Forsyte Saga

John Galsworthy

Description

John Galsworthy's The Forsyte Saga collects together three novels and two interludes, all published between 1906 and 1921. Not far removed from their farming history, the members of an upper-middle-class British family are painfully aware of being "new money". As a "man of property", Soames Forsyte's abilities bring him material wealth, but they grant him no quarter in the happiness stakes.

Informations

• Publié par: The Floating Press
• Date de parution: 01 août 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781775416449
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE FORSYTE SAGA
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JOHN GALSWORTHY
 
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The Forsyte Saga From a 1922 edition.
ISBN 978-1-775416-44-9
© 2009 THE FLOATING PRESS.
While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike.
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Contents
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Preface THE MAN OF PROPERTY PART I Chapter I - 'At Home' at Old Jolyon's Chapter II - Old Jolyon Goes to the Opera Chapter III - Dinner at Swithin's Chapter IV - Projection of the House Chapter V - A Forsyte Menage Chapter VI - James at Large Chapter VII - Old Jolyon's Peccadillo Chapter VIII - Plans of the House Chapter IX - Death of Aunt Ann PART II Chapter I - Progress of the House Chapter II - June's Treat Chapter III - Drive with Swithin Chapter IV - James Goes to See for Himself Chapter V - Soames and Bosinney Correspond Chapter VI - Old Jolyon at the Zoo Chapter VII - Afternoon at Timothy's Chapter VIII - Dance at Roger's Chapter IX - Evening at Richmond Chapter X - Diagnosis of a Forsyte Chapter XI - Bosinney on Parole Chapter XII - June Pays Some Calls Chapter XIII - Perfection of the House Chapter XIV - Soames Sits on the Stairs PART III Chapter I - Mrs. Macander's Evidence Chapter II - Night in the Park Chapter III - Meeting at the Botanical Chapter IV - Voyage into the Inferno Chapter V - The Trial Chapter VI - Soames Breaks the News Chapter VII - June's Victory Chapter VIII - Bosinney's Departure Chapter IX - Irene's Return INDIAN SUMMER OF A FORSYTE Chapter I Chapter II Chapter III Chapter IV IN CHANCERY PART I Chapter I - At Timothy's Chapter II - Exit a Man of the World Chapter III - Soames Prepares to Take Steps Chapter IV - Soho Chapter V - James Sees Visions Chapter VI - No-Longer-Young Jolyon at Home Chapter VII - The Colt and the Filly Chapter VIII - Jolyon Prosecutes Trusteeship Chapter IX - Val Hears the News Chapter X - Soames Entertains the Future Chapter XI - And Visits the Past Chapter XII - On Forsyte 'Change Chapter XIII - Jolyon Finds Out Where He Is Chapter XIV - Soames Discovers What He Wants PART II Chapter I - The Third Generation Chapter II - Soames Puts it to the Touch Chapter III - Visit to Irene Chapter IV - Where Forsytes Fear to Tread Chapter V - Jolly Sits in Judgment Chapter VI - Jolyon in Two Minds Chapter VII - Dartie Versus Dartie Chapter VIII - The Challenge Chapter IX - Dinner at James' Chapter X - Death of the Dog Balthasar Chapter XI - Timothy Stays the Rot Chapter XII - Progress of the Chase Chapter XIII - 'Here We Are Again!' Chapter XIV - Outlandish Night PART III Chapter I - Soames in Paris Chapter II - In the Web Chapter III - Richmond Park Chapter IV - Over the River Chapter V - Soames Acts Chapter VI - A Summer Day Chapter VII - A Summer Night Chapter VIII - James in Waiting Chapter IX - Out of the Web Chapter X - Passing of an Age Chapter XI - Suspended Animation Chapter XII - Birth of a Forsyte Chapter XIII - James is Told Chapter XIV - His AWAKENING TO LET PART I I - Encounter II - Fine Fleur Forsyte III - At Robin Hill IV - The Mausoleum V - The Native Heath VI - Jon VII - Fleur VIII - Idyll on Grass IX - Goya X - Trio XI - Duet XII - Caprice PART II I - Mother and Son II - Fathers and Daughters III - Meetings IV - In Green Street V - Purely Forsyte Affairs VI - Soames' Private Life VII - June Takes a Hand VIII - The Bit Between the Teeth IX - The Fat in the Fire X - Decision XI - Timothy Prophesies PART III I - Old Jolyon Walks II - Confession III - Irene IV - Soames Cogitates V - The Fixed Idea VI - Desperate VII - Embassy VIII - The Dark Tune IX - Under the Oak-Tree X - Fleur's Wedding XI - The Last of the Old Forsytes
 
