Buchara state university m. Bakoeva, E. Muratova, M. Ochilova english literature

novels and two interludes, as the author calls them: “The Man of 
Property” (
1906), 
“In Chancery” (
1920), 
“To Let” (1
921
), ”Awak- 
ening” (interlude), “Indian Summer of a Forsyte” (interlude).

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“T h e Forsyte S aga” is follow ed by “ A M odern C om edy” , 
also a trilogy, consisting o f three novels and two interludes: ’’The 
W hite M onkey” (1924), “T he Silver Spoon” (1926), “T he Swan 
Song” (1 9 2 8 ), “ A S ile n t W ooing” (in terlu d e ), “ P assers-b y ” 
(interlude).
T he trilogy called “ End o f the C harter” , w ritten at a later 
period, is less critical. T he three novels are: ’’M aid in W aiting”
(1
9 3
1), “ Flow ering W ilderness” (1
932), 
“O ver the River” (1
933).
In the first trilogy, which was written in the most m ature period 
o fh is literary activity, Galsworthy describes the com m ercial world 
o f the Forsytes, and in particular, the m ain character, Soam es 
Forsyte, “the m an o f property” . The first part o f “ The Forsyte 
Saga” (“The Man o f Property”) attains the highest point o f social 
criticism . The central characters o f the novel are the Forsytes o f 
the first generation and the m em bers o f their fam ilies. T hey are 
shareholders and rich ow ners o f apartm ent houses in the best 
parts o f London. T heir sole aim in life is accum ulation o f w ealth. 
Their views on life are based fundamentally on a sense o f prop^^ty.
T he m ost typical representative o f the second generation oi 
the Forsytes is Jam es’ son, Soames, whom old Jolyon called the 
man o f property. In his nature, views, habits and aspiration he 
perfectly incarnated all the features o f Forsytism . He is firm ly 
convinced that property alone is the stable basis o f life. His human 
re la tio n s and feelin g s are also su b o rc in a te d to the sen se o f
property. Hav ing m arried Irene, Soam es experiences the greatest 
pleasure and satisfaction at the thought i:hat she is his property.
T he main idea that runs through the novel is the conflict o f 
the Forsytes w ith A rt and Beauty. Irene personifies B eauty and 
th e y o u n g a rc h ite c t, B o sin n e y w h o fa lls in love w ith her, 
im personates Ari. The conflict betw een B osinney and Soam es 
arose in connection with the building o f a house at Robin Hill.
In the second part o f “The Forsyte Saga” (“ In C hancery”) the 
action refers to the end o f the 19th century and the beginning o f 
the-20th century.
In the concluding part o f “The Forsyte Saga” (“To L et” ) the 
action takes place after the First World War.

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T he Forsyte novels are highly valued for the truthful portrayal 
o f the social and personal life. The cycle is considered to be the 
peak o f the au th o r’s realism .
In his later w orks, “A M odern C om edy” and “T he E nd o f the 
C hapter”, w ritten after the World W ar I, G alsw orthy’s criticism
becom es less sharp. The old generation o f the Forsytes does not 
seem so bad to the author as com pared to the new one. D uring 
his progress through six novels and four interludes Soam es be­
com es alm ost a positive character, in spite o f the a u th o r’s critical 
attitude tow ards him at the beginning o f the Saga.
G alsw orth y’s hum anitarian concerns also led him to w rite 
plays about the social problem s o f h is tim e. From 1909 he p ro ­
duced in turn plays and novels. His plays deal with burning prob­
lem s o f life. T he au th o r d esc rib es the hard life o f w o rk ers 
( ’’Strife” ), attacks the cruel regime in English prisons ( ” J u stice” ), 
expresses his indignation tow ards w ars ( ’’The M o b” ), rejects 
the colonial policy o f G reat B ritain (“T he Forest”), and presents 
som e other aspects o f evils and injustice. G alsw orthy’s p lays were 
very popular. B ut it is not his dram atic works, but his novels and 
“T he Forsyte Saga” in particular, th at m ade him one o f the g reat­
est figures in w orld literature.
Questions and Tasks
1. Wrhy is H erbert G eorge Wells called the great English w riter 
w ho looked into the future?
2. W'hat is the contribution o f Wells to w orld literature?
3. W hat was W ells’ attitude tow ards scientific progress?
4. W hat are the c h ie f characteristics o f G alsw orthy’s w orks?
5. W hy do w e call “T he Forsyte Saga” a social novel?
6. C om m ent on the title o f the novel “The Man o f P roperty” .
7. W hat is the difference betw een the novels w ritten by 
H erbert Wells and John G alsw orthy?

