Plot Summary for
"The Forsyte Saga" (2002) (mini)
In Victorian England, Soames Forsyte, a man from a wealthy and arrogant family,
meets a falls in love with Irene Herron, a poor woman. After taking her stepmother's advice, Irene marries Soames. After four years of marriage, Irene is not
happy in her marriage because she does not love him. Soames tries to win her
affections by giving her the things he believes every woman wants, dresses and
jewels. He can not give her the one thing her heart desires, freedom. Out of
desperation, he asks his cousin June's fiance, Phil Bosinny, to build him a house in
the country. Irene sees the house as a prison. During the construction of the house,
Phil and Irene fall in love and have an affair. Phil gives Irene the courage to leave
her unhappy marriage and they plan to run away together after the house is built.
The affair causes a scandal in the family. When Soames finds out, he sues Phil
saying he broke the contract they agreed on for the house. One night, Soames takes
advantage of Irene. She tells Phil what has happened and out of anger he goes out
to confront Soames. While in search, he gets in an accident and dies. Irene still
leaves Soames and finds her own place away from him. Years later, Irene comes in
contact with Soames's uncle Jolyon who leaves her money after he dies out of
friendship. Jolyon's son, Young Jolyon, is her trustee. Soames falls for a young
French girl, Annette, whom he wants to marry. He goes in search for Irene for a
divorce but has no current evidence for the divorice. Instead, he decides to try to
win her back so he can have an heir. She runs from him and finds friendship and
protection in Young Jolyon. Soames decides on a divorice after he finds Irene and
Young Jolyon together and Irene tells him she and Young Jolyon are in love. Irene
and Jolyon marry and have a son, while Soames marries Annette and has a
daughter. Is this family scandal over? Is Irene finally free from Soames? Simply
Recipes Home » Store » Books
The Forsyte Saga
Rating: - Sprawling
Family secrets, dirty little problems, and a dash of adultery, scandal and forbidden
love. Soap opera? Well, sort of -- it's Nobel Prize Winner John Galsworthy's
sprawling family epic "The Forsyte Saga." While it has a distinctly soapy flavor,
"Saga" retains its dignity and look at turn-of-the-century mores and society.
The Forsyte family is determinedly regal and hard-nosed, almost to the point of a
fault. One staid family member, Soames Forsyte, becomes obsessed with the
1
beautiful but poor Irene, and finally gets her to marry him -- on condition that if
their marriage doesn't work, she walks. Well, their marriage doesn't work. Soames
is frustrated that Irene shuts him out of her life and her bed -- even more so when
he learns that she is in love with sexy, arty architect Bosinney, who is building
them a new house.
Soames rapes Irene and ruins Bosinney. His marriage falls into ruins, and
Bosinney is killed in a car accident. So Irene leaves permanently, living in an
apartment by herself. Then Soames announces that he wants to marry a pretty
French girl, Annette, and Irene weds Soames' cousin. But the problems of the older
generation get inherited by the younger one -- Soames's daughter falls madly in
love with Irene's son, but their parents' secret pasts doom their love.
Three novels ("A Man of Property," "In Chancery," and "To Let"), connected with
two short stories ("Indian Summer of a Forsyte" and "Awakening") -- it's a pretty
big story, sprawling over three generations and four decades. It's a bit soapy, with
all the scandal and family weirdness, but the dignified writing keeps it from
seeming sordid.
It's a credit to Galsworthy that he can communicate so much without ever getting
into his characters' heads. He displays emotion in undemonstrative people like
Irene through little mannerisms and twitches. At the same time, he can give us
heartrending looks into aging patriarch Old Jolyon's lonely mind. His writing is
very nineteenth century, dignified and with plenty of furniture/clothing details. It's
pretty dense, but all right once you get used to it.
Galsworthy was a solid supporter of women's rights, and you can see in Irene and
Soames' relationship -- Soames, who sees his wife as another piece of property,
and the determined Irene who only wants her own happiness, but can't afford to
live on her own. Their respective kids Jon and Fleur are nice but kind of boring
beside their darker, more intense parents.
For a look at the social shifts that helped define the twentieth century, take a look
at the "Forsyte Saga." Or if you just want to soak in a tale of family woe, love, hate
and dark secrets, "Saga" still works. 2 of 2 people found the following review
helpful:
Fine feather, February 21, 2005
Reviewer:
A.J. (Maryland) - See all my reviews
What's a nice book like this doing in a century like the twentieth? In some ways
"The Forsyte Saga" is the last of a literary species, that which saw its pinnacle with
2
Anthony Trollope's Victorian chronicles of the middle class and exhausted itself as
George Eliot pushed the genre so far past its limits that it had nothing else to do but
yield to modernism. Galsworthy, however, does not veer from the traditional style.
