Chapter 5 — Quality

Chapter 5 of the Class 7 English NCERT textbook (Honeycomb), "Quality", is a short story by John Galsworthy about Mr Gessler, a German bootmaker in London who devotes his entire life to making perfect boots. Unable to advertise or compromise on quality, he slowly loses his customers to big firms and eventually dies of slow starvation, sitting over his work to the very last.

• Devotion to craftsmanship — Mr Gessler makes only to order, uses the finest leather, and lets no one else touch his work. His boots fit perfectly and last remarkably long — an artist's total, uncompromising dedication to doing one thing supremely well.
• The artist crushed by commerce — Big firms win customers through advertisement rather than work, and Mr Gessler, who scorns publicity, is left without income. The story mourns how commercial competition slowly destroys the honest craftsman who refuses to cut corners.
• Integrity to the end — The last boots Mr Gessler ever made, delivered the week he died, were his finest — proof that starvation never bent his standards. His death by slow starvation becomes the tragic price of unbroken integrity.

1. 01Mr Gessler is a German bootmaker settled in London who made boots only to order and whose work always fit perfectly — the narrator calls it 'mysterious and wonderful'.
2. 02His boots lasted 'terribly long', so the narrator could not visit the shop very often — there was no need for new boots.
3. 03When the narrator once entered wearing boots bought at a large firm, Mr Gessler silently pressed the uncomfortable spot and said, 'Those big firms have no self-respect. They get it by advertisement, not by work.'
4. 04Mr Gessler's elder brother dies, and on his next visit the narrator finds Mr Gessler much aged and worn, barely recognising his long-time customer.
5. 05On the narrator's last visit, the shop name is gone; a young English man has taken it over and reveals Mr Gessler is dead — 'slow starvation' according to the doctor.
6. 06The young man explains that Mr Gessler refused to let anyone else touch his boots, used only the best leather, never advertised, and 'never had a penny in the house — all went in rent and leather'.
7. 07The final boots Mr Gessler ever made — delivered the very week he died — were the best he had ever produced, demonstrating that his devotion to quality never wavered even as he perished.