Forsythia: A Memoir of Lost Generations - Hardcover

Longley, Peter Hovenden

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1475933541 ISBN 13: 9781475933543

Publisher: iUniverse, 2012

Synopsis

Encased within the drama of John Galsworthy's The Forsyte Saga, Peter Hovenden Longley weaves an autobiographical reminiscence of his own English family from the 1880s to the 1960s. Brought up in the last days of Forsythia, a world of the 3 percent born in privilege to serve the British Empire, Longley celebrates his family's lost generations. Nothing-neither the abdication of the King Emperor Edward VIII in 1936 nor Adolf Hitler's relentless bombs-could shake the British people's conviction that theirs was the eternal kingdom. Blindly, they believed that after a good cup of strong, Indian tea and a game of croquet on the lawn, Forsythia would go on forever.

But in the aftermath of the Boer War,the Irish rebellion, the Great War, and the rise of socialism, even the faith of most stalwart champions of the empire would be shaken. Forced to accept that the world they once loved was changing around them, Longley's family and their peers struggled to adapt to a new reality. As a living witness to his family's history, Longley takes the reader through the Second World War, the independence and division of India, and the gradual dissolution of the empire itself.

With the permission of the Galsworthy estate, Longley analyzes The Forsyte Saga and reflects on the impact of this work of literature. His was the last generation of Forsytes, witnesses to those final rays that filtered across the empire on which they all thought the sun would never set.

About this title

About the Author:

Historian, artist, and theologian Peter Hovenden Longley was the estate manager of Tullamaine Castle in Ireland for eleven years. He then went to sea as a cruise director, including ten years aboard the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2. He graduated from Cambridge University, published five novels, and now works in horticulture in Springfield, Missouri.

Review:

Fans of popular Edwardian-period shows and literature such as 'Downton Abbey', will fall in love with this hefty tome that examines the culture of that alluring time period through parallel lenses. Unveiling the mystery and rigidity of social class in intimate and minute detail, where 'Forsythia' becomes a term referring to the attitudes, unwritten laws, and sometimes outright chutzpah of the haut monde, 'Forsythia' provides a meticulous, comprehensive history replete with copious detail and entertaining stories. A genuine reading pleasure. - Sacramento Book Review/San Francisco Book Review

With expert compare and contrast style, Longley carefully illuminates passages from the fictional Galsworthy work, 'The Forsyte Saga,' with stories from real life. Fictional narrative comes alive as we see true-life samples of the disparity between master and servant, strict cultural mores and rules, incidentals like an organ-grinder, ginger-beer, and waning traditions like the garden parties and social clubs.Characters from author Longley's own history stand out as colorful as any fictive Forsyte and take on amusing and interesting lives of their own. - Portland Book Review

About this edition

• Publisher: iUniverse
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1475933541
• ISBN 13: 9781475933543
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 706