His saga of a fictional family, intended to represent the English upper middle class
(as they are repeatedly and emphatically described), is a compilation of three
novels and two short interludes, the entirety completed in 1922, the narrative
covering the waning Victorian era and the societal changes that occurred
throughout the Edwardian era and the first World War.
Thorny and extensive as the Forsyte family tree is, Galsworthy concentrates
mainly on a few selected characters and one story line to guide the saga. It begins
with a party showing the Forsytes "in full plumage" as they celebrate the
engagement of June, the granddaughter of "Old" Jolyon Forsyte, the family's
current living patriarch, to the architect Philip Bosinney, who has been hired by old
Jolyon's nephew, Soames Forsyte, a solicitor, to design a new house for him and
his wife Irene. The problem is that Irene is bored with her marriage to Soames and
has an affair with Bosinney and then (much later) with "Young" Jolyon, old
Jolyon's son and Soames's cousin.
Irene's infidelity leads to her separation from Soames, who mostly wants a son to
continue his lineage and implores her to return. Her final rejection of him enables a
divorce and gives him the opportunity to marry a pretty French girl named
Annette, but he never relinquishes his love for Irene, and her subsequent marriage
to young Jolyon causes a rift between the two cousins, exacerbated by the fact that
old Jolyon had bought the house that Soames had contracted from Bosinney.
Soames and Annette have a daughter named Fleur, from whom he decides to keep
his former marriage a secret, which presents a complication when Fleur
accidentally meets and falls in love with Jon, the son of young Jolyon and Irene.
Galsworthy rescues the story from becoming a trite soap opera by using the
particular Forsyte mentality as the supporting theme. According to young Jolyon,
who is not as concerned with money as most Forsytes are, a Forsyte has "a sense of
property"; that is, the Forsytes define themselves by their possessions--houses,
land, commodities, wives. Soames, the exemplary Forsyte, demonstrates this by
being doomed to live a lucrative but loveless life; he is not as pathetic as he is
merely typical of his class. The Forsytes compete with each other and become
jealous over trifles and perceived superiorities, but, fearful of scandals, they refrain
from anything that could bring public disgrace upon the family name.
When examined in the context of the contemporary cultural revolution, the saga
assumes another dimension. There is a wonderful paragraph in which Soames and
Annette witness the funeral procession of Queen Victoria in 1901 and Galsworthy
summarizes the "transmuting influence" of the sixty-four years of her reign, from
coaches to motor-cars, the rise of the upper middle class. In the concluding
chapter, Soames further contemplates the Forsytian transition at the death of his
3
youngest uncle, which marks the passing of the influential generation of Forsytes
that included his own father and old Jolyon. Descended from farmers, a family of
merchants, lawyers, realtors, and publishers is coming full circle back to farming
and gradually splintering into other families. Eventually, only the name remains.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Who said the rich had it all?, October 1, 2004
Reviewer:
K. Quirke "quirkie" (Woronora Heights, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews
This is a great soap opera sprawling a number of generations from the 1800's to the
changing times of the 1920's & 30's. Through this novel we can see the changes
that took place in society where money was no object. There is love, lust, adultery,
death, birth and friendship. We find in this novel that those with money during this
early times were not suffering with the problems of monetary poverty but that of
emotional poverty. There are standards to uphold and mistakes are made and status
can suffer.
You will love this novel, it is a classic and certainly better than any mini series.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Sprawling "Saga", September 4, 2004
Reviewer:
E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
4
Family secrets, dirty little problems, and a dash of adultery, scandal and forbidden
love. Soap opera? Well, sort of -- it's Nobel Prize Winner John Galsworthy's
sprawling family epic "The Forsyte Saga." While it has a distinctly soapy flavor,
"Saga" retains its dignity and look at turn-of-the-century mores and society.
The Forsyte family is determinedly regal and hard-nosed, almost to the point of a
fault. One staid family member, Soames Forsyte, becomes obsessed with the
beautiful but poor Irene, and finally gets her to marry him -- on condition that if
their marriage doesn't work, she walks. Well, their marriage doesn't work. Soames
is frustrated that Irene shuts him out of her life and her bed -- even more so when
he learns that she is in love with sexy, arty architect Bosinney, who is building
them a new house.
