The Forsyte Saga
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The Forsyte Saga is the first part of John Galsworthy’s magnificent, well-loved Forsyte Chronicles, which trace the changing fortunes of the wealthy Forsyte dynasty through fifty years of material triumph and emotional disaster. The Forsyte Saga begins as the nineteenth century is drawing to a close, and the upper middle classes, with their property and propriety, are becoming a dying section of society. The Forsytes are blind to this fact, clinging to their conventions and ‘brilliant respectability’. As dignified Soames Forsyte struggles to uphold the old moral code in the face of the social revolution resulting from the Great War, his wife Irene’s extraordinary beauty causes even more disruption. The bitter feud between them comes to split the Forsyte family for two generations.
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Those privileged to be present at a family festival of the Forsytes have seen that charming and instructive sight - an upper-middle-class family in full plumage. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Those privileged to be present at a family festival of the Forsytes have seen that charming and instructive sight - an upper-middle-class family in full plumage. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
40 of 41 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a terrific read, and has some of that mysterious alchemy which typifies the real page turner - as opposed to those books you just slog through because you want to get to the end. There are many more Forsytes than in the recent excellent television adaptation, but Galsworthy is extremely skilled at bringing them in and out of focus and reminding you who is who, as his narrative requires. If you do get confused, there is a useful (and witty) family tree at the front of the book, but be careful: you might find out who gets married and who dies before you want to.
In its use of late Victorian and early Edwardian slang, it is fascinating (who knew for example, that 'attractive' in the sexual/aesthetic sense attained that usage c.1890 and was no longer felt to be current by 1920?). Soames must be one of the great characters of modern fiction - 'mousing' along on the shady side of the street - since he is simultaneously reprehensible, forlorn and rather tragic. A number of the scenes featuring confrontations between him and Irene seem to me to be as rivetingly dramatic as those between Angelo and Isabella in Measure for Measure.
What a relief to read a book that has not been 'introduced' and annotated to death. True, there is the odd sentence which is so steeped in the time it was written as to be difficult to decipher, but this is more than balanced out by the lack of distraction - no irritating scattering of asterisks! - as well as by a real sense of the past set before us, strange and partly unfamiliar as it should be.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Great, enchanting, keeps you wanting more! All of Galsworthy's stories about the Forsyte Family are like this.
I read these books when I was about eighteen in 1962 and was taken back to them when the BBC did the first Forsyte Saga series with Eric Porter as Soames and Nyree Dawn Porter as Irene, in late 60's early 70's. This was an excellent adaptation - the later one, made in about 2002 is awful in comparison (see my review on this). Nyree Dawn Porter will always be Irene to me, as Eric Porter will always be Soames.
They are not 'dated' as you might expect, as the intrigue, love, passion and greed are there just as much as in any racey novel of today, albeit, perhaps not in so many words..., nevertheless it is so well written that you get the gist just the same.
The scope of these stories is immense, taking in the Forsytes, their many relations, friends and acquaintances, all living, breathing, fighting and loving in these wonderful books.
Do read them, if you can - when I bought them in about 1964 they were in three volumes and are now available as separate books and in an omnibus edition, I believe. They are well worth whatever you pay, believe me and I know you will love them as much as I do.
I read these books when I was about eighteen in 1962 and was taken back to them when the BBC did the first Forsyte Saga series with Eric Porter as Soames and Nyree Dawn Porter as Irene, in late 60's early 70's. This was an excellent adaptation - the later one, made in about 2002 is awful in comparison (see my review on this). Nyree Dawn Porter will always be Irene to me, as Eric Porter will always be Soames.
They are not 'dated' as you might expect, as the intrigue, love, passion and greed are there just as much as in any racey novel of today, albeit, perhaps not in so many words..., nevertheless it is so well written that you get the gist just the same.
The scope of these stories is immense, taking in the Forsytes, their many relations, friends and acquaintances, all living, breathing, fighting and loving in these wonderful books.
Do read them, if you can - when I bought them in about 1964 they were in three volumes and are now available as separate books and in an omnibus edition, I believe. They are well worth whatever you pay, believe me and I know you will love them as much as I do.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The fact that the Forsyte Saga is 9 books long makes the thought of tackling it rather daunting. However, they bowl along and before you know it you engage with the characters and want to know what happens next. There is an inevitability about the story - you know that times are changing and that the characters are unprepared for this. It might be a historical novel because of the context in which it was written but it still resonates today, even if some of the attitudes of the characters; sexist and snobbish, rankle - they speak with the voices of their era. A wonderful series of novels I will continue to come back to again and again.
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