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UNIT 9
TWENTIETH CENTURY ENGLISH LITERATURE 
(1915-2000)
1. The Twenties of the Twentieth century.
T he 1920s w ere not a tranquil period for B ritain. M assive 
unem ploym ent w as created by the return o f hundreds o f thou­
sands o f veterans to civilian life. English literature changed in 
both form and subject m atter betw een the end o f W orld W ar I in 
1918 and the beginning o f W'orld W ar II in 1939. The terrible 
d estru ctian o f World W ar I left many people with the feeling that 
society w as falling apart.
T he 20lh century English literature is rem arkable for a great 
diversity o f artistic values and artistic m ethods. Follow ing the 
rapid int roduction o f new m odes o f thought in natural science, 
sociology and psychology, it has naturally reacted to absorb and 
transform this m aterial into literary com m unication. Fundam en­
tal political, social and econom ic changes in the w orld and, par­
ticularly, in G reat Britain deeply affected the creative w riting o f 
the new century. T he w orks o f such w riters as H.F. W ells, Ber­
nard Shaw, John Galsworthy, Arnold Bennet, Joseph Conrad, E.M. 
Forster, K atherine M ansfield show ed an earnest desire to express 
the feelings arid thoughts o fth e B ritish people. It was the basis o f 
their approach to literature. T h at’s w hy their w orks becam e a 
new investm ent in the heritage o f English realism and stim ulated 
its fu rth e r d ev e lo p m e n t. In the sh o rt-sto ry g en re th e art o f 
K atherine M ansfield is a significant contribution to the traditions 
o f English realism .
2. English Literature in the 1930s and 1940s
A new generation o f realist w riters, am ong them R ichard 
A ldington, John Boynton Priestley and A rchibald Joseph Cronin 
appeared on the literary scene betw een 1930 and W orld War II.
T he w orld econom ic depression th at began in the late 1920s 
had catastrophic effects in highly industrialized and heavily popu­
lated B ritain. In tw o years exports and im ports declined 35 per­
cent, and unem ploym ent reached three million. T he Second World 
War, w hich began in Septem ber, 1939, w ith H itler’s invasion o f

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Poland, w as disastrous for Britain and her allies. During 1939 
and 1940 N azi G erm any m astered Europe. O nly Britain under 
the leadership o f W inston C hurchill rem ained to oppose Hitler. 
B ut B ritons heroically withstood the bom bardm ent o f their cit­
ies. With the entry o f th e L nited States into the war, and the fa il­
ure o f the G en n an invasion o f the Soviet U nion, the tide began to 
turn. A lthough B ritain and her allies w ere eventually victorious, 
the postw ar years w ere extrem ely hard. T he country was nearly 
bankrupt, and recovery wa s slow. O f the new poets w riting dur­
ing this period, the m ost im portant and influential w as W.H. 
Auden. D uring the 1930s, which he characterized as a “ low, d is­
honest decade,” A uden w as the acknow ledged leader o f a circle 
o f w riters w ho aligned them selves w ith the political left and at­
tem pted to expose the social and econom ic ills o f their country. 
A lthough they considered them selves the creators o f a new po ­
etic tradition, the influence o f H opkins, Yeats, and Eliot on these 
young w riters is great. Especially, it m ay be observed in th eir use 
o f precise and suggestive images, ironic understatem ent, and plain 
speech.
William Butler Yeats
(1865-1939)
W illiam B utler Yeats is considered by m any critics to be the 
greatest poet w riting in English in the 20th century. He provides a