Soames rapes Irene and ruins Bosinney. His marriage falls into ruins, and
Bosinney is killed in a car accident. So Irene leaves permanently, living in an
apartment by herself. Then Soames announces that he wants to marry a pretty
French girl, Annette, and Irene weds Soames' cousin. But the problems of the older
generation get inherited by the younger one -- Soames's daughter falls madly in
love with Irene's son, but their parents' secret pasts doom their love.
Three novels ("A Man of Property," "In Chancery," and "To Let"), connected with
two short stories ("Indian Summer of a Forsyte" and "Awakening") -- it's a pretty
big story, sprawling over three generations and four decades. It's a bit soapy, with
all the scandal and family weirdness, but the dignified writing keeps it from
seeming sordid.
It's a credit to Galsworthy that he can communicate so much without ever getting
into his characters' heads. He displays emotion in undemonstrative people like
Irene through little mannerisms and twitches. At the same time, he can give us
heartrending looks into aging patriarch Old Jolyon's lonely mind. His writing is
very nineteenth century, dignified and with plenty of furniture/clothing details. It's
pretty dense, but all right once you get used to it.
Galsworthy was a solid supporter of women's rights, and you can see in Irene and
Soames' relationship -- Soames, who sees his wife as another piece of property,
and the determined Irene who only wants her own happiness, but can't afford to
live on her own. Their respective kids Jon and Fleur are nice but kind of boring
beside their darker, more intense parents.
5
For a look at the social shifts that helped define the twentieth century, take a look
at the "Forsyte Saga." Or if you just want to soak in a tale of family woe, love, hate
and dark secrets, "Saga" still works.
Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
A saga indeed, August 15, 2004
Reviewer:
kasthu (Lynchburg, VA United States) - See all my reviews
A magnificent sage about a family at the end of the Victorian period. Following
several generations of this family as they
cavort through society, Galsworthy is a master of storytelling. Although this book
is long, you won't be bored, because the action is faced-paced and exciting;
Galsworthy can read his characters like a book, so to speak, and presents the
Forsyte family as they really are. While Galsworthy postdated the Realism
movement in literature, his style is very much reminiscent of those authors in that
he depicts everything as it really is: no makeup, no glossing over the dirty facts of
life.
At the heart of this big, beautiful book are three novels, plus two smaller stories in
between. The Man of Property, In Chancery, and To Let discuss the major aspects
of the Forsyte Saga- staring with Jolyon Forsyte, the patriarch of the family, then
Soames and Irene Forsyte in the 1880's, and leading up to the 1920's. The two
interludes, Indian Summer of a Forsyte and Awakening are smaller, but no less
important parts of this tragicomic saga of a family as it rises and falls with the
times.
I haven't seen the film production, but I can't wait to see it, if it is in fact as good as
I've heard it to be.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Not Just a Victorian Relic, June 22, 2004
6
Reviewer:
W. Kaplan "calyndula" (Wynnewood, PA United States) - See all my reviews
It has been decades since I last lost myself in The Forsyte Saga, and this time
around, I was amazed at the quality of the writing, its delicacy, its nuance, its depth
of feeling and sympathy for an era that was long-gone even at the time of its first
writing.
John Galsworthy's tale of an upper-class English family spanned three novels and
two "interludes," all of which make up what we think of as the "saga." Each is a
look at the Forsytes, whose family god is property, as they live and die during
England's Victorian days up to and including its waning powers after World War I.
The story of Soames Forsyte, desperately and tragically in love with his wife, the
beautiful Irene, forms the backdrop. Although Soames is supposed to be the
enemy--cold, forbidding, and capable of raping his own wife to claim his "rights as
a husband," nevertheless, I have always felt sorry for him, especially in this
reading. Would he have been a different man if Irene could have loved him back?
Would he have softened, become more human, more able to feel happiness? In
later books, he is loved back by his only daughter Fleur (by his second wife), but
by then he is too set in his ways to change.
And Irene...the modern-day Helen of Troy. The beauty who breaks men's hearts
without even knowing it...could she help being so terribly cold to Soames? With
her warm, loving nature, could she possibly have found it in herself to love her
exact opposite? That dilemma continues through the generations to culminate in a
truly intense tragedy involving Irene's only son and Soames' only daughter.
