4. Realism

Another tendency of the period is a sense and intensification of realism that was common to H. G. Wells, Bernard Shaw and John Galsworthy. These novelists attempted to represent the life of their time with great accuracy and in a critical, partly propagandistic spirit. Wells' novels, for example, often seem to be sociological investigations of the ills of modern civilization rather than self-contained stories.

4.1 Herbert George Wells

Wells, Herbert George (1866-1946), English author and political philosopher, most famous for his science-fantasy novels with their prophetic depictions of the triumphs of technology as well as the horrors of 20th-century warfare.

Wells was born September 21, 1866, in Bromley, Kent. He produced more than 80 books. His novel The Time Machine (1895) mingled science, adventure, and political comment. Later works in this genre are The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898), each of these fantasies was made into a motion picture.

Wells also wrote novels devoted to character description. Among these are Kipps (1905) and The History of Mr. Polly (1910), which depict members of the lower middle class and their aspirations. Both recall the world of Wells's youth; the first tells the story of a struggling teacher, the second portrays a draper's assistant. In many of his other books Wells touch upon various social and psychological themes such as women's rights, condemnation of capitalism, wars and colonial policy.

Throughout his long life Wells was deeply concerned with and wrote a lot about the survival of contemporary society. For a time he was a member of the Fabian Society. He envisioned a utopia in which the vast and frightening material forces available to modern men and women would be rationally controlled for progress and for the equal good of all. His later works were increasingly pessimistic expressing the author's doubts about the ability of humankind to survive.

Wells died August 13, 1946, in London.

4.2 John Galsworthy

Galsworthy, John (1867-1933), English novelist and playwright, who was one of the most popular English novelists and dramatists of the early 20th century. He was born in Kingston Hills, Surrey, and educated at Harrow School and the University of Oxford. He was intended to become a lawyer but abandoned law for writing. Galsworthy wrote his early works under the pen name John Sinjohn. His fiction is concerned principally with English upper middle-class life; his dramas frequently find their themes in this layer of society, but also often deal, sympathetically, with the economically and socially oppressed and with questions of social justice.

Most of his novels deal with the history, from Victorian times through the first quarter of the 20th century, of an upper middle-class English family, the Forsytes. The principal member of the family is Soames Forsyte, who exemplifies the drive of his class for the accumulation of material wealth, a drive that often conflicts with human values. The Forsyte series includes The Man of Property (1906), the novelette "Indian Summer of a Forsyte", In Chancery (1920), Awakening (1920), and To Let (1921). These five titles were published as The Forsyte Saga (1922). The Forsyte story was continued by Galsworthy in The White Monkey (1924), The Silver Spoon (1926), and Swan Song (1928), which were published together under the title A Modern Comedy (1929). These were followed in turn by Maid in Waiting (1931), Flowering Wilderness (1932), and Over the River (1933), published together posthumously as End of the Chapter (1934). Among the plays by Galsworthy are Strife (1909), Justice (1910), The Pigeon (1912), Old English (1924), and The Roof (1929).

Galsworthy's novels, by their lacking complicated psychology and their greatly simplified social viewpoint, became accepted as faithful patterns of English life for a time. Galsworthy is remembered for this description of Victorian and Edwardian upper middle-class life and for his creation of Soames Forsyte, a dislikable character who nevertheless compels the reader's sympathy. Galsworthy was awarded the 1932 Nobel Prize in literature.

Lecture 8