The Forsyte Saga (The Forsyte Chronicles, #1-3) in Around the World in 80 Books

Aug 22, 2008 Suvi rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: cities_london, _great-britain, _book-shelf, novels, 1900-1939, _favorites

The family saga of Forsytes, who at the beginning smell an intruder amongst them (Bosinney the architect, engaged to June), examines how the far-reaching consequences of a certain love affair molds each person and generation in its own way.

The solicitor Soames considers his wife Irene as his property, the way you do with beautiful paintings that you parade in front of others. The couple's marriage suffers from Irene's indifference, which Soames of course doesn't understand, because he doesn't se The family saga of Forsytes, who at the beginning smell an intruder amongst them (Bosinney the architect, engaged to June), examines how the far-reaching consequences of a certain love affair molds each person and generation in its own way.

The solicitor Soames considers his wife Irene as his property, the way you do with beautiful paintings that you parade in front of others. The couple's marriage suffers from Irene's indifference, which Soames of course doesn't understand, because he doesn't see the desire to be free lurking behind her eyes. The elder Jolyon feels lonely and tries to patch things up with his son with the same name, who separated himself from the Forsyte family by leaving his wife and marrying another woman. The younger Jolyon seems different from the rest of the Forsytes, since he doesn't consider life as a matter of business.

People are mostly cold and selfish, but nature continues its peaceful existence. London and its surroundings are mostly described through nature: lovers embraced by the stunning fragrance of flowers, starry sky spread above the buildings on an evening of dancing, Robin Hill's lush environment etc. The eternal essence of nature makes you hope that the Forsytes would finally realise what's really important in life, but of course their practical blindness cannot be cured with beauty.

The atmosphere of the novels is delicate and lingering. Galsworthy describes perceptively the family's intertwining to the changes of the society, from the Victorian era to the energetic and modern 1920s. Old-fashioned ideals are dusted, but certain people peristently grab into the narrow-minded perception of the priorities of humanity. At first you want to feel sorry for Soames, but after a certain event it's impossible. He has been brought up in a certain kind of way in a certain kind of society, but you still want to slap him, real hard, and shake him up so that he would wake up into the reality.

In a long saga like this, some members of the family are naturally lost, but the desire to possess and taking care of own interests remain. Forgiveness, blindness, aging, women's rights... There are a lot of themes, but they form into a balanced bigger picture. A few years ago I saw the newer 21st century miniseries, but after reading this I'm no longer entirely sure that it was actually as good as I remember it to be. How can anyone capture Galsworthy's melancholic family saga into the frames of television or film?

I could endlessly try to define the effect this had on me, but I still wouldn't be able to put my feelings into words. After the last page I feel distressed, sad, relieved, wistful. Despite the many flaws the characters had it's extremely difficult to say goodbye after so many weeks of spending time with them. I can always read the whole thing again, but it will not be like it was the first time. ...more

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Feb 14, 2007 Elizabeth rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: england, alltimefavorites, fiction, edwardiannovels

One of my all time favorite books. It's long but this is the type of storytelling that you only get from a 1000 page book: plot twists, family drama over generations, and the kind of pain that you get from a lifetime of missed opportunities. I love this book. ...more

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Dec 22, 2012 Daisy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: england, audio-library-books

Having finished it:
This would've been harder I think to read (and stick with) than it was to listen to; listening to it was seductive like a radio soap opera or something. I'll miss it. It took a long time to get through and I'll miss its vivid characters and descriptions. I'm pretty attached to this family and all the eras they pass through. (Still not quite sure why Irene marries Soames in the first place.)

(Sweet, respectful references to pets.)

During reading:
This is great fun to listen to but ...more

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Feb 03, 2009 Jen rated it really liked it

Shelves: classic-fiction, british-literature

I really enjoyed this book and it got more and more intriguing as the story built. While it is certainly a saga about a large family it focuses primarily on two specific branches and even more specifically on how one relationship established at the beginning of the book affects lives for about 35 years afterward. Sometimes the foreshadowing can be a little heavy handed but even though I could guess at what would happen next I was always intrigued by how the story arrived there. I also read this ...more

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Aug 11, 2013 Stil de scriitor rated it it was amazing

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 16, 2012 Anna added it · review of another edition

Shelves: didn-t-finish

Had to give up on this solely because the kindle download I was trying to read had so many typos it made it virtually impossible to read. The book looked promising though so I will try and get this from the library.

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