The Forsyte Saga (The Forsyte Chronicles, #1-3) in Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)

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The Forsyte Saga (The Forsyte Chronicles, #1-3)

John Galsworthy

Start date: July 1, 2025

Finish date: September 30, 2025

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Why we're reading this: July - September 2025 Moderators Run Amok
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What Members Thought

Apr 08, 2009 Laura rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2012, classics, mtbr-challenge-2012, family-saga, 3ms, victorians, 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you

What a splendid family saga written by John Galsworthy.

The book covers the period between 1886 and 1920 and tells the story of the Forsyte's and their struggle to have the most successful life at that time.

This volume is composed by three books: The Man of Property, In Chancery and To Let.

The first book describes the life of Soames Forsyte and his wife Irene. However, this marriage will have a lot of troublesome issues along the whole narrative. This will led to dramatic consequences for all For ...more

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

Shelves: cities_london, _great-britain, _book-shelf, 1900-1939, novels, _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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Apr 16, 2017 Julie rated it really liked it

Shelves: fin-2017, 1920s-fiction

There were parts of this book (really 3 books)that I simply adored and other parts that left me cold. On the whole, I'd have to say the great bits outweighed my concerns. I can see how someone would hate this book - many characters, verbose writing style, unsympathetic leads, a meandering plot etc. All those qualities I rather adore. When I opened the book and saw the complex family tree included, I was delighted. I love immersing myself in a complete world and reading about tangled, complex rel There were parts of this book (really 3 books)that I simply adored and other parts that left me cold. On the whole, I'd have to say the great bits outweighed my concerns. I can see how someone would hate this book - many characters, verbose writing style, unsympathetic leads, a meandering plot etc. All those qualities I rather adore. When I opened the book and saw the complex family tree included, I was delighted. I love immersing myself in a complete world and reading about tangled, complex relationships between people. I'm a sucker for detailed descriptions - why write one word when five will do! Unsympathetic and unreliable narrators can be hit or miss in a novel, but Galsworthy does an excellent job portraying male protagonists (stress on the word male, not female) who are not likable yet remain compelling and to a degree, relatable even when they are horrid in some ways. The plot manages to be slow-paced even though on paper it seems like it would be a lurid,fast moving storyline (Adultery! Rape! War! Bitter Divorces! Affairs with Nannies! Affairs with Showgirls! Horseracing! Bankruptcy! Suicide! Art Collecting!)

My favorite parts of the books were those dealing with death and how people cope with impending deaths - both their own & others. Galsworthy is a master at making me cry during those segments. Don't even get me started on the old faithful dog's death, sob. Even the "death" of a house - the estate sale/sale of the elderly Forsytes home - made me weepy. I could visualize the contents of the house so clearly. When the servants talk about what small mementos they want to buy from the home they work in over 45 years - oh man, very touching. It made me ridiculously pleased when the great nephew gives them for free all the items they want. I realize Galsworthy's overarching theme is how the desire of property can destroy people but he certainly does a lovely job describing actual properties, making me feel so sentimental about fictional pieces of furniture and various tchotchkes.

What bothered me the most about this story was the lack of believable female characters. Was this his intent? To have the female leads so empty and one dimensional? If I had to hear one more time about how beautiful Irene was - Lord, spare me! Irene was so passive, so irritatingly passive, I couldn't stand it. Throughout the book various (male) characters talk about how women who speak up, women who know their mind, women who have a spine are so horrible. Um.....ok? It just really rubbed me the wrong way. The romance plots were the weakest parts of the book. Galsworthy cannot write about believable love between a man and a woman. He is good at depicting a man's obsession with the physical beauty of a woman but not good at depicting actual interactions between the sexes.

Still, if you like this type of book than you will enjoy this particular book. ...more

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