SOURCE: An excerpt from John Galsworthy, H. Holt and Company, 1916, pp. 86-99.

Kaye-Smith was an English novelist, short story writer, and critic best known for her portrayals of the land, people, and history of Sussex, England. In the following excerpt, she analyzes short stories by Galsworthy, comparing them to a few of his essays and poems.

Villa Rubeln and four short stories under the title of A Man of Devon were published anonymously. All early efforts, they are not on a line with Galsworthy's later work, but they have about them a certain beauty and individuality which makes them worth considering. Perhaps their chief characteristic is delicacy: they are water-colours, in many ways exquisitely conceived and shaded, but perhaps a trifle pale and washed out, a trifle—it must be owned—uninteresting.

Villa Rubeln, describing with much sensitive charm the life of a half-Austrian household, is full of...