The Forsyte Saga – Complete, Chapter 31 summary

What happens

1. June presses old Jolyon to act, and he visits James to discuss buying the house at a suitable price.
2. A police inspector reports Bosinney’s death, and old Jolyon confronts James and Soames with the possibility of suicide.
3. During the journey to identify Bosinney, financial evidence renews James’s fears, while old Jolyon sends for his son.
4. At the mortuary, old Jolyon identifies Bosinney, and the sight of death dissolves his anger toward his brother and nephew.
5. Young Jolyon hears the inspector’s theory of distraction and sees a scented handkerchief recovered from Bosinney’s pocket.
6. Young Jolyon rejects suicide and returns to his father, who has told June and expresses concern for the woman at Soames’s.

In this chapter

What to notice

The inspector offers a third explanation between deliberate suicide and ordinary accident. His judgment preserves uncertainty about Bosinney’s death.

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