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bridge from ihe V ictorian Age into the tw entieth century. His 
early R om antic w ork, produced before the century turned, gradu­
ally becam e m ore realistic.
W. E.. Y eats, an Irish p o et an d d ra m a tis t, w as b o rn in 
Sandym ount, Ireland. His father w as a painter. Yeats attended 
school in D ublin. B eginning as an art student, he soon gave up 
art fo r literature. A t tw enty-one, he published his first w ork 
■‘M osada”, a dram a w ritten in verse. D uring the 1890s and 1900s 
he published m any volum es o f poem s, w hich w ere sym bolic in 
m anner, draw ing his im agery from Irish myth and folklore. T he 
m ost im portant collections o f that period were: “ The W andering 
o f O isin” (1891), “T he Wind A m ong the R eeds” (1899), “The 
R ose” (1903), "G reen H elm et and O ther Poem s” (1912).
For centuries Ireland had been an English colony, its econom y 
exploited and its native culture suppressed. Yeats’ early poem s 
and his book on Irish folk tales, “T he C eltic Tw ilight” (1893), 
w ere in sart political acts.
W.B. Yeats contributed a great deal to the Irish national th e­
atre. W riting for the stage im pressed Yeats with the im portance 
o f p re cise, sp are language. His b est know n plays are “T he 
C ountess C athleen” (1892), “D eirdre” (1907). The latter derived 
from C eltic m ythology.
During the 1920s Yeats becam e m ore prom inent in both policy 
and literature. H e becam e a senator in the Irish Free State in 1922 
and in 1923 received the N oble Prize for Literature. In 1925 Yeats 
published his m ajor philosophical and historical prose w ork “ A 
V ision” .
W hile many poets produced their finest work during their early 
years, Yeats w as one o f those rare poets w ho created their great­
est poem s after the age o f fifty. He began his poetic career as a 
R om antic and finished it as a poet o f the m odem world. His early 
w ork was strongly influenced by Blake and Shelley, by the French 
Symbol sts, and Irish m ythology. T hese early poem s w ere often 
sim ple, rom antic, m usical, and dream like. In the m iddle o f h i s
career, his pee try becam e less dream like and m ore realistic. His 
tone becam e m ore conver sational and his im agery more econom i­
cal. In the last stages o f h is poetic career, his interest in historical 
cycles becam e dom inant. Thus, the evolution o f Yeats art never

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ceased. The poems written w hen he was an old man (“T he Tower”, 
1928, “T he W inding Stair”, 1920) are the m ost audacious.
Below, you will read one o f W illiam B utler Y eats’ poem s. It is 
believed that Yeats w rote this poem for M ajor R obert Gregory, 
the son o f h is friend Lady A ugusta Gregory. M ajor G regory, an 
artist and aviator, was killed in action over Italy during W orld 
W ar I w hile flying for E ngland’s Royal Flying C orps.
An Irishman Foresees His Death 
I know that I shall m eet m y fate 
Som ew here am ong th e clouds above;
T hose th at 1 fight I do not hate,
T hose that I guard I do not lo v e;1 
M y country is K iltarten2 C ross,
M y countrym en K iltarten ’s poor,
N o likely end could bring them loss 
O r leave them happier than before.
N o r law, nor duty bade me fight,
N o r public men, nor cheering crow ds,
A lonely im pulse c f delight 
D rove to this tum ult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to m y m ind,
T he years to com e seem ed w aste o f breath,
A w aste o f breath the years behind 
In balance with this life, this death.
“Modernist” Poetry and Prose
T he achievem ent o f m odern B ritish literature lies in the de­
v e lo p m e n t o f th e sh o rt sto ry (K a th e rin e M a n s fie ld ), n ew
m ovem ents in poetry (T.S. Eliot), exciting experim ents in fiction 
(Ja m e s J o y c e ), and d ra m a w o rth y o f the n a tio n th a t b re d
Shakespeare.
1 . T hose th a t I g u a rd I do not love: In the World War 1 Ireland was 
technically neutral and wa;; going on struggle for independence from England. 
But many Irish volunteered to fight on the English side.
2 . K ilta rte n : a village near 
the 
estate o f the Gregory famiiy.

