D.H. Lawrence on Galsworthy part 4

Four Contemporary novelists by Wilbur L. Cross (Macmillan) E. 1609 Institut d'Auglair
--born a Forsyte with a silver spoon in his mouth
the son of an old man of fifty, with the chin and jaw tenacity and the possessive instinct was sent to Harrow and on to Oxford, took an honour degree in Law
--He set out on extensive travels, he falls in with Conrad (Torrens) Like Conrad Galsworthy found abroad his freedom of outlook.
Thenceforth all was not right with sea-girt Britain and Galsworthy was preserved from becoming a narrow-minded "man of property". (At least as he puts it, saying he had gained the critical attitude which signals the genuine man of letters)
--A first he writes under the name of John Sinjohn
--His first characters, though often but slightly sketched were fitted into adventures appropriate enough to pass muster -- in "Villa Rubein", "Jocelyn"
--The Pharisees (1904) Shelton, like Galsworthy, has inherited all the social ideas of the comfortable middle class
--The good citizen clings at all costs to his money, his wife, his good name
Keeping under cover such vices as he may have
--He comes under the influence of Ferrand, a waif of modern civilzation whose maxim is that whatever is, is wrong (Ferrand's vision through his cynical blue eyes)
--Converted to the vagabond's philosophy Shelton repudiates Antonia and all her ways --
The novel is, physcholgically considered, the illustration of Galsworthy pretended enfranchisement from conventional Victorian and bourgeois mentality (adherence to the letter of outworn laws and antiquated ideas concerning education, marriage, the church, government, crime and his punishment, and the distribution of property)
Having discovered the Pharisees, Galsworthy immediately undertook the task of tracking and unmasking them wherever they are just as Thackeray tracked and unmasked the snobs. But, unlike Dickens, Galsworthy treated them with little gall on his pen, and rather humorously
--A Man of Property marks an improvement   The characterization shows psychological insight as well as outward features.  And cynical satire becomes more ironical
He owed his inspiration and training to Maupassant Turgenev and Tolstoi