John Galsworthy : Loyalties

It has been aptly said that true tragedy is not the conflict between good and evil, but the conflict between good and good. John Galsworthy's strength as a dramatist lay in his power to present such a conflict with a deep understanding of the issues involved. As Dr. Gilbert Murray, O.M., has said, "Galsworthy not only avoids really unsympathetic heroes and heroines, but equally abstains from showing any side which is definitely right or any clear remedy for the troubles in which his characters find themselves."

The three plays in this volume are impressive examples of Galsworthy's art and stagecraft. Loyalties (possibly his best play) depicts a dramatic situation in which we watch the effects of social standing, tradition, and race. The Eldest Son deals with a problem of conventional sexuality and class allegiance. The Skin Game shows a clash between a financially hard-pressed landowner of the old aristocracy and an aggressive manufacturer belonging to the 'new rich.'

John Galsworthy, born in 1867, was educated at Harrow School and Oxford University, where he studied law. His early novels were followed in 1906 by his first play, The Silver Box. In that year, too, appeared The Man of Property, the first volume of an immensely popular trilogy which was published as The Forsyte Saga in 1922 and was followed by a second trilogy, A Modern Comedy. At his death in 1933 Galsworthy's fame as both playwright and novelist had been unrivalled for some 25 years. He refused a knighthood in 1918, but was appointed to the Order of Merit in 1929; he received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1932, and was the first President of the international P.E.N. Club.