I am so glad to have revisited this book once again and seeing it with new eyes. It
is so much more than a mere melodrama, and the quality of Galsworthy's writing is
much more talented than I had ever realized. The Forsyte Saga should be included
among the masterpieces of a certain era. It has the universal truth and staying
power that is deserving of status as a true classic.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
7
Savory and a delicious read, May 19, 2004
Reviewer:
Veronica Bennett (Wilmington, Ca United States) - See all my reviews
Mr. Galsworthy serves up the Forsyte Saga as a sumptuous meal of rich
descriptions and savory characters in delightful, bite-size pieces. It is a long read,
however, because of such rich character development, these people and their
personalities become a subliminal attachment to the reader's circle of friends and
acquaintances. Its okay if one is unable to read continuously, because one knows
their secrets and stories will keep, and every bit of gossip and story will be saved
for the next installment. Galsworthy's story literally leaves the reader hungering for
the rest of the story.
Why? Galsworthy brillantly reveals the strengths and weaknesses of each of the
primary players. While he exposes Soames arrogance and pride, he also reveals
Soames confusion, denial, and disbelief, thereby humanising the otherwise 'man of
property.' When Irene suggests to Soames the option of dissolving their marriage
before they have married, that is, if she is unhappy, one is prompted to read on,
carefully, for the clues that explain and support how this might occur.
Indeed, this is an oldie... but like a fabulous dessert, it is worth the wait.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Edge of your seat read, March 25, 2004
Reviewer: A reader
The Forsyte Saga will keep you on the edge of your seat! I couldn't put this down
until I was finished with it. I had seen part of the PBS Masterpiece Theater on it
(how I heard about it), but still did not expect what came next!
8
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
The best novel I have read in years, March 19, 2004
Reviewer:
MoonGoddessAnna (Bronx, NY United States) - See all my reviews
I have read most of the great novels and i find this to be far superior to many
considered part of the essential western
canon. The psychology, subtlety of narrative and memorable characters (Old
Jolyon being my favorite in a book chock full of interesting characters) are all
above and beyond most novels i have read. There is something wonderful about
the scale of the novel and I would often find myself weeping while reading thispeople often create their own tragedies and those moments are worth reading
about. Simply perfect.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
Forsyte Saga - a well awarded but oft forgotten classic, February 10, 2004
Reviewer:
Brianne Dahlin (Shawnee, KS) - See all my reviews
I'll make this short and to the point. I'm quite the avid reader, but usually I don't
enjoy books of this nature, opting for fantasy and sci-fi escapism instead. This
story is just beautifully told though. The subtleties of the characters and the
twisting lives of the Forsyte family are fascinating and makes this one helluva a
page turner. I was hooked immediately. I honestly believe that people of all ages
will love this book, and I urge you to give it a shot! I know sometimes that novels
9
taking place in this particular era can seem daunting for those of us who crave
more "Adventure! Action!" type books, but there is no lack of excitement here!
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
The first of the great British family sagas, August 29, 2003
Reviewer:
flipsy - See all my reviews
Galsworthy was the first to borrow the term "saga" from the Nordic epic poems to
apply to a lengthy novelistic study of a family: the trilogy, his masterpiece,
influenced more writers in this century than probably can be counted (most
eminently Robert Graves and -- in THE YEARS -- Virginia Woolf). Although it
very quickly went out of fashion among the modernist writers of his time, THE
FORSYTE SAGA has remained a popular hit, inspiring no less than two famous
BBC mini-series. And it's the real deal: I can think of few novel cycles that are as
satisfying or as eminently readable, much less that are as minutely crafted. (The
continuing themes of possesion and death cycle throughout the saga in such
fascinating ways that it is almost impossible to believe Galsworthy wrote the first
novel, THE MAN OF PROPERTY, without intending to build a trilogy out of it.)
The best edition in print seems to be the Oxford World's Classics edition in that it
comes with an indispensable family tree.
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Customer Reviews
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Number of Reviews: 26
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Read It And Weep..., August 19, 2003
Reviewer:
"missfinn" (Grand Prairie, TX) - See all my reviews
This body of works has moved me unlike any other. I have re-read the Forsyte
Saga over and over again. Each time, I am
brought to tears. Sadness over Irene's situation and then by the end, for Soames,
who wanted nothing more than to love her and lavish upon her all that he could.
When Irene and Young Jolyon marry, you want all the best for them, even
knowing the pain Soames feels. Throughout the entire history of this family, you
share their joys, sorrows and even a little bit of laughter. You just can't help loving
Aunts Ann, Julia & Hester. You'll never regret the reading of these books. It took
me 4 yrs. of searching thrift stores in order to have all 3 hardbacks. I've never had
more fun searching for something!
