A New Historicist Approach to John Galsworty’s The Forsyte Saga

The present paper aims at applying the New Historicist approach to the study of John Galsworthy’s The Forsyte Saga. John Galsoworthy is one of the three eminent Edwardian Novelists, the others being H.G. Wells and Arnold Bennet. They grew up when socialism was gaining ground among the elite and when the Russian writers with leftist orientation were the most dominant influence. Galsworthy’s sympathy for the underdog was transparent, in spite of his efforts to hold his sense and sensibility in balance in his dramas like The Strife (1909), Justice (1910) and The Skin Game (1920). However, better artistry in his novels and his subconscious sympathy with the Forsytes resulted in the obscurity of vision. It led to the virulent attacks by younger critics like Virginia Woolf and D. H. Lawrence. This set a trend, his great popularity during the time of writing declined after his death. He has never been accorded the depth of study he deserved as a novelist. Even critics who admired him, appreciated him for ‘his large scale pictures of the professional and aristocratic classes and for his graceful and suave literary style’. However, his gift to make a whole class in society come to life with photographic accuracy of detail and description is not the be all and end all of his achievement. He departed from his contemporaries like Trollope and attempted through his portraiture to assess the values of his age.