The Japanese Quince

Galsworthy (1867-1933) was a British author and playwright, best known for his series of novels The Forsyte Saga, which follows the lives and relationships of a wealthy and influential family across several decades. Galsworthy was born into an upper-middle-class family and studied at Harrow and New College, Oxford. After a brief stint in law, Galsworthy turned to writing. In the first Forsyte novel, The Man of Property (1906), Galsworthy takes aim at the social pretensions of the class he grew up in, and the series is notable for its depiction of the changing social and cultural landscape of England in the early 20th century. This same preoccupation with social class is central to the portrayal of Nilson in “The Japanese Quince.”

Galsworthy’s first published work was a collection of short stories, From the Four Winds (1897), but it was not until the publication of The Man of Property that he achieved widespread recognition. The Forsyte Saga, which consists of three novels and two interludes, is considered a masterpiece of social realism. In addition to The Forsyte Saga, Galsworthy wrote several other novels including The White Monkey (1924), The Silver Spoon (1926), and Swan Song (1928). He also wrote several plays, the best known of which is Loyalties (1922).