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M odern literature is characterized by great differences from 
the past in both form and content. N ew rhythm s, especially in 
free verse, w ere invented.
The developm ent o f psychology brought psychological realism 
into literature: w riters attem pted to show not only w hat their 
c h a ra c te rs th o u g h t b u t ho w th ey th o u g h t. T h e stre a m -o f- 
consciousness technique, and various m odifications o f it, created 
a new attitude tow ard w riting and reading.
T he subject m atter o f literature changed too. With the shocks 
o f the w ars, technological advances, and greater social freedom , 
w riters realized that they could and should w rite about anything. 
N o sub ject w as too d ignified or und ig n ified , too fa m iliar or 
rem ote, to appear in a m odern poem or novel.
The revolution in poetry had its cou nterpart in fiction. The 
novelists o f th e eighteenth and nineteenth centuries had w ritten 
w ithin a defined social context to an audien ce that shared sim ilar 
values and beiiefs. M odernist w riters perceived hum an beings as 
living in private w orlds and th ere fo re took as th e ir ta sk the 
illum ination o f individual experience. N ovelists like Jam es Joyce 
and Virginia W oolf attem pted to reproduce the authentic character 
o f hum an subjectivity, the so-called 
stream of consciousness
Following World War 1, w riters such asT .S . Eliot, W.H. Auden, 
D ylan Thom as and their follow ers brought about a revolution in 
poetic taste and practice. Like the painters influenced by cubism 
and abstract expressionism o r com posers influenced by the atonal 
w orks o f Stravinsky, Schoenberg, and Bartok, “m odernist” poets 
developed new techniques to express their vision o f the postw ar 
world. W hile some o f them are difficult, m odern poetry as a whole 
em ploys the language o f com m on speech to provide rich insights 
into the people and events o f m odem life.
Intellectua I com plexity, allusiveness and intricacy o f form are 
characteristics o f m odern poetry. W hen you read these w orks you 
com e across lines from foreign languages or allusions you d o n ’t 
recognize. For exam ple, som e o f E liots poem s, such as “The 
Flallow M en” have epigraphs th at need to be interpreted and 
applied to the poem. W.H. Auden, in his elegy “In Memory o f W.B.

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Yeats”, presum es know ledge o f the life o f Yeats and political 
events o f the 1930s. In such cases the footnotes help y ou by 
providing such inform ation.
M odern poets usually use language that is fresh, exact, and 
innovative. In “Fern H ill”, for exam ple, D ylan T hom as, regects 
cliche, and w rites “once below a tim e” instead o f “once upon a 
tim e” and “All the m oon long” instead o f “All the night long” .
M odern poetry is m usical, sensual, and surprising. It also 
highly varied in subject matter. M odern poets have exercised the 
freedom to w rite about any subject they please. To com pensate 
for the limitations o f syllabic rhyme, they have resorted to frequent 
use o f consonantal, assonantal, and half-rhym es. M odern poets 
have sought above all to create poetry that will be appreciated 
for its form and m usic as w ell as m eaning.
P oet, c ritic , and d ra m a tis t, T.S. E lio t, w a s th e le a d in g
spokesm an for the m odernist poetry that em erged in the 1920s. 
T h is p o e try is c h a r a c te r iz e d by in te lle c tu a l c o m p le x ity , 
allusiveness, precise use o f im ages, and pessim ism.
James Joyce 
(1882-1941)
Jam es Joyce is regarded to be the m ost original and influential 
w riter o f the tw entieth century. Irishm an by birth, he ex ercised a

