The Silver Box

John Galsworthy's The Silver Box is a three-act comedy that shows the contrasting behaviors and attitudes of varied social classes, following the theft of a silver cigarette box. Critical of the English legal system, the book is a satire on how justice has different implications for the rich and the poor. Two events converge: the theft of a rich woman's purse and the subsequent theft of a silver cigarette box. As the criminals are brought to court, justice shows its true face. Sympathizing with the unfortunate and downtrodden, The Silver Box was one of Galsworthy's many social critiques that won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1932.