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I. The author. John Galsworthy (1867-1933), is one of the most famous English novelists and playwrights of the early 20th century. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1932. During his career, he produced 20 novels, 27 plays, 173 short stories and other works. The Forsyte Saga.
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I. The author • John Galsworthy (1867-1933), is one of the most famous English novelists and playwrights of the early 20th century. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1932. • During his career, he produced 20 novels, 27 plays, 173 short stories and other works. • The Forsyte Saga
Galsworthy is known for his portrayal of the British upper middle class and for his social satire. • He regarded the novel as a lawful instrument of social propaganda. He believed that it was the duty of an artist to state a problem, to throw light upon it, but not to provide a solution.
Summary The Forsyte Saga, in particular The Man of Property, is John Galsworthy’s most enduring work. It is the story of one upper middle-class family in England in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The most important character is Soames Forsyte, the title character of The Man of Property. He is a successful lawyer and a collector of paintings. He is married to Irene Heron, whom he and society regard as his property. At the climax of the book, Soames rapes her. Galsworthy was horrified at the situation of a woman who is forced into the sexual act with a man she does not love. He did not agree with the prevailing attitude of the time that a husband had the right to his wife’s body.
In Chancery picks up the story several years later. Soames and Irene are still legally married, but separated. Soames becomes obsessed with the need to father a son, but Irene refuses to go back to him. Soames then casts his eye on a young Frenchwoman, Annette Lamotte. The only ground on which Soames can divorce Irene, however, is adultery, but she had not taken a lover. Irene has developed a friendship with Soames’ cousin, Jolyon Forsyte. They are seen together in public, but it is only after Soames confronts them that they consummate their relationship. They do not contest the divorce proceedings, so Soames marries Annette, and Jolyon and Irene legally become husband and wife.
The book ends with the birth of a son, Jon, for Jolyon and Irene and a daughter, Fleur, for Soames and Annette. Annette has a difficult birthing. Soames’ doctor gives Soames the choice of saving his wife or his child. Soames chooses the child, although had he known it would be a girl he might have chosen differently. Annette survives, but she cannot have any more children. To Let takes up the story twenty years later. Jon and Fleur meet and fall in love. Soames approves the match, but Jolyon and Irene oppose it. In a reversal of attitude, Galsworthy shows Jolyon and especially Irene as treating Jon as a possession, but shows Soames to be a loving parent. The book ends with Jolyon telling Jon the story of Soames and Irene. Jolyon dies shortly afterward, and Jon breaks off the relationship.
Main characters The old Forsytes Ann, the eldest of the family Old Jolyon, the eldest brother, made a fortune in tea James, a solicitor, married to Emily, a most tranquil woman Swithin, James's twin brother with aristocratic pretensions; a bachelor Roger, "the original Forsyte" Julia (Juley), Mrs. Septimus Small, a fluttery dowager Hester, an old maid Nicholas, the wealthiest in the family Timothy, the most cautious man in England Susan, the married sister
The young Forsytes Young Jolyon, Old Jolyon's artistic and free-thinking son, married three times Soames, James and Emily's son, an intense, unimaginative and possessive solicitor, married to the unhappy Irene, who later marries Young Jolyon Winifred, Soames's sister, one of the three daughters of James and Emily, married to the foppish and lethargic Montague Dartie George, Roger's son, a dyed-in-the-wool mocker Francie, George's sister and Roger's daughter, emancipated from God
Their children June, Young Jolyon's defiant daughter from his first marriage; engaged to an architect, Philip Bosinney, who becomes Irene's lover Jolly, Young Jolyon's son from his second marriage; dies of enteric fever during the Boer War Holly, Young Jolyon's daughter from his second marriage, to June's governess Jon, Young Jolyon's son from his third marriage, to Irene, Soames's first wife Fleur, Soames's daughter from his second marriage, to a French Soho shopgirl Annette; Jon's lover; later marries the heir of a baronet, Michael Mont Val, Winifred and Montague's son; fights in the Boer War; marries his cousin Holly Imogen, Winifred and Montague's daughter
Others Parfitt, Old Jolyon's butler Smither, Aunts Ann, Juley and Hester's housekeeper Warmson, James and Emily's butler Bilson, Soames's housemaid Prosper Profond, Winifred's admirer and Annette's lover
