The Forsyte Saga: Volume 1: The Man of Property, and, In Chancery, and, To Let: The Man of Property; In Chancery; To Let - Softcover

John Galsworthy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140045465 ISBN 13: 9780140045468

Publisher: Penguin, 1978

Synopsis

Galsworthy's nine Forsyte novels span 50 years of family decline, from the 1880s to the 1930s. In seeking to insulate themselves by property from reality and the disintegration of their class, the Forsytes are gradually blinded to the threats of social change and "the stealthy march of passion".

About this title

About the Author

Geoffrey Harvey is Senior Lecturer in English at Reading University. He is also the editor of Trollope's Mr Scarborough's Family, The Bertrams, and Marion Fay in World's Classics.

Review

Sequence of three novels linked by two interludes by John Galsworthy. The saga chronicles the lives of three generations of a monied, middle-class English family at the turn of the century. As published in 1922, The Forsyte Saga consisted of the novel The Man of Property (1906); the interlude (a short story) "Indian Summer of a Forsyte" (1918); the novel In Chancery (1920); the interlude "Awakening" (1920); and the novel To Let (1921). Soames Forsyte, a solicitor and "the man of property," is married to the beautiful, penniless Irene, who falls in love with Philip Bosinney, the French architect whom Soames had hired to build a country house. Soames rapes Irene and proceeds to ruin Bosinney, who subsequently dies in a traffic accident in London. Irene returns to Soames. In Chancery concerns the love between Irene and Young Jolyon Forsyte, Soames's cousin. (The story of the last days of Old Jolyon, his father, is told in "Indian Summer of a Forsyte.") Irene and Soames divorce; she marries Jolyon and bears a son, Jon. Soames and his second wife, Annette Lamotte, have a daughter, Fleur. In To Let, Fleur and Jon grow up and fall in love; Jolyon informs his son of Irene and Soames's past relationship. Although Fleur is determined to marry Jon, he refuses. Fleur becomes the wife of Michael Mont, son of a baronet. Jolyon dies, and Irene leaves England. Soames discovers that Annette is involved in an affair with a Frenchman, as Irene had been. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1978
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140045465
• ISBN 13: 9780140045468
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 912