36 h 39 minAudiobook11 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when a family knows how to own everything except the love it needs?
The Forsytes guard their houses, money and good name. At a London family gathering, their world seems secure. But Soames Forsyte, a careful solicitor and collector, cannot make his wife Irene love him. He plans a country house at Robin Hill, hoping solid walls can repair a marriage built without affection.
John Galsworthy follows this wealthy English family from the 1880s into the 1920s through novels and short interludes. The Man of Property, In Chancery and To Let trace the strain between possession and freedom. Old Jolyon questions the clan’s values, while the younger generation faces the weight of quarrels it does not yet understand.
What you’ll discover
- Love mistaken for ownership See how Soames’s need for affection clashes with his urge to possess.
- A house full of hope Follow the plans for Robin Hill, where Soames hopes his marriage can begin again.
- Freedom within narrow limits Meet Irene as she longs for understanding under rules that leave women little room.
- A family seen closely Discover a clan observed with irony and affection, from guarded pride to quiet doubt.
- The burden of family history Watch Fleur and Jon meet beneath the shadow of a quarrel they inherit.
Who will love it
For readers who love family sagas, social detail and humane character study, and anyone drawn to Victorian and Edwardian England, love, property and class conflict