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    The Foundations: "The beginnings and endings of all human undertakings are untidy."
    The Foundations: "The beginnings and endings of all human undertakings are untidy."
    The Foundations: "The beginnings and endings of all human undertakings are untidy."
    Ebook122 pages1 hour

    The Foundations: "The beginnings and endings of all human undertakings are untidy."

    By John Galsworthy

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    John Galsworthy was born at Kingston Upon Thames in Surrey, England, on August 14th 1867 to a wealthy and well established family. His schooling was at Harrow and New College, Oxford before training as a barrister and being called to the bar in 1890. However, Law was not attractive to him and he travelled abroad becoming great friends with the novelist Joseph Conrad, then a first mate on a sailing ship. In 1895 Galsworthy began an affair with Ada Nemesis Pearson Cooper, the wife of his cousin Major Arthur Galsworthy. The affair was kept a secret for 10 years till she at last divorced and they married on 23rd September 1905. Galsworthy first published in 1897 with a collection of short stories entitled “The Four Winds”. For the next 7 years he published these and all works under his pen name John Sinjohn. It was only upon the death of his father and the publication of “The Island Pharisees” in 1904 that he published as John Galsworthy. His first play, The Silver Box in 1906 was a success and was followed by “The Man of Property" later that same year and was the first in the Forsyte trilogy. Whilst today he is far more well know as a Nobel Prize winning novelist then he was considered a playwright dealing with social issues and the class system. Here we publish Villa Rubein, a very fine story that captures Galsworthy’s unique narrative and take on life of the time. He is now far better known for his novels, particularly The Forsyte Saga, his trilogy about the eponymous family of the same name. These books, as with many of his other works, deal with social class, upper-middle class lives in particular. Although always sympathetic to his characters, he reveals their insular, snobbish, and somewhat greedy attitudes and suffocating moral codes. He is now viewed as one of the first from the Edwardian era to challenge some of the ideals of society depicted in the literature of Victorian England. In his writings he campaigns for a variety of causes, including prison reform, women's rights, animal welfare, and the opposition of censorship as well as a recurring theme of an unhappy marriage from the women’s side. During World War I he worked in a hospital in France as an orderly after being passed over for military service. He was appointed to the Order of Merit in 1929, after earlier turning down a knighthood, and awarded the Nobel Prize in 1932 though he was too ill to attend. John Galsworthy died from a brain tumour at his London home, Grove Lodge, Hampstead on January 31st 1933. In accordance with his will he was cremated at Woking with his ashes then being scattered over the South Downs from an aeroplane.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStage Door
    Release dateMay 4, 2017
    ISBN9781787372511
    The Foundations: "The beginnings and endings of all human undertakings are untidy."
    Author

    John Galsworthy

    John Galsworthy was a Nobel-Prize (1932) winning English dramatist, novelist, and poet born to an upper-middle class family in Surrey, England. He attended Harrow and trained as a barrister at New College, Oxford. Although called to the bar in 1890, rather than practise law, Galsworthy travelled extensively and began to write. It was as a playwright Galsworthy had his first success. His plays—like his most famous work, the series of novels comprising The Forsyte Saga—dealt primarily with class and the social issues of the day, and he was especially harsh on the class from which he himself came.

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      Book preview

      The Foundations - John Galsworthy

      The Foundations by John Galsworthy

      Fourth Series Plays

      An Extravagant Play

      John Galsworthy was born at Kingston Upon Thames in Surrey, England, on August 14th 1867 to a wealthy and well established family.  His schooling was at Harrow and New College, Oxford before training as a barrister and being called to the bar in 1890.  However, Law was not attractive to him and he travelled abroad becoming great friends with the novelist Joseph Conrad, then a first mate on a sailing ship.

      In 1895 Galsworthy began an affair with Ada Nemesis Pearson Cooper, the wife of his cousin Major Arthur Galsworthy. The affair was kept a secret for 10 years till she at last divorced and they married on 23 September 1905.

      John Galsworthy first published in 1897 with a collection of short stories entitled The Four Winds.  For the next 7 years he published these and all works under his pen name John Sinjohn.  It was only upon the death of his father and the publication of The Island Pharisees in 1904 that he published as John Galsworthy.  In this volume we have Villa Rubein  ays and studies. They are the work of a supreme talent at the top of his game. Whilst today he is far more well know as a Nobel Prize winning novelist then he was considered a playwright dealing with social issues and the class system.  He was appointed to the Order of Merit in 1929, after earlier turning down a knighthood, and awarded the Nobel Prize in 1932 though he was too ill to attend. John Galsworthy died from a brain tumour at his London home, Grove Lodge, Hampstead on January 31st 1933. In accordance with his will he was cremated at Woking with his ashes then being scattered over the South Downs from an aeroplane.

      He is now far better known for his novels, particularly The Forsyte Saga, his trilogy about the eponymous family of the same name. These books, as with many of his other works, deal with social class, upper-middle class lives in particular. Although always sympathetic to his characters, he reveals their insular, snobbish, and somewhat greedy attitudes and suffocating moral codes. He is now viewed as one of the first from the Edwardian era to challenge some of the ideals of society depicted in the literature of Victorian England.

