The Forsyte Saga (Wordsworth Classics) [Paperback]

John Galsworthy (Author)

Book Description

Series: Wordsworth Classics | Publication Date: January 5, 2001

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 Property, In Chancery and To Let, is here produced by Wordsworth for the first time in a single volume. Initially, the narrative 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. The marriage of Soames and Irene disintegrates in bitter recrimination, creating a feud within the family that will have far-reaching consequences.

Product Details

• Paperback: 736 pages
• Publisher: Wordsworth Editions Ltd (January 5, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 184022438X
• ISBN-13: 978-1840224382
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 4.9 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #391,459 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The man of property, September 12, 2006

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Forsyte Saga (Wordsworth Classics) (Paperback)

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. 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:

4.0 out of 5 stars Read like an Edwardian, March 8, 2010

By 

An admirer of Saul "Mr Wobble" (uk) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Forsyte Saga (Wordsworth Classics) (Paperback)

A trilogy that spans the years 1886 to 1920 in the lives of the gentrified Forsytes.
Opening with a family gathering for June's engagement to Bosinney, this the start of events that lead to a long running feud between the family factions when Soames's beautiful wife Irene-his 'property'-and Bosinney have an affair. This leads to Bosinneys death and a messy divorce for Soames. Both remarry but old wounds resurface when Irenes son and Soames daughter meet by chance and fall deeply in love...
This is exactly what the title says; a saga, that engrosses and engages. It explores many moral and social issues of the day and societys fundamental break with Victorianism to a new brave age wanting instant gratification and to live life more fully than their predecessors. Soames is one of literatures most complex characters, stuck with Victorian principles in an age growing out of them. You feel both sympathy for him as well as repugnance (He rapes Irene to assert his conjugal rights and uses his influence to crush people,yet his desire is for peace; to be generous)
Like many Victorian/Edwardian books -Dickens and Tolstoy included- much enjoyment can be had by reading these books for what they were at the time ie the soap operas of their day! Of course theres a huge difference between these great works and the vapid illiterate rubbish that serves as soap on TV today. Galsworthy, Dickens, Tolstoy et al were genius;explored intellectual themes and built their characters carefully, so maybe it is a bit of a demeaning term,but novels such as 'The Forsyte Saga' certainly perked up rather staid lives and was the topic of everyday conversations much like the soaps of today.
Galsworthy-like Kipling- tends to be overlooked these days; thought of as remenents of an imperial past which is both unfair and shows how little (if any) their critics have read of their work.
Galsworthy-like Kipling- was worthy of his nobel prize. A toch dated ? Yes in some ways (though reading 'To Let' it could just as easy have been questioning the direction of 60's youth as to that of 1920 when it was written) but I think you miss how good the work is if you continually judge with todays sensibilities.

5.0 out of 5 stars The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy, May 30, 2011

By 

scott89119 "scott89119" (Whittier, CA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Forsyte Saga (Wordsworth Classics) (Paperback)

The Forsyte Saga is Galsworthy's epic, Nobel-winning story of an uppercrust English family in London and its environs circa end of the 19th century. It primarily centers on Soames Forsyte, a well-intentioned malcontent who is gradually worn down by the trappings of affluence and the stunning disappointment it invariably creates. He takes as his wife and property Irene, a transcendent woman who marries for convenience, but soon learns of the gravity of her error and spends the rest of the novel trying to get out of the novel. There are also many other subplots, romances, peripheral characters, and subtle scenes scattered throughout that detail a respect for beauty and life, mingled with an apprehension about living it to a level that one feels they deserve. This constant cold war between passion and propriety leads the novel to a downcast (but oddly hopeful) conclusion.

As a novel, this is as distinguished as the art form can get. Mysteriously absent from the numerous best-of lists out there, it is nonetheless as good and complete as any other book I have read in recent memory. Galsworthy's great talent was mixing the entertaining with the substantive; the whole book is as dramatically entertaining as a soap opera, but nonetheless details the human spirit with supreme elegance. There is not a single character here that isn't completely human, whose interactions always make sense, and who are true. At the end I didn't necessary like all of them, but I understood them to a T. Galsworthy was also a master of description, and was able to amplify quiet moments of joy or devastation with economy and grace. Add to that the fact that the book overall moves quickly and is continually entertaining, and you have one of the most readable great books in existence. This is an exceedingly elegant, wonderful novel that was an honor to stumble upon; I guess I'll be recommending it to readers forever. Truly outstanding.