The Apple Tree has shown a romantic realistic inclination. In this novel, Galsworthy tells us the love tragedy between Ashurst and Megan. It is found that the origin of the tragedy is the unequal capitalist society. Ashurst has dual personality. On one hand, he is selfish, irresponsible, and eager to defend for himself and deceives himself as well as others; on the other hand, he indulges himself in pity and chivalry.

John Galsworthy (14 August 1867—31 January 1933) was an English novelist and playwright. Notable works include The Forsyte Saga (1906—1921) and its sequels, A Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1932.

And a sudden ache beset his heart; he had stumbled on just one of those past moments in his life, whose beauty and rapture he had failed to arrest, whose wings had fluttered away into the unknown; he had stumbled on a buried memory, a wild sweet time, swiftly choked and ended.

This work by John Galsworthy (pictured) is surely one of the greatest short stories in the English language. It sensitively and artistically delineates the deep feelings, the rapture, the ecstasy, the tragedy, and the compromises and social strictures that surround erotic and romantic love. I think it also says something new to modern men and women who live in a world of cheapened sex, who may not yet understand how deeply Cupid’s arrow may—and indeed, ought to—pierce. (Kevin Alfred Strom)

• THE APPLE TREE