The country house [antikvár]

INTRODUCTORY NOTE Born at Coombe in Surrey of good Devonshire stock in 1867, John Galsworthy was just upon forty when he wrote The Country House. It follows in natural succession two other books in which he worked his vein of social satire. The Island Pharisees and The Man of Property—^the latter being the foundation volume of The Forsyte Saga. He, too, like Henry James, had studied the art of making places, as well as people, live in the vista, and Worsted Skeynes in this novel is nearly as definite a figure as Mrs. Pendyce herself. But the house is typical, too, 'nothing out of the common; the same thing was happening in hundreds of country houses throughout the three kingdoms.' Galsworthy studied artistically even the dullness and the ' still life' of his chosen subjects; but he felt keenly the plight of those who suffered from the pressure of the country-house convention. The reader will notice that this novel is dedicated to his old friend W. H. Hudson; I recollect once meeting Galsworthy on Hampstead Heath attended by two of his favourite dogs, when he talked of that rare naturalist and tale-teller with strong personal feeling. That was only a month or two after Hudson's death. 'A man of Devon' Galsworthy liked to be considered; he ended one of his few lyrics with the refrain: 'Devon to me.' But he stands, too, among the Londoners of literature, and he could paint the London scene with something of the close relish we find in his count of the savours of English earth. It may be added, as helping to place The Country House in the order of his correlative work in fiction and the drama, that he wrote his play, The Silver Box, about the vii