Galsworthy – to Let

Ga washbowl Galsworthy (1867 1933) TO LET (1922) This novel is the last volume of the Forsyte Saga. It marks both the end of the first stage in the development of the Forsytes and the beginning of the second, post-war stage in the chronicles of their doings. That final stage is the subject of Galsworthys second trilogy, the advanced Comedy, w reach the younkerer generation of the Forsytes atomic number 18 depicted against the background of Englands post-war decay. In the following extract the novelist conditions up to ridicule the degeneration of modem art.He puts his ideas into the m turn outh of Soames Forsyte whom he formerly satirized as the gay of property. Soamess scornful bewilderment at line of battle of Expressionist rougeings renders to a certain degree the feelings of the novelist himself. CHAPTER I Encounter Arriving at the Gallery off secure Street, however, he paid his shilling, picked up a catalogue, and entered. Some ten persons were prowling round. Soames took steps and came on what looked to him corresponding a lamp-post bent by collision with a motor omnibus. It was advanced some three paces from the wall, and was described in his catalogue as Jupiter.He examined it with curiosity, having recently turned some of his attention to sculpture. If thats Jupiter, he thought, I wonder what Junos like. And absolutely he saw her, opposite. She appeargond to him like vigour so much as a pump with deuce handles, fall d stimulately clad in snow. He was s work gazing at her, when both of the prowlers halted on his left. Epatant1 be hear one say. Jargon growled Soames to himself. The other boyish voice replied Missed it,2 old bean3 hes moveing your leg. When Jove and Juno created he them,4 he was saying Ill see how much these fools will swallow.And theyve lapped up a lot. 5 You young person duffer6 Vospovitch is an innovator. Dont you see that hes brought satire into sculpture? The future of charge plate art, of music, painting, and plane architecture, has set in satiric. It was bound to. People atomic number 18 tired the quarters tumbled out of sentiment. Well, Im preferably equal to taking a diminutive interest in viewer. I was through the war. Youve dropped your handkerchief, sir. Soames saw a handkerchief held out in front of him. He took it with some natural suspicion, and approached it to his nose.It had the chasten sent of distant Eau de Cologne and his initials in a corner. Slightly reassured, he raised his eyes to the young human races face. It had rather fawn-like ears, a laughing mouth, with half a toothbrush growing out of it on each side, and small lively eyes above a normally dressed appearance. convey you, he give tongue to and moved by a sort of irritation, added Glad to hear you like beauty thats rare, nowadays. I dote on it, said the young man exclusively you and I are the last of the old guard, sir. Soames smiled. If you really care for pictures, he said, presents my card. I can intend you some quite good ones any Sunday, if youre plenty the river and care to look in. Awfully delicious of you, sir. Ill drop in like a bird7. My names Mont Michael. And he took off his hat. Soames, already regretting his impulse, raised his give somewhat in response, with a downward look at the young mans companion, who had a purple tie, dreadful little sluglike whiskers, and a scornful look as if he were a poet It was the first indiscretion he had committed for so long that he went and sat down in an alcove.What had possessed him to give his card to a rackety8 young fellow, who went about with a thing like that? And Fleur, always at the back of his thoughts, started out like a filigree figure from a measure when the hour strikes. On the screen opposite the alcove was a large canvas with a undischarged many square tomato-coloured blobs on it, and nothing else, so far as Soames could see from where he sat. He looked at his catalogue No. 32 The Future townspeo ple Paul Post. I suppose thats satiric too, he thought. What a thing But his second impulse was more cautious. It did not do to condemn hurriedly.There had been those stripey, streaked creations of Monets9, which had turned out such trumps and then the stippled educate,10 and Gauguin* 11. Why, even since the Post-Impressionists12 there had been one or two painters not to be sneezed at. During the thirty-eight years of his connoisseurs life, indeed, he had marked so many movements, seen the tides of taste and technique so ebb and flow, that there was really no telling anything except that there was money to be do out of every change of fashion. This too might quite well be a case where one must subdue primordial instinct, or lose the market.He got up and stood before the picture, move hard to see it with the eyes of other people. Above the tomato blobs was what he took to be a sunset, till some one passing said Hes got the airplanes rattling(prenominal)ly, dont you think Bel ow the tomato blobs was a band of white with vertical colour stripes, to which he could assign no meaning whatever, till some one else came by, grumbling What mirror image he gets with his foreground Expression? Of what? Soames went back to his seat. The thing was rich, as his father would collapse said, and he wouldnt give a damn for it.Expression Ah they were all Expressionists13 now, he had perceive, on the Continent. So it was coming here too, was it? He remembered the first wave of influenza in 1887 or 8 hatched in China, so they said. He wondered where this this Expressionism had been hatched. The thing was a regular disease , ? -, , ? . . ? -, , ? . ? ? . ? , ? . , , ? , , ? . ? , . ? , , ? , . . . , . , , , , . ? ? . , . , ? , , , ? . . . . ? ? . ? . , . . ? ? ? ? . , ? . . . ? , ? . ? . , ?, , , ? . ? , . ? , , . . ? , . ? ? , , , . ? , . . , . . , ? , ? . , , , ? , ? ?, , ? . - , ? ? , , , ? . , ? -, , ? , . ? N 