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considerable influence upon m odern English and A m erican lit­
erature.
He w as bom in Dublin, the eldest o f a fam ily o f ten children. 
His father w as a civil servant, continually in financial difficulties. 
For several years Joyce attended C longow es Wood College, be­
fore his fam ily’s increasing poverty m ade that impossible. He later 
attended U niversity C ollege, Dublin, w here he was a brilliant 
scholar, accom plished in Latin, French, Italian and Norwegian.
W hile he w as still ari undergraduate he began w riting lyrical 
poem s, w hich w ere collected in “C ham ber M usic” (1907). Upon 
graduation from the U niversity in 1902, Joyce lived for a tim e in 
Paris w here h e contributed book review s to Dublin new spapers. 
A fter a b rie f return to Dublin for his m o th er’s burial, he moved 
to the continent w ith N o ra B arnacle to spend the rest o fh is life in 
Paris, Trieste, Rom e and Zurich.
In 1909 and 1912, Joyce m ade his last tw o trips to Ireland to 
a rra n g e th e p u b lic a tio n o f a c o lle c tio n o f fifte e n sto rie s
“D ubliners”, the dom inant mood o f w hich w as realistic. T he work 
was published only in 1914. Joyce said th at his purpose in w riting 
the sh o rt sto ries co llected in “ D u b lin ers” w as to produce “a 
chapter o fth e m oral history o f my country and I chose D ublin for 
the scene because the city seemed to me the center o f paralysis” . 
He w anted lo give “the Irish people ... one good look a t them ­
s e lv e s in m y n ic e ly p o lish e d lo o k in g g la s s ” . T he s ty le o f
“ D ubliners” m arks a sharp break with the fiction o f the nineteenth 
century. Joyce located the center o f the action in the m inds o fh is
characters;. Incident and plot are subordinated to psychological 
revelation. Each w ord has, as well as detail, a calculated pur­
pose, and the m eaning o f the story is presented as an e p ip h a n y - 
a m om ent o f heightened aw areness that can occur as a result o f a 
trivial encounter, object, or event. F or exam ple, in “A raby”, one 
o f “ Dubliners"’ short stories, epiphany occurs in the final para­
graph and runs as follow ing “G azing up into the darkness I saw 
m y self as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and m y eyes 
burned with anguish and anger.”
In 1916 his partly autobiographical novel “A Portrait o f the 
A rtist as a Y oung M an” and in 1922 his m ost fam ous novel

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“ Ulysses” w ere published. Ulysses” is a dazzling original attempt 
to tell the story o f group o f D ubliners 
011
a single day and at the 
sam e tim e present a sym bolic view o f hum an history. Seven hun­
dred pages o f the novel relate o f one day in the life o f tw o 
D ubliners w ho are not acquainted. L eopold B loom , an advertis­
ing agent, anc1 Stephen D edalus, a poet and teacher, ram ble in the 
streets o f Dublin; the paths o f these tw o m en cross and re-cross 
through the day and finally they m eet only for a leave-taking. 
The book is built on parallel from H om er’s Odyssey, i.e. each 
chapter revives an incident from H om er’s epic and each character 
has a H om eric prototype.
In “ U lysses”, rendering the w orkings o fh is character’s minds, 
Joyce introduced the so-called stream o f consciousness technique 
recording th e flow o f their thoughts and sensations with all the 
com plex associations attached to them . The rem aining seventeen 
years o fh is life Joyce worked on his next novel “Finnegans Wake” 
(1 9 3 9 ). T h e b o o k c a rrie d th e s ty lis tic e x p e rim e n ta tio n o f
“U lysses” further.
Virginia Woolf 
(1882-1941)
V irginia W oolf w as bom in a large and talented family. H er 
father, Sir L eslie Stephen, w as a distinguished literary critic and 
historian. She w as educated at hom e by h er father. A fter his