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12
Long but interesting, August 5, 2003
Reviewer: A reader
I got interested in reading this book after viewing the Masterpiece Theater showing
of the Forsyte Saga. It was interesting to compare the movie's interpretation of the
book, and it gave a little more insight into the motivations of each of the
characters. Overall a good book.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
The Forsyte Saga- a forgotten classic, July 22, 2003
Reviewer:
Claire Cahoon (Columbus, OH) - See all my reviews
This novel is filled not only with wonderful social commentary on Victorian
society (a la Edith Wharton), but is also seasoned
with beautifully written, insightful, and heartbreaking character studies.
Galsworthy breaks into his characters, exposing their inner fragilties, cruelties, and
amazing vulnerabilities. I haven't read a novel this engrossing, or one so
exquisitely crafted in a long time.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
The book is great but the edition is an embarrasment, July 6, 2003
Reviewer: A reader
... for Oxford University Press. There are quite a few annoying typos. I can see
how the new Forsyte by the name Scames or the unlisted French word "ficbe"
13
came about as a result of faulty character recognition, but how Soames, born in
1855, got to be thirty-eight in in 1885, is beyond me. Don't they have proof-readers
anymore?
By all means read the book--you may find out how a lot of later works of literature
derive from it--but not in this edition.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
The denizens of a 19th century superpower -the, June 19, 2003
Reviewer:
"sonadm" (Fremont, CA USA) - See all my reviews
I read the Forsyte saga while I was in college - and was instantly hooked. John
Galsworthy wormholes you into a different
world and time, but as the essence and humanity of his characters unfold, they are
extremely familiar even in todays world. What is it about a grand passion that
weakens a man of formidable integrity,rigid morals and conservative politics?
Irenes forced subjugation to the marital bed leaves pangs, but her beauty is a
sinister seduction to all who encounter it, so one falls short of empathy with her...
A booming economy, a strong parliament, living in the lap of luxury in the worlds
premier city of the time.. can you say AMERICA today? And yet,
are we not prisoners of our societal mores? Soames and Irene were
both prisoners in a marriage - Irenes captivity was more obvious,
but he was no less a prisoner - trapped in a passion -shared by
most men - looked at her he really could not see why she did
not return his feelings, and was terrified of losing her, because he was scared of
being lonely. Montague and Winifred, Jolyon and Helen - all of them kind of in the
same boat. And in the end, the man with the strongest character committed the
biggest crime. Or did he? Did Jolyon and Irene not commit a larger crime when
they wilfully transferred the feud down to a
generation? Soames and his daughter in the end came to terms with
their life much better than the more "likeable" characters. John Galsworthy and all
his books on the Forsytes read like a treatise on marriage, relationships and a life in
society that we must all live in. Ostracism was terrible at the time - it could really
14
ruin lives, and it can even today. He writes about it in its true light and
heinousness. I love this series and the
ensuing trilogy - The White Monkey, The Silver Spoon and Swan Song. It gives
me great pleasure to post this review. For a decade almost, John Galsworthy was a
staple of my reading "diet".
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26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
No wonder Galsworthy won!, December 31, 2002
Reviewer:
dikybabe "admeyer" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews
What an infinite study of character, the Forsyte character, men of ownership, of
possession, of material things!
I waited for the PBS presentation with patient enthusiasm, and was not
disappointed. But knowing that video/movies can
only do so much for a text, I unearthed my own private copy of Galworthy's book,
one inherited from my aunt, and started the discovery by print.
I have been so overcome by Galsworthy's skill as a wordsmith, and so fascinated
by his social commentary on this class of people, that I have broken away from the
novel time and time again and done further research into Galsworthy and his own
commentaries of his work, particularly on the Forsytes. From his wife, Ada's
preface, through his intro, to his chosen dedications, I am enchanted. I feel remiss
to not have read him before this time, but so grateful to have an old copy and to
now enrich my life with these characters.
While not disappointed by the TV rendering, I am glad to know Soames, Irene, Old
Jolyon, Young Jolyon, June, as Galsworthy painted them. I am glad to see their
physical makeup to be different than those of the actors and actresses in the PBS
series, and to feel I know them much more completely now.
I have a personal love of British lit and am so pleased to find such great
storytelling in an older text. The judges were so right in awarding prizes to
Galsworthy.
15
The Forsyte Saga is not so foreign in time and portrayal. Materialism still reigns
and seduces and corrupts. Class one-up- manship still deludes. Self-importance and
shallow values still prevail. Feet of clay forever are feet of clay.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
A brilliant novel, November 9, 2002
Reviewer:
Mary Poppins "bookworm221" (USA) - See all my reviews
I finished three-quarters of this entire book in less than a week; the first novel of
the three in less than two days. That's
how good "The Forsyte Saga" is. Galsworthy's writing style is incredible; it's no
wonder that this is the novel that won him the Nobel Prize. The story and
characters are so captivating that it just drives you onward and onward until the
end. The Forsytes themselves are an intriguing lot--especially poor Soames.
