The Japanese Quince Introduction

Since its first publication in 1910 in the collection A Motley, John Galsworthy's "The Japanese Quince" has been popular with readers for its richly suggestive, yet subdued, narrative. The story recounts an episode from the life of Mr. Nilson, who is momentarily diverted by the sights, sounds, and smells of an early spring morning. Seized by the beauty of the natural world, Mr. Nilson is briefly lifted out of his highly regimented, well-ordered Me. Born to wealth and having lived his entire life in the Victorian English world of the upper middle class, Galsworthy wrote about what he knew. The hollow lives of his patrician characters provide the matrix for the primary pathos of his work. He once stated that "The Japanese Quince" was his attempt to "produce in the reader the sort of uneasy feeling that now and then we run up against ourselves." Like much of Galsworthy's fiction, this story has been commended for its complex insights into the ambivalence of human nature, and for its glimpse into a world that reveals its shortcomings while suggesting the possibilities for its redemption.

The Japanese Quince Summary

The action of "The Japanese Quince" appears at first glance quite simple and straightforward, perhaps deceptively so On a beautiful spring morning, Mr. Nilson opens his dressing room window, only to experience "a peculiar sweetish sensation in the back of his throat.'' Descending to his dining room and finding his morning paper laid out, Mr. Nilson again experiences that peculiar sensation as he takes the paper in his hand. Hoping to rid himself of this uncomfortable feeling, Mr. Nilson determines to take a walk in the nearby gardens before breakfast.

With paper firmly in hand behind him, Mr. Nilson notes with some alarm that even after two laps around the park, the unsettling sensation has not ceased. Breathing deeply only exacerbates the problem. Mr. Nilson is unable to account for the way he feels, until it occurs to him it might possibly be "some smell affecting him." a scent evidently emanating from the budding bushes of spring. When a blackbird begins singing, Mr, Nilson's attention... » Complete The Japanese Quince Summary