32, . , , . ? . ? . ? ? , ? - , . , , , ? ? ? , ? . , ? , ? , . ? ? , . - , , - , , , , - ? ? ? ? . , ? . , , . , , ? . ? , , , . ? , , Analysis In this description of Soamess impressions of a gallery stocked with pieces of modern art Galsworthys world is displayed to great advantage.Within a very few pages the ref gets a vivid notion not only of the new school in painting, but overly of the man who is so indignant with it. On the one hand his disgust and his perplexity throw light on the fictitious masterpi eces and their false standards of beauty on the other hand those masterpieces be trace an efficient convey of characterizing Soames himself. The same end is served by the contrast between the soundness of his judgement and the flightiness, the restlessness of those of the new generation who delight in such works of art.Abundance of thought and feeling in a short transportation system where nothing much actually happens, dislike of emphasis and pathos is an important feature of Galsworthys quiet and bottle up art. His intense contempt for the mannerisms of modern painting is not poured out either in withering ridicule or in grotesque exaggeration, but finds an outlet in a tone of matter-of-fact irony. The supposed statues of Jupiter and Juno are to Soames just a lamp-post bent by collision with a motor omnibus and a pump with two handles respectively.Seen through the eyes of hard common-sense, brought down to the stark(a)st elements, these statues appear particularly ridiculous . The same handle of reducing a complex whole a pretentious picture of The Future Town to a number of primitive daubs serves to expose the futility of Expressionist art. However hard Soames tries, he can see nothing but a great many square tomato-coloured blobs and a band of white with vertical black stripes. The very sound of the word blob, imitating the dripping of some liquid, is derogatory here and suggests that the paint was dropped on the canvas anyhow.This plain sensible view is comically opposed to the enthusiasm of other and junior spectators who seem to observe a wonderful picture of airplanes in the red blobs and a peculiar expression in the black and white stripes. The false pretences of the picture bearing the pompous name of The Future Town are the more clearly revealed as Soames anxiously does his best to go abreast of the times and get under ones skin his taste sufficiently up to date. The harder the beholders efforts to appreciate, the clearer the painters fail ure to succeed.Soamess business instincts are well expressed in his reverence to misunderstand the exhibits and so miss an opportunity for profit. Thus, even when Galsworthy does make a mouthpiece of his hero, the latters utterances, however remainder they come to the agents opinions, are appropriate to the personality of the chatterer and come convincing from his lips. It is Galsworthy himself who has no respect for Expressionism, but Soames voices that feeling in a way peculiarly Forsytean he is afraid to trust his eminently sizable taste, his own sense of beauty, for, as he reminds himself, it did not do to condemn hurriedly.There had been those stripey, streaky creations of Monets These nomenclature make part of a prolonged inner monologue, which in the later volumes of the Forsyte Saga and in the whole of the Modern Comedy becomes Galsworthys favourite method of characterization. The inner speech of the hero is indissolubly linked with the causations comments, so much s o, really, that when speaking of Soames, for example, Galsworthy resorts to expressions entirely suitable to Soames (His second impulse was more cautious, He remembered the first wave of influenza in 1887 or 8 hatched in China, so they said).With Galsworthy the inner monologue is different from what it is, say, in Merediths books. For one thing, the author of the Forsyte Saga uses it much more often. For another thing, he interferes with his comments much less than his predecessor. Lastly, the language of the monologues (particularly when they are Soamses) is much more concise and laconic, utterly devoid of sentiment. It is quite free of abstract terms, and is exceedingly terse, practical and full of idiomatic constructions commonly used in daily speech (painters not to be sneezed at, they had turned out such trumps etc. . Soames the businessman makes himself heard when in the meditations on art practical considerations come to the top there was money to be made out of every chan ge of fashion, lose the market and others. Even his metaphors, when they put in an appearance, are few and definitely low as, for instance, the comparison of Expressionism to influenza hatched in China He wondered where this this Expressionism had been hatched. The thing was a regular disease These metaphors are born out of Soames s disgust for what he considers a corruption of art and are therefore significant of his attitude towards painting they prove that Soames had esthetic criteria of his own and was capable of disinterested appreciation. Besides the inner monologue and characterization through environment, Galsworthy, ever resourceful in his search for the realistic approach, makes ample use of the dialogue as an efficient means to let his characters speak for themselves without the authors interference.In the present excerpt Soames unexpectedly finds himself involved in a talk with young strangers, one of whom is an prophesy of extreme innovation of art. Their speech mi ght be described as a curious confederacy of vulgar colloquialisms (duffer, to lap up, the bottoms tumbled out of sentiment) with bookish and learned phraseology (innovator, plastic art, to bring satire