Guardian Newspaper 1000 Novels discussion
This topic is about
The Man of Property
Monthly Book Reads
>
Man of Property, The - October 2015
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Kaycie
(new)
Oct 11, 2015 08:32AM
Mod
reply
|
flag
Can't wait to read this. We have a copy of the FORSYTE SAGA at home. My dad used to take it to work whenever he had to escort the UNIVAC repairman.
I have read this & recently rewatched it as part of "The Forsyte Saga" on PBS. I look forward to seeing what people think!
Mod
Leslie wrote: "I have read this & recently rewatched it as part of "The Forsyte Saga" on PBS. I look forward to seeing what people think!"You probably watched the newer broadcast with Iaon Gruffud (sp?). The original Forsyte Saga was actually aired in 1967. My mom remembers it as groundbreaking. Absolutely EVERYONE was watching it. (Kind of like Downton Abbey.) It practically started Masterpiece Theater.
@Kirsten, I have actually watched both BBC adaptations but only the newer one recently.
Mod
Any other readers?
I read the whole cycle a while back. I really enjoyed it, as much as one can enjoy seeing a person destroy himself by dashing up against the rock of his own beliefs. It reminded me in an offhand way of Nicholas Nickleby, and it made me wonder about whether many families like the Forsytes existed.
Dennis wrote: "I read the whole cycle a while back. I really enjoyed it, as much as one can enjoy seeing a person destroy himself by dashing up against the rock of his own beliefs. It reminded me in an offhand wa..."Dennis - did you read the entire series (all 3 'trilogies')? I have only read up to The White Monkey, the first book in the second trilogy ("A Modern Comedy").
Mod
I was a bit disappointed by The White Monkey because it was all about Fleur, Somes and Michael -- I liked Young Jolyn, Irene, and Jon's side of the family better!! But I have heard that this side of the family does reappear so maybe I gave up too soon...
One of my many catch-up reads from the 3 or 4 years when I stopped following this group.Spoiler: Loved this book. 5 stars
*******
Sometimes I have an impression of a writer or story before I have ever read a word of their prose and it's often an incorrect impression. It certainly was in this case.
Writing in the early Edwardian era about final decades of the Victorians Galsworthy coolly skewers the society in which he grew up with almost surgical precision. The Forsytes here represent a family, yes, but also a whole swathe of complacent, snobbish, uncaring, introspective, self-congratulating, comfortable stratum of society. New money, being just two generations from country farming stock, they go out of their way to project an image of gentility and comfort, and care about only three things: money, property and reputation.
This book, and the saga as a whole, is about the cracks in this image / family / class as it hits edge of the 20th century, as fissures begin to run through the second wealthy generation, less confident than the first but feeling more entitled to the privilege they've inherited.
At heart this is a simple tale - the breakdown of a marriage. But it reflects a more profound breakdown within society, sex-relations, power dynamics in the workplace and at home, social movement from talent rather than background. As electric lights slowly replace the gas lamps in the comfortable homes fit for a gentleman, a starker light is thrown into the dark corners and recesses of this family, and all the other Forsytes who are not named Forsyte in London and around the country.
Galsworthy's style is brittle and sharp, ironic and knowing, like Henry James or Edith Wharton - letting the Forsytes condemn themselves with their own uncensored words and thoughts in a prose that has largely left behind the floridity of the 19th century and feels almost as sparse and open as early Woolf. The conscious decision to have Irene Forsyte the centre of the novel, but never having the prose enter her head and reveal her thoughts, as it does to all the Forsyte family, allows her to be never fully knowable, but always an enigma.
I loved this book and intend to now finish the whole saga.
Yes excellent review thank you. This series is on my long list for 2023. It’s been a long time and I’m really keen to reread this book and then continue to read the whole series. You have inspired me to begin soon.
