stammer. This came from the confusion of French & English coming at the same time. Maugham was educated in Canterbury. Later he became a student of Heidelberg University, where he learned German & acquired the first taste of artistic literary life. After coming back to England he became a school teacher and received a degree. He never practiced. Meanwhile he was writing his first novel “Liza of Lambeth”. After he had finished it he decided to be a writer.

Till 1918 he lived in Paris storing his works in a steady rate. Success began to come to him in 1907. he traveled widely especially in the Orient, visited the USA & Spain.

He died at the age of 91, having become almost as well-known as Bernard Shaw. He said that “only a mediocre writer is only in his best. In my 20-s critics said that I was brutal, at ny 30-sa they say that I was flippant, in my 40-s they said that I was cynical, in my 50-s they said that I was confident & now they say that I am superficial”.

“Of Human Bondage”

Maugham’s best book “Of Human Bondage” is an autobiographical book. Its power & authenticity derives from the fact that Maugham was writing from his personal experience. The protagonist is Philipp Carey – a young man of an artistic bent who eventually becomes a physician. The story centers around his revote against the middle-class family background. In 1895 Philipp is an orphan sent to his uncle, a stingy vicar in the village in Kent. The uncle stifles the boy’s natural development through his unnatural Puritanism. His aunt secretly lavishes upon him her frustrated maternity as she was childless. So under these influenced the boy becomes sensitive, but dressed & timid. Sent away to school he’s tormented by the other boys, because he is clubfoot. He has great scholastic ability, but he hates school. As soon as he is 18 he goes to Heidelberg where he learns some radical ideas. It results in Philipp’s loving the faith his uncle has forced on him. Returning to Blackstable he engages in a transitory affair with Ms. Wilkinson, a woman much older than himself. His passions especially erotic begin to come to flow & it results in becoming a painter. He embarks to Paris where he finds a fascinating company of Bohemian students & for some time his motto is “Follow your inclinations with due regard to the policeman round the corner”. He next turns toward medicine career. He feels that he found his real vocation. It was a time when he was destined to turn a new leaf. He came across with Mildred Rogers, the waitress who is to dominate in the next epoch in his life. Mildred is totally unworthy of Philipp. She’s selfish & very vulgar. She’s rudely cold. He despises Mildred intellectually but he knows that he must have her at any cost. She grants him nothing although he offers her to marry him. Presently she marries another man who offers a promise of a better income. Philipp is frustrated. He meets Norah Nesbeth who troubles to support herself. He’s relieved. After a time Mildred appears again. Her “husband” has deserted her & left pregnant & destitute. Philipp turns back to Mildred & Norah goes her way. He spends so much money on Mildred that he is forced to drop out from the medical school. Mildred repays him by using his money & running away with another man. A new friend comes to his aid & finds Philipp a new job. He begins to learn for a stable family life. His uncle dies & he uses the inheritance to go back to the medical school. After graduating he takes his friend, settles & practices in a small fishing village.

The dominant theme of this novel lies in the protagonist’s effort to find his own nature. It’s a story of personal development. Many passions torment the young man: his sexual frustration, his resentment of the world that mocks him at his clubfoot, his reaction against the domination of his uncle. He thinks that if he tries hard to have his way, he will become free. It’s a great mistake. He becomes a free man by accepting the limitations his own beliefs impose on his ambitions. This is his choice of obscurity after the frantic battle for fame. Inside of this stupid plot the novel is unique. It shows the artist struggling against the hostile world & ends up with the hero accepting the comforts of steady life.

It was written in 1919 Maugham’s favorite book was “Cakes & Ale” about Driffield a talented young man. He marries a barmaid Rosy. She is so sensual gracious & generous that she is unable to resist the tensions of life. But with the time Driffield is deserted. At first he is monopolized by Mrs. Traffor. Then he falls under the attack of pneumonia. And in the end he marries his nurse. “Cakes & Ale” is a study of a modern literary career & the factors that make up popular literary success. The title shows the superficial nature of human ambitions & inability to pursue the real goals & lead a sincere life. Cakes – bread; body of Christ. Ale – wine; blood of Christ.