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death she moved to London with h er brother and sister. T heir 
hom es in the Bloom sbury district, near the British M useum , be­
cam e the m eeting places o f the so-called “ B loom sbury G roup” , a 
fam ous group o f intellectuals. One o f the m em bers o f the group 
w as the w riter Leonard Woolf, whom! she m arried in 1912. In 
1917 they founded the Hogarth Press, w hich published her books 
as well as those o f a num ber o f other im portant m odern w riters, 
like T.S. Eliot and E.M. Forster.
Virginia W oolf began her w riting career as a literary critic. 
She used her review s and essays to prom ote her opinions about 
w hat fiction should be. She thought that w riters could get close 
to real life only by basing their w ork on their own feelings. In 
1915 she began to put her theories into practice in her first novel 
“ The Voyage O ut” . T his novel reveals signs o f its autho r’s search 
and experience to find new forms o f expression. During the 1920s 
her w ork becam e increasingly experim ental. Her stories and 
sketches “ M onday or Tuesday” (1921) show her developing • 
impressionistic style and bringing some o f the techniques o f lyrical 
poetry into prose. In novels like “ Mrs. D allow ay” (1925), “To 
the L ighthouse” (1927), and “The W aves” (1931), she rebels 
against the social fiction o f the prew ar period with its em phasis 
on detailed descriptions o f character and setting. Instead she at­
tem pted to ex p ress the tim e le ss in n e r co n sc io u sn e ss o f her 
characters. Influenced by Jam es Jo y ce’s ‘ U lysses” she used the 
techniques o f “ stream o f consciousness” and “ inner m onologue” 
m oving from one ch a rac te r to a n o th e r to v ariety o f m ental 
responses to th e sam e event.
T h u s, W o o l f s w o rk w as a d e lib e ra te a tte m p t to b reak 
conventions o f fiction. She saw life not in neatly arranged series 
o f m ajor events, but in a process people lived every day. T h at’s 
w h y h e r f ic tio n a v o id s p lo t a n d in s te a d d e a ls w ith th e
consciousness o f characters and reveals th e essence o f their lives.
The outbreak o f World War II was a shattering event for Woolf. 
N evertheless, she m anaged to com plete a brief, enigm atic final 
novel “ B etw een the A cts” (1941). The book is about the eternal

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England, the beautiful threatened civilization w hich she had 
alw ays loved. On M arch 28, 1941 V irginia W oolf, acutely d e­
pressed by the constant G erm an bom bing o f England, com m itted 
suicide (drow ned herself).
Katherine Mansfield 
(1888 - 1923)
K atherine M ansfield, the daughter o f a w ealthy bunker, was 
bom in N ew Zealand and educated in London at Q ueen’s College. 
A talented cellist, she studied m usic at the Royal A cadem y o f
M usic, bu t later realized that her true calling w as w riting, not 
m usic. In 1911, through a chance m eeting in Germ any, she be­
cam e friend to the well known literary critic and editor John 
M iddleton Murry. T hey w ere m arried in 1918. By th e end o f the 
war, she had becom e an invalid, m oving from clim ate to clim ate 
for relief from incurable tuberculosis. She died in France on Janu­
ary 9,1923, at the age o f thirty four.
She began to w rite at an early age. H er contribution to 
English literature mainly makes the form o f short stories. Katherine 
M ansfield’s first stories and sketches were published in the peri­
odical “T he N ew Age”, to which she became a regular contributor. 
H er first story “Prelude” written in 1918 m ade her fam ous. Her 
second book, the collection o f stories “Bliss and O ther Stories”

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was published in 1921. H er third collection “The G arden Party 
and O ther Stories” appeared a year later. K atherine M an sfie ld ’s 
style w as often com pared to that o f Chekhov. Like him she w rote 
stories, w hich depended m ore on atm osphere, character, and 
nuances o f language than on plot. T he stories o f K atherine 
M ansfield are not tales o f action, nor have they com plicated 
plots. She describes human conduct in quite ordinary situations. 
Yet, they are expressive o f a vast range. M any o fh e r stories cen­
ter on children and on old people in isolated circum stances and 
are deeply affecting in their sym pathetic portrayal o f the lonely, 
the rejected, and the victim ized.
For exam ple, in her short story “T he D oll’s H ouse” the au­
thor show s how the snobbery o f the adults has intruded into the 
world o f children and has made them selfish and cruel. The Kelvey 
girls are isolated from the other schoolgirls, because they are 
poor and their father is in prison. T he girls o f the story (Em m ie 
C ole, Isabel Burnell, Lena Logan, Jessie M ay) exhibit a high 
degree o f class consciousness and snobbery. The isolation o f the 
Kelveys is described in the follow ing way: “M any o fth e children, 
including the B urnells, w ere not allow ed even to speak to them. 
They w alked past the Kelveys with their heads in the air, and as 
they set the fashion in all m atters o f behavior, the Kelveys w ere 
shunned by everybody. Even the teacher had a special voice for 
them , and a special smile for the other children when Lil Kelvey 
cam e up to her w ith a bunch o f dreadfully com m on-looking flow ­
ers.” From all the girls only the Kelveys w ere not allow ed to see 
the m arvelous d o ll’s house, which was presented to the Burnell 
children. “O nly the little Kelveys m oved away forgotten; there 
w as nothing m ore for them to hear.” The story is very short but it 
provokes a deep feeling o f sym pathy in th e hearts o f readers. The 
social cruelty to which the K elveys are subjected by the children 
and adults around is represented skillfull)'.
K atherine M ansfield regarded C hekhov as her literary teacher. 
In collaboration with K otelansky she translated C hekhov’s dia­
ries and letters into English. Once she called h erself “the English 
C hekhov” . But differing from Chekhov, K atherine M ansfield de­

