GALSWORTHY'S BOOK

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 117, 13 November 1926, Page 21

GALSWORTHY'S BOOK

ANOTHER CRITICISM.

"Lydia Lanquist" writes *in "John o' London's Weekly": When one illbred woman calls another a "born snob" and a "lion-hunter" and the victim retaliates with '' snake of the first water," the' occasion seems one for mild amusement rather than. the invocation of the law. This exchange of compliments and a subsequent libel action form the chief course of the faro provided in "The Silver Spoon." It is the second volume of the new trilogy beginning with "The White Monkey," in which John Galsworthy is presenting "modern England and the London we know, in place of the town and the country of our fathers and uncles."

Beside the splendid structure of "The Forsyte Saga" the generation of Fleur Mont and Marjorio Ferrar appears as a jerry-builf? villa, without substance and without dignity. Yet, since it is Mr. Galsworthy who presents it, wo may be sure that sooner or later some redeeming truth or glimpse of beauty, will emerge from the surface vulgarity of the mass.

There is, for instance, Soames's love for Fleur; the courage and honesty of the "snake" in the witness-box; Michael Mont with his genuine ideals, and his desire to get to grips with the evils undermining the social fabric of his own time. The stary takes us a stage farther in the lives of Pleur and Michael Mont, "featuring" the Parliamentary career of Michael, the taking up of golf and. Jersey cows by

Soames Forsyte, and the initiation of Fleur's eon into the uses of a silver spoon. The mother of an eleventh baronet is naturally concerned for her husband s career and the social progress of her house. Fleur's ambition to shine as a political hostess, if not as a founder of a salon, was natural enough. But, in the words of "that red-headed cat, Lady Marjorie Ferrar: "To found a salon you want personality, and wit, and the don't-care-a-damn spirit. She hasn't got a scrap. Besides, who is she1!'"

It was soon abundantly clear whose daughter she was. For Soames Forsyte, survivor of a "stuffy" generation which had certain prejudices connected with back-biting and the eating of salt, happening to overhear the conversation, went for the lady with more seal than discretion. He earned thewby the ingratitude of his daHghter and his son-in-law, who very naturally resented being made to look ridiculous and "stuffy." After a night of weeping, Fleur, the spoilt child of her generation, decides to. "take the cat by the short hairs" and generally make her sit up. Unfortunately' she is so indiscreet as to commit to paper her personal opinion that the enemy "hasn't a moral about her," with the result that the latter brings a libel action to prove that she has several.

As she explains to the cross-examin-ing counsel:— 7 "I have morals. They may not be yours, but they, may be just as good, perhaps better. I'm not a hypocrite, anyway." Of course, she loses her case, and equally, of course, the Monts forfeit public sympathy for winning it. This ludicrous but very human incident is the live wire of the book. It leaves Michael's political ambitions —earnest though they, were—in the background.

He goes into Parliament with his convictions up,, his sleeve. , If it is not a very edifying picture of English life, social and political, which Mr. Galsworthy presents in "The Silver Spoon," neither, happily, is it very comprehensive. It is as if describing country life in summer he had concentrated principally on its midges and horse-flies. They are unpleasant and intrusive beasts, no doubt, but they are a small and relatively unimportant detail of the countryside, as, one hopes, the Fleurs and Marjorie Ferrars are of the town.