There's an instinct for the reader to dislike him, and yet Galsworthy shows that he
has true human feelings, just like anyone else. His love for Irene and his passionate
desire to be loved back is heartbreaking. The morals that Galsworthy incorporates
makes the book complete, making it a true monument of literature.
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32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
A Nobel saga, December 14, 2001
Reviewer:
Wordsworth - See all my reviews
The writing evident in this epic is masterful and engaging: it is even and
substantive and elegant. The rich irony about the
16
lengths that men strive to acquire property in all its forms and then find their
acquisitions useless, meaningless and certainly not worth the price. Galworthy was
focused upon property in so many different varieties: the sense of possession that
men had of their wives in his time amid archaic laws about divorce; the building of
a home that ends in unexpected expense in chancery; the elusive value of works of
art; the subtleties of property from family crests, clubs, colleges and occupational
status and cuts of mutton to the blatant futility of fighting over land in South Africa
during the Boer War -- it's all shallow and empty materialism in the end. The
property is never worth the cost of the trouble to acquire it. Young people slave to
gather possessions only to regret in old age that they have traded so much of life
away to gain them and must undergo the painful rigors of its redistribution through
wills after death. Galsworthy seemed to me like a sort of British Tolstoy writing in
England for property reform. Because when property is involved, men tend to
objectify about it and in the course of things they tend to lose their sense of
humanity. This troublesome pattern of life seems to repeat itself often like a lesson
men never learn -- as the objectifying I-It relationship of Martin Buber replaces the
humane I-Thou. Yes, it's a long novel but when the writing is this compelling in its
style and substance, you can luxuriate in the beauty and wisdom of the words.
Every character is finely and individually drawn like a character in a Velasquez
portrait of a large family. You'll regret this novel isn't longer when it ends.
Galsworthy's work earned him a Nobel Prize -- it's easy to see the astonishing
depth and range and virtuosity that the Nobel judges found in his writing. Don't
pass up the chance to bask in this epic saga of Galsworthy. It's easily one of the top
ten novels ever written in the English language -- it's really that good.
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12 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
Simply soap opera - but a good one, September 12, 2001
Reviewer:
Jesse Monteagudo "book nook" (Plantation, Florida USA) - See all my reviews
I got hooked on John Galsworthy's Forsyte novels when I saw the BBC TV series
in 1969. At that time I sympathized with Irene and Bossinney and hated Soames
for what he did to them. Now that I am older I can relate to the Forsytes more and
see Irene as a selfish woman who wrecked an entire family - primarily Soames,
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June, Old Jolyon and her own son, Jon - and whose only redeeming feature was her
beauty. And I find it incredible that Galsworthy won the Nobel Prize when so
many greater writers - Tolstoy, Twain and Proust, just to name a few - were
ignored. Still, as soap opera, "The Forsyte Saga" is fun to read, especially when
followed by Gaslworthy's "Modern Comedy" and "The End of the Chapter" and
even Suleika Dawson's vastly inferior "The Forsytes". And that is not too shabby.
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3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Interesting story, what!, August 31, 2001
Reviewer:
"dlite1212" (Ocala, FL USA) - See all my reviews
I found it a little slow at first and was not used to reading 'proper english'. I found
that there is a big difference between
English and American/Ozarkien, which is what I speak. But once I got used to it I
enjoyed it very much. I was surprised, at first, because even the commentary was
written in 'proper english' until I realized that the author was living in that age and
was writing as he spoke. The saga takes place at the turn of the century, England.
The people are very real and very English. I feel I learned very much about that
time and that country. I have since read the next vol (The Modern Comedy) and
am now into the final vol. (End of the Chapter). I'm sure I would enjoy them even
more if I knew their slang, etc. and many refs to their history. Good reading.
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3 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
everybody just reads the first novel (and that's a shame), April 30, 2000
Reviewer:
Philip Greenspun (Cambridge, MA USA) - See all my reviews
The 1933 Scribner's edition of this classic trilogy is worthwhile because of the
preface by Ada Galsworthy, the author's wife. Combined with the dedication (from
John to Ada), it paints an inspiring picture of a marriage between two creative
minds who respected each other's talents. The trilogy itself is an inspiring artifact
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of a life spent working hard. Galsworthy finished the first book, Man of Property
in 1906, at the age of 39. He put the project aside for something like 12 years and
then finished the last two novels when in his mid-50s. Most people only read the
first book but the last two deepened my appreciation for the first and for
Galsworthy's talent.