      In his writings he campaigns for a variety of causes, including prison reform, women's rights, animal welfare, and the opposition of censorship as well as a recurring theme of an unhappy marriage from the women’s side. During World War I he worked in a hospital in France as an orderly after being passed over for military service.

      He was appointed to the Order of Merit in 1929, after earlier turning down a knighthood, and awarded the Nobel Prize in 1932 though he was too ill to attend.

      John Galsworthy died from a brain tumour at his London home, Grove Lodge, Hampstead on January 31st 1933. In accordance with his will he was cremated at Woking with his ashes then being scattered over the South Downs from an aeroplane.

      Index of Contents

      PERSONS OF THE PLAY

      THE SCENE

      THE TIME

      ACT I

      ACT II

      ACT III

      JOHN GALSWORTHY – A SHORT BIOGRAPHY

      JOHN GALSWORTHY – A CONCISE BIBLIOGRAPHY

      PERSONS OF THE PLAY

      LORD WILLIAM DROMONDY, M.P.

      LADY WILLIAM DROMONDY

      LITTLE ANNE

      MISS STOKES

      MR. POULDER

      JAMES

      HENRY

      THOMAS

      CHARLES

      THE PRESS

      LEMMY

      OLD MRS. LEMMY

      LITTLE AIDA

      THE DUKE OF EXETER

      Some ANTI-SWEATERS

      Some SWEATED WORKERS

      A CROWD

      THE SCENE

      ACT I.  The cellar at Lord William Dromondy’s in Park Lane.

      ACT II.  The room of old Mrs Lemmy in Bethnal Green.

      ACT III - Ante-room of the hall at Lord William Dromondy’s.

      THE TIME

      The Action passes continuously between 8 and 10.30 of a summer evening, some years after the Great War.

      ACT I

      Lord William Dromondy’s mansion in Park Lane.  Eight o'clock of the evening.  LITTLE ANNE DROMONDY and the large footman, JAMES, gaunt and grin, discovered in the wine cellar, by light of gas.  JAMES, in plush breeches, is selecting wine.

      LITTLE ANNE

      James, are you really James?

      JAMES

      No, my proper name's John.

      LITTLE ANNE

      Oh!  [A pause]  And is Charles's an improper name too?

      JAMES

      His proper name's Mark.

      LITTLE ANNE

      Then is Thomas Matthew?

      JAMES

      Miss Anne, stand clear o' that bin.  You'll put your foot through one o' those 'ock bottles.

      LITTLE ANNE

      No, but James—Henry might be Luke, really?

      JAMES

      Now shut it, Miss Anne!

      LITTLE ANNE

      Who gave you those names?  Not your godfathers and godmothers?

      JAMES

      Poulder.  Butlers think they're the Almighty.  [Gloomily] But his name's Bartholomew.

      LITTLE ANNE

      Bartholomew Poulder?  It's rather jolly.

      JAMES

      It's hidjeous.

      LITTLE ANNE

      Which do you like to be called—John or James?

      JAMES

      I don't give a darn.

      LITTLE ANNE

      What is a darn?

      JAMES

      'Tain't in the dictionary.

      LITTLE ANNE

      Do you like my name?  Anne Dromondy?  It's old, you know. But it's funny, isn't it?

      JAMES

      [Indifferently]  It'll pass.

      LITTLE ANNE

      How many bottles have you got to pick out?

      JAMES

      Thirty-four.

      LITTLE ANNE

      Are they all for the dinner, or for the people who come in to the Anti-Sweating Meeting afterwards?

      JAMES

      All for the dinner.  They give the Sweated—tea.

      LITTLE ANNE

      All for the dinner?  They'll drink too much, won't they?

      JAMES

      We've got to be on the safe side.

      LITTLE ANNE

      Will it be safer if they drink too much?

      [JAMES pauses in the act of dusting a bottle to look at her, as if suspecting irony.

      LITTLE ANNE [Sniffing]

      Isn't the smell delicious here-like the taste of cherries when they've gone bad—[She sniffs again] and mushrooms; and boot blacking.

      JAMES

      That's the escape of gas.

      LITTLE ANNE

      Has the plumber's man been?

      JAMES

      Yes.

      LITTLE ANNE

      Which one?

      JAMES

      Little blighter I've never seen before.

      LITTLE ANNE

      What is a little blighter?  Can I see?

      JAMES

      He's just gone.

      LITTLE ANNE [Straying]

      Oh!...  James, are these really the foundations?

      JAMES

      You might 'arf say so.  There's a lot under a woppin' big house like this; you can't hardly get to the bottom of it.

      LITTLE ANNE

      Everything's built on something, isn't it?  And what's THAT built on?

      JAMES

      Ask another.

      LITTLE ANNE

      If you wanted to blow it up, though, you'd have to begin from here, wouldn't you?

      JAMES

      Who'd want to blow it up?

      LITTLE ANNE

      It would make a mess in Park Lane.

      JAMES

      I've seen a lot bigger messes than this'd make, out in the war.

      LITTLE ANNE

      Oh!  but that's years ago!  Was it like this in the trenches, James?

      JAMES [Grimly]

      Ah!  'Cept that you couldn't lay your 'and on a bottle o' port when you wanted one.

      LITTLE ANNE

      Do you, when you want it, here?

      JAMES

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