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TO MY WIFE:
I DEDICATE THE FORSYTE SAGA IN ITS ENTIRETY, BELIEVING IT TO BE OF ALL MY WORKS THE LEAST UNWORTHY OF ONE WITHOUT WHOSE ENCOURAGEMENT, SYMPATHY AND CRITICISM I COULD NEVER HAVE BECOME EVEN SUCH A WRITER AS I AM.
Preface
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"The Forsyte Saga" was the title originally destined for that part of itwhich is called "The Man of Property"; and to adopt it for the collectedchronicles of the Forsyte family has indulged the Forsytean tenacitythat is in all of us. The word Saga might be objected to on the groundthat it connotes the heroic and that there is little heroism in thesepages. But it is used with a suitable irony; and, after all, this longtale, though it may deal with folk in frock coats, furbelows, and agilt-edged period, is not devoid of the essential heat of conflict.Discounting for the gigantic stature and blood-thirstiness of old days,as they have come down to us in fairy-tale and legend, the folk of theold Sagas were Forsytes, assuredly, in their possessive instincts, andas little proof against the inroads of beauty and passion as Swithin,Soames, or even Young Jolyon. And if heroic figures, in days that neverwere, seem to startle out from their surroundings in fashion unbecomingto a Forsyte of the Victorian era, we may be sure that tribal instinctwas even then the prime force, and that "family" and the sense of homeand property counted as they do to this day, for all the recent effortsto "talk them out."
So many people have written and claimed that their families were theoriginals of the Forsytes that one has been almost encouraged to believein the typicality of an imagined species. Manners change and modesevolve, and "Timothy's on the Bayswater Road" becomes a nest of theunbelievable in all except essentials; we shall not look upon its likeagain, nor perhaps on such a one as James or Old Jolyon. And yet thefigures of Insurance Societies and the utterances of Judges reassure usdaily that our earthly paradise is still a rich preserve, where the wildraiders, Beauty and Passion, come stealing in, filching security frombeneath our noses. As surely as a dog will bark at a brass band, so willthe essential Soames in human nature ever rise up uneasily against thedissolution which hovers round the folds of ownership.
"Let the dead Past bury its dead" would be a better saying if the Pastever died. The persistence of the Past is one of those tragi-comicblessings which each new age denies, coming cocksure on to the stage tomouth its claim to a perfect novelty.
But no Age is so new as that! Human Nature, under its changingpretensions and clothes, is and ever will be very much of a Forsyte, andmight, after all, be a much worse animal.
Looking back on the Victorian era, whose ripeness, decline, and'fall-of' is in some sort pictured in "The Forsyte Saga," we see nowthat we have but jumped out of a frying-pan into a fire. It would bedifficult to substantiate a claim that the case of England was better in1913 than it was in 1886, when the Forsytes assembled at Old Jolyon's tocelebrate the engagement of June to Philip Bosinney. And in 1920, whenagain the clan gathered to bless the marriage of Fleur with MichaelMont, the state of England is as surely too molten and bankrupt as inthe eighties it was too congealed and low-percented. If these chronicleshad been a really scientific study of transition one would have dweltprobably on such factors as the invention of bicycle, motor-car, andflying-machine; the arrival of a cheap Press; the decline of countrylife and increase of the towns; the birth of the Cinema. Men are, infact, quite unable to control their own inventions; they at best developadaptability to the new conditions those inventions create.
But this long tale is no scientific study of a period; it is rather anintimate incarnation of the disturbance that Beauty effects in the livesof men.
The figure of Irene, never, as the reader may possibly have observed,present, except through the senses of other characters, is a concretionof disturbing Beauty impinging on a possessive world.
One has noticed that readers, as they wade on through the salt waters ofthe Saga, are inclined more and more to pity Soames, and to think thatin doing so they are in revolt against the mood of his creator. Farfrom it! He, too, pities Soames, the tragedy of whose life is the verysimple, uncontrollable tragedy of being unlovable, without quite a thickenough skin to be thoroughly unconscious of the fact. Not even Fleurloves Soames as he feels he ought to be loved. But in pitying Soames,readers incline, perhaps, to animus against Irene: After all, theythink, he wasn't a bad fellow, it wasn't his fault; she ought to haveforgiven him, and so on!
And, taking sides, they lose perception of the simple truth, whichunderlies the whole story, that where sex attraction is utterly anddefinitely lacking in one partner to a union, no amount of pity, orreason, or duty, or what not, can overcome a repulsion implicit inNature. Whether it ought to, or no, is beside the point; because in factit never does. And where Irene seems hard and cruel, as in the Bois deBoulogne, or the Goupenor Gallery, she is but wisely realistic—knowingthat the least concession is the inch which precedes the impossible, therepulsive ell.
A criticism one might pass on the last phase of the Saga is thecomplaint that Irene and Jolyon those rebels against property—claimspiritual property in their son Jon. But it would be hypercriticism,as the tale is told. No father and mother could have let the boy marryFleur without knowledge of the facts; and the facts determine Jon, notthe persuasion of his parents. Moreover, Jolyon's persuasion is noton his own account, but on Irene's, and Irene's persuasion becomes areiterated: "Don't think of me, think of yourself!" That Jon, knowingthe facts, can realise his mother's feelings, will hardly with justicebe held proof that she is, after all, a Forsyte.
But though the imping