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2 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
enough with the exclamation points already!, April 21, 1999
Reviewer: A reader
mr. galsworhy may have written a fine solid substantial novel, byt by heaven mr.
anthony trollope who lived and wrote over fifty years before was a much more
modern writer and didn't qualify every goddam sentence with an exclamation
mark. (!) very dated stuff. who knows, maybe one day i'll get past all those damn
exclamation marks.
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38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
ONE OF THE FORGOTTEN GREATS, September 13, 1998
Reviewer: A reader
Upon the release of ML's 100 greatest English-lanuage novels of this century, it
was to my great sadness to find "The Forsyte Saga" missing from the list. It
seemed to confirm what I'd feared for the last several years: even critics have left
this spectacular collection behind.
Perhaps it is the fact that of the book's length that frightens off so many readers: at
800+ pages it doesn't exactly make for easy beach reading. Keep in mind, however,
that the book is comprised not only of three separate novels but also of connecting
interludes.
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If you want to read truly great literature of such a standard that earned John
Galsworthy a Nobel Prize for Literature, you need look no further than "The
Forsyte Saga."
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14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
WHO NEEDS HAPPINESS WHEN ONE CAN HAVE APPEARANCES?,
September 7, 1998
Reviewer: A reader
Re: THE MAN OF PROPERTY
Step into the world of upper middleclass London of the late Victorian era,
staunchly embodied in the several brothers Forsyte, their sisters, children, inlaws
and grandchildren. It's a world motivated by keeping up appearances and
exercising the strictest control over expression of one's emotions -- that is, if one is
to preserve one's status as a proper member of the upper middleclass. Indeed, the
only safe emotion is curiosity about how much others have paid for their
possessions and whether they are to be congratulated or envied for acquiring
something for nothing, or shall they be sneered at and ridiculed for having paid
more. The Forsytes are a commercial bunch, everything boils down to financial
value for them -- even relationships bear price tags.
Old Jolyon is patriarch of the Forsyte clan. Unlike his brothers, he is now scornful
of that middleclass ethos they so highly value, often to their detriment. Old Jolyon
has lived long enough to regret his deference to appearances, which had cost him
his relationship with his only son.
The author's indictment against the stern, uncharitable principles cherished by the
British upper middleclass is peppered throughout the narration, the characters
always replacing any thoughts toward generosity with sound justification (read:
excuse) for niggardly self interest. We are used to categorizing characters as
victims, villains and heroes. However, in this story it can be argued that everyone
is a victim; there are no real heroes or real villains. Because of his unsympathetic
nature, cousin Soames might appear a villain, but truly he is as tragic a figure as
Mr. Bosinney (the fiance of June, Old Jolyon's granddaughter) who is in love with
the tragically beautiful Irene, Soames's wife. Although the reader is generously
privy to the thoughts and feelings of the members of the clan, including
disagreeable inlaws, it is noteworthy that the reader is only aware of the two tragic
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characters, Bosinney and Irene, as they are observed by others. The author never
allows the reader to trespass directly into their souls to expose all therein.
Fortunately for us, these two wear their hearts on their sleeves and others are
thereby enabled to read volumes simply by taking advantage of brief observations.
We see the reactions of Irene and Bosinney, never their internal motivations.
The title of this book begs the question, exactly who is the man of property or to
which man of property does the title refer -- and what exactly is the property that is
referenced. Ultimately cousin Soames is the man specifically identified in the title,
and surely the property particularly stressed is his unyielding wife, the
incomparable Irene. Irene is so much the sophisticated lady, so beguiling in
appearance and manner, I am reminded of Jane Austen's "dear Jane Fairfax"
("Emma") who, like dear Irene, has no money of her own and therefore is
compelled to select between the lesser of two (or more) quite unattractive
situations. For certainly, when one's station is so reduced, being without the means
to _choose_ between this pleasant possibility and that pleasant circumstance, one
simply must _decide_ which evil will produce the least harm. In The Man of
Property, everyone is selecting -- sometimes their choices backfire and then they
must decide the next step. June happily _chose_ to become engaged to marry
Bosinney, but later she has to _decide_ how best to keep him or even whether she
is at all capable of keeping him.
Bosinney also brings to mind another brooding young man from literature -- Mr.
Ladislaw of George Eliot's "Middlemarch", who also was tragically in love with
another man's wife. Indeed, when reading the description of Bosinney's high cheek
bones, casual manners and the intensity of his emotions, one might be tempted to
cast the actor Rufus Sewell in that role; for Sewell's portrayal of Ladislaw was
quite memorable in the Masterpiece Theatre television adaptation of
"Middlemarch", another story about keeping up appearances and making happy
choices or miserable decisions.