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clares that life m ust be taken as it is. She does not see any necessity 
to change it.
Her w riting is objective, but the reader can easily feel her 
sym pathies and antipathies. She is very sensitive to class d istin c­
tions, and her sym pathy is alw ays on the side o f the poor. A ny 
kind o f selfishness and pretence on the part o f the rich people is 
treated with ironic objectivity. H er short story “A Cup o f Tea” is 
an exam ple o f it.
“A Cup of Tea”
The principal character o f the story is R osem ary Fell. The 
author characterizes her in the follow ing way:
“R osem ary Fell was not exactly beautiful. N o, you co u ld n ’t 
have called her beautiful. Pretty? Well, if you took her to pieces... 
But w hy be so cruel as to take anyone to pieces? She was young, 
brilliant, extrem ely m odem , exquisitely w ell dressed, am azingly 
well read in the new est o f the new books, and her parties w ere 
the m ost delicious m ixtures o f the really im portant people...
R osem ary had been m arried two years. She had a duck o f a 
boy. N o, not Peter-M ichael. And her husband absolutely adored 
her. They w ere rich, really rich, not ju s t com fortably well off...”
Thus, R osem ary is so rich, that can buy anything, and can go 
anyw here she w ants. O nce, returning hom e after shopping, she 
meets a girl. In contrast to Rosem aiy, the girl is absolutely poor 
and helpless. She has nothing even to eat:
“... a young girl, thin, dark, shadow y - w here had she com e 
from? - w as standing at R osem ary’s elbow and a voice like a 
sigh, alm ost like a sob, breathed: “ M adam , may I speak to you a 
m om ent?”
“Speak to m e?” R osem aiy turned. She saw a little: battered 
creature with enorm ous eyes, som eone quite young, no older than 
herself, w ho clutched at her coat-collar with reddened hands, and 
shivered as though she had ju st com e out o f the water.
“M -m adam ,” stam m ered the voice. “W ould you lei m e have 
the price o f a cup o f tea?”

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“ A cup o f tea?” T here w as som ething sim ple, sincere in that 
voice; it w a sn ’t in the least the voice o f a beggar. “T hen have you 
no m oney at all?” asked Rosemary.
“N one, m adam ,” cam e the answer.
“ H ow extraordinary!” R osem ary peered through the dusk and 
the girl gazed back at her. H ow m ore than extraordinary! And 
suddenly it seem ed to R osem ary such an adventure. It was like 
som ething out o f a novel by Dostoyevsky, this m eeting in the 
dusk. S upposing she took the girl hom e? S upposing she did do 
one o f w hat would happen? It would be thrilling. A nd she heard 
h erself saying afterw ards to the am azem ent o f h e r friends: “ I sim ­
ply took her hom e with m e,” as she stepped forw ard and said to 
that dim person beside her: “C om e hom e to tea w ith m e.”
Rosem ary brings the poor girl home to let her have a cup o f tea 
there. But after a remark m ade by her husband that the girl is pretty, 
R osem ary’s helpfulness disappears. Her sym pathy to the poor girl 
is showy, superficial, not real. She wants to help the poor thing 
only because she wants to boast o f her generous gestures.
W illia m S o m e rse t M a u g h a m
(1874 - 1965)
Н К Ш Ш Ш Ш й
W illiam Som erset M augham is one o f the best know n English 
w rite rs o f th e 2 0 lh century. H e w as no t only a n o v e list o f 
considerable rank, but also one o fth e most successful dram atists

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and short story w riters. His first novel “L iza o f L am beth” cam e 
out in 1897, and he w ent on producing books