“A MODERN COMEDY.”

Thames Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 17762, 9 December 1929, Page 6

“A MODERN COMEDY.”

Mr John Galsworthy Compares the Present Days with the Beginnings of the Forsyte Period.

R GALSWORTHY has turned anthologist again. In one volume he has collected . three of the v most competent novels ' of our time—‘The White Monkey,’ ‘The Silver Spoon,’ and ‘Swan Song’—all three, curiously, enough, by himself, and thus, at a stroke, lie has brought ‘The Forsyte Saga,’ his previous anthology, from a mere 1104 pages, in my edition, to the not inconsiderable total of 2192 pages. And this opus represents, I. think it will be agreed, the most ccftisiderable and consistently excellent work of English fiction of modern times.” — Mr Norman R. Collins the London ‘‘.Daily News.”

V ;, ! ’■ Linder the title of “A Modern Comedy,” C Mr Ga! sworthy brings the works men|;w. tioned above into one volume which, to use the term of the summer, sales, is fr v .“amazing value.” Mr Galsworthy, in a preface, sums' up the situation of the pre- ; i sent day compared with the ’eighties at ihe opening of the Forsyte chronicles. Ifv Referring to tho period after the General LCH'Strike, the author says:— •' ‘‘Everyone, having been in an earthquake which lasted four years, has lost . the Habit of standing still, w,. “And yet, the English character has ’ ’ changed very little, if at all. The General Strike of 1926, with which the last part .of this triology begins, supplied proof of that. We are still a people that canfe;v- not be rushed, distrustful of extremes, saved by the grace of our defensive humour, well-tempered, resentful of interferen.ce, improvident . and wasteful, but endowed with a certain genius for recovery. If we believe in nothing much i else,\we still believe in ourselves. “That salient characteristic of the Eng- > ' Jish will bear thinking about. Why, for Instance, do we continually run ourselves f. down ? Simply because we have not got .the inferiority complex and are indifferent j#,. to what other people think of us.- No V, people in the world seems openly less :■) sure of itself; no people is secretly more ' sure. Incidentally, it might be worth '!? the while of those who own certain public “V-' mouths inclined to blow the British trurn 1 pet to remember that the blowing of one’s trumpet is the insidious beginning of the .inferiority complex. ‘“Only those strong . enough to keep !&"'silent'about self are strong enough to be sure of self. The epoch we are passing through .is one which favours misjudgment of the English'character, and of the ' position"of There never was . a country where real deterioration of human -j. fibre-had less chance than in this island, ’i!y; c because there is no other country whose i-'climate is so changeable, so tempering to character, so formative-of grit,'and. so healthy. . . • ,( fgr “The generation which came in when Queen victoria went out,, through new ideas , about tho treatment of children, because of new modes of locomotion, and -.owing to the Great War, has decided that everything requires revaluation. And f since, there is, seemingly very little future before property, and less before .life, is dev fcermined to live now or never, without J v bothering about the fate of such offspring *«s it may chance to have. ' < “Not that the present generation is less fffud of it* children than were past genera•v':' lionet-human nature does not change on points'' so elementary—but when everywtnir is keyed to such a pitch of uncertainty, Mon the future at the expense of the -v' -' pMMOI longer seems worth while.

“This is really the fundamental difference between the present and the past generation. People will not provide against that which they, cannot see ahead . “The fact remains that for the moment, at least, youth is balancing, twirling on the tiptoes of uncertainty. What is to come ? Will contentment yet be caught ? How will it all settle' down ? Will things ever again settle down —who knows ? Are there to come fresh wars, and fresh inventions hot-foot on those not yet mastered and digested ? Or will Fate decree another pause, like that of Victox-ian times, during which revaluated life will crystallise, and give property and its brood of definite beliefs a further- innings ? “Whatever there may be to deplore in the spirit of the present day, who, having lived in the ’Eighties, would willingly go back to their conditions ?” nsks the “Morning Post.” ;" : ’ .-.

“Who would exchange the electric lamp for the fish-tail gas burner, or the motor car for the knifeboard omnibus.? That is the root of . the matter. Men do not believe less, but they believe different things. The reproaches addressed to this age for its lack of faith were, equally addressed to that which followed the Napoleonic Wars. Did not Wordsworth deplore the passing of ,

“ ‘Our fearful innocence, And pure religion breathing household laws ?’ And yet, 'the English ‘character’ has changed very little, if at all. It is a comforting thought that this should be the one immutable thing in such a world change.” S, “There may be few insignicant people.” writes Mr Gerald Gould in the “Observer,”" “who, can afford to be always drinking cocktails, or to turn round and round like a kitten pursuing its tail; but the ordinary humdrum life goes on, as divine and dull as ever, even in the Forsyte class —of which, indeed, more tharj before have to put their noses to the grindstone and tneir shoulders to the wheel. Even in the matter of philosophic doubt, it is doubtful whether we can outdoubt our fathers. . . . But

let me not pursue Mr Galsworthy into those regions. He is a magnificent storyteller; his seoond-best is still better than most people’s best;.the present collection ia rich, vigorous, exciting, and offered-at an admirably low price. Let ns return gratitude rather than argument!” ■— b— '