Customer Reviews

To Let (Forsyte Saga)

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This is not a criticism of the novel or the author. The Forsythe Saga is a well known work of literature.

This book publication is a digitally scanned copy so as to keep the cost as low as possible. There are many typos and at times it's hard to make sense of many sentences. I do caution buyers before buying any digitally scanned novels.

There is a frontispiece disclaimer by the publisher General Books on the typo problems likely to be encountered in their digitally scanned novels, however this is not much help after buying the book online overseas. Amazon should advise customers if their purchase is a scanned copy.

Those who have read "The Man of Property" and "In Chancery" are the only ones able to read John Galsworthy's "To Let". This is a book that requires previous reading and acquaintance with the Forsytes. For those this book is a treat. At this point we are in a transition. The old school of Forytes (Jolyon, Soames...) is about to `resign', while new folks are starting to assume the power and the money (Jolyon's third son, Soames' daughter...). The very old Forsyte school, by the way, is already history.

"To Let" is a novel of transition, it is as if the parents are passing the command to their kids -- at least in terms of narrative. That is why old plots (Irene, Somaes, Jolyon) and new ones are in the center of the narrative.

The story is set some twenty years after the ending of "In Chancery", Soames' and Jolyon's kids are virtually adults but they don't know the plot involving their parents (the story of the first and second novel) and are ready to fall in love. It is not surprise that Fleur (Jolyon's French kid) will fall in love with Jon (Jolyon's third son also named Jolyon).

But their main obstacle is not the fact that they are cousins, but the relations from the past. The narrative will focus on this Romeo and Juliet-esque couple whose union --or separation-- lies in a secret hidden in the past.

Those who have reached the third installment in the saga are those who have liked it and are looking forward to see what will happen to the Forsyte. So it is no mystery that Galsworthy exploits the family changes as a shadow of the change in their society --set about the 20's of the XX Century. As Britain Empire declines, so does the power of the Forsytes that can not avoid their hidden skeletons.