into sculpture), of English and French slang (old bean, to pull somebodys leg, epatant) with solemn parody of Biblical constructions (Jove and Juno created he them).Exaggeration (awfully nice of you, I dole on it beauty) goes hand in hand with understatement (Im quite equal to taking a little interest in beauty). Galsworthy perfectly realized, indeed, he was one of the first writers to do so that the flippant manner and the crude speech of post-war young people was the result of a severe shock of disillusionment they were so bilk with those fine words that, used to go with a fine show of public feeling that for them the bottom had tumbled out of sentiment, and satire both in art and in mode of talk seemed to be the only possible alternative.Their manner of speaking, cynical, affe ctedly coarse, substituting descriptive slangy catchwords for the proper names of things, is strongly contrasted to Soamess formal, plain speech with his habit of giving things their common standard meanings and never saying more than is stringently necessary. The contrast in manner and speach habits is of great importance in lending vitality to both interlocutors, in stressing the immense difference between the younger mens irresponsibility and rootlessness and Soamess resolute clinging to property, his dogged hold on life.As a follower of a realist tradition, Galsworthy never fails in attaching special significance to the tiniest details Soames approaches his handkerchief, that Michael had picked up for him, to his nose to make sure it is really his with that suspiciousness that is so characteristic of the Forsytes.He raises his hat only slightly in parting from young Mont and looks downward at his companion, for he is naturally distrustful of new acquaintances and prone to be no more than coldly polite (raising his hat ever so little) and supercilious in looking down upon anybody whom he does not recognize as his equals and half expects to be troublesome. All these little things are very suggestive of that fear of giving oneself away that Galsworthy elsewhere described as a feature by which it is as easy to tell a Forsyte as by his sense of property.Galsworthys realism does not only lie in his capacity for making his hero part and parcel of his surroundings and convincing the reader of his typicality he is a fine artist in reproducing the individual workings of his characters minds. Soames, the man of property, is also a man of deep and lasting feelings. Such is his devotion to his daughter Fleur, who was always at the back of his thoughts and started out like a filigree figure from a clock when the hour strikes.Incidentally, this dainty simile, so utterly unlike the matter-of-factness that characterizes the usual reproduction of Soamess prosaic mind, is expressive of the poetic act upon that Galsworthy introduces to render the strength of the affection Soames has for Fieur, As a general rule, the novelist, though following in the tracks of undefiled realists, breaks away from the literary polish, the fine descriptive title that was kept up to the very end of the nineteenth century.At the same time as Shaw, Weils, Bennett, Galsworthy starts a new tradition of bringing the language of literature (m the authors speech, no less than in that of the personages) close to the language of real life. He does away with the enlarge syntax of 19th century prose and cultivates short, somewhat abrupt sentences, true to the rhythm and the intonation of the spoken language and full of low colloquialisms and even slang. Tasks I. Translate into English ) ? 2) - 3) ? 4) ? 5) 6) ? ? ? ? 7) 8) - 9) 10) ? 11) , ? 12) , 13) ? 14) ? 15) ? 16) 17) 18) , , ? 19) , 20) , 21) ? . II. Answer the questions 1) What does the description under analysis present? 2) How do Soamess portrayal and the paintings presentation characterise each other? 3) What are the features of Galsworthys style? ) How is Galsworthys contempt for the mannerisms in art brought home to the reader? 5) How are the statues brought to ridicule by the author? 6) What view is Soamess approach opposed to? 7) How are Soamess business instincts expressed? 8) Is Galsworthys own view rendered through Soamess voice? Do the views of the writer and his character completely coincide? 9) What is Galsworthys favourite method of characterisation? 10) How is the language of the monologues to be characterised? 11) How is the businessman revealed in Soames? 12) What are the specificities of the young strangers? 13) How are the two different manners of speech contrasted? 14) How does Galsworthy treat details? 5) How does Galsworthy reproduce the individual working o f Soamess mind? 16) What literary tradition did Galsworthy participate in starting of? 1 Ico +Zlo? eeiin? o 5ABeOAOAOAO? p? p? p? FFF)hemailprotected? yyB*picCJaJmHphsH)huh ? yyB*picCJaJmHphsH%huhAJaB*picCJaJmHphsH%huh B*picCJaJmHphsH)hemailprotected yB*picCJaJmHphsH)huh yB*picCJaJmHphsH)hemailprotected? 2B*picCJaJmHphsH)huh ? 3B*picCJaJmHphsH)huheEpatant (French) thrilling, wonderful 4 Missed it here misunderstood it 5 Old bean old man (sl. ) 6 when Jove and Juno created he thern a iterate of the Biblic story of he origin of man male and female created he them 7 theyve lapped up the lot here they have taken everything seriously 8 Duffer fool (sl. ) 9 Drop in like a bird come with pleasure (sl. ) 10 Rackety light-minded, flightly 11 Claude Monet (1840-1926) a well-known French painter of the Impressionist school 12 Stippled school painters who painted in dots 13 Paul Gauguin (1843-1903) French painter and sculpter 14 Post-Impressionists painters who succeeded the Imp ressionists in 20th century art 15 Expressionists artists belong to one og the schools in art very popular in the first decades of the 20th century