The Man of Property moves along very quickly. The author's descriptions of the
lifestyle and environment of that time are quite detailed. But for the selfish and
unpleasant people who populate this world, the sensitive reader might easily drift
into this other time and other place, which for this reader is the mark of a truly rich
literary experience.
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
One of the best books I've ever read, July 19, 1998
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Reviewer: A reader
This is a must-read! Galsworthy's writing is outstanding. Also read the sequel to
the Saga -- "A Modern Comedy."
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
The only thing better than the story is the writing., April 1, 1998
Reviewer: A reader
Galsworthy gives his readers a view into the transition between the Victorian
culture and the Modern through characters
who seem to come alive under his masterful writing. Three generations of Forsythe
tenacity keep things lively as they watch their world change. I recommend this
book for people interested in Victorian/Modern culture and the historical novel. I
thouroughly enjoyed this book.
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"No matter how smart you are, you spend most of your day being an idiot."
John Galsworthy (1867-1933) is best known for his Forsyte Saga, a series of six
novels which trace the story of a typically English upper-class family from
Victorian days to the nineteen-twenties-presenting their reactions to great events
which, in effect, spell the doom of all they stand for, including World War I, the
growth of Socialism, the General Strike of 1926. Galsworthy had shown himself,
in his early The Island Pharisees, to be critical of the old standards-the philistinism,
decadence, dullness, atrophy of feeling which characterised the so-called 'ruling
class'. The Forsyte Saga, in trying to view this dying class dispassionately -with
occasional irony-nevertheless seems to develop a sympathy for the hero of The
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Man of Property, Soames Forsyte, the epitome of the money-seeking class which
Galsworthy is supposed to detest. Galsworthy, in fact, is himself drawn into the
family of Forsytes, becomes involved with its fortunes, and what starts off as a
work of social criticism ends in acceptance of the very principles it attacks. This
work is still widely read, though it is not greatly esteemed by the modern critics. It
came into its own as a television serial in the 19605.
In 1922 there appeared an important work in prose which (inevitably sometimes
sounds like verse. This was Ulysses, by the Irishman James Joyce (1882-1941), a
novel of enormous length dealing with the event of a single day in the life of a
single town-the author's native Dublin Joyce had previously published some
charming but not outstandin| verse, a volume of short stories called Dubliners, and
a striking auto biographical novel-Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The hero
o this novel-Stephen Dedalus-appears again in Ulysses, this time sub ordinated in a
secondary role: the hero is a Hungarian Jew, long-settlec in Dublin, called Leopold
Bloom. The novel has no real plot. Like thi Greek hero whose name provides the
title, Bloom wanders from place tc place, but has very un-heroic adventures, and
finally meets Stephen, whc then takes on the role of a sort of spiritual son. After
this the book ends But the eight hundred pages are not filled with padding; never
was ; novel written in conciser prose. We are allowed to enter the minds of thi
chief characters, are presented with their thoughts and feelings in a con tinuous
stream (the technique is called 'interior monologue'). The bool is mostly a neverending stream of Bloom's half-articulate impression of the day, but Joyce prevents
the book from being nothing but that, b; imposing on it a very rigid form. Each
chapter corresponds to an episodi in Homer's Odyssey and has a distinct style of its
own; for instance, in thi Maternity Hospital scene the prose imitates all the English
literary style from Beowulf to Carlyle and beyond, symbolising the growth of the
foetu in the womb in its steady movement through time. The skill of the bool is
amazing, and when we pick up a novel by Arnold Bennett or Hugh Walpole after
reading Ulysses we find it hard to be impressed by ways of writing which seem
dull, unaware, half-asleep. Ulysses is the most carefully- written novel of the
twentieth century.
The Forsyte Saga initially centres on Soames Forsyte - a successful solicitor living
in London with his beautiful wife Irene. A pillar of the late Victorian upper middle
class, materially wealthy, his appears to be a golden existence endowed with all the
necessary possessions for a 'Man of Property' but beneath this very proper exterior
lies a core of unhappiness and brutal relationships. When The Forsyte Saga was
shown on television in 1967 it was hugely successful. The nation was gripped by
the masterful visual telling of the Forsyte family's troubled story and adapted its
activities to suit the next transmission. The Forsyte Saga comprising The Man of
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Property, In Chancery and To Let, is here produced by Wordsworth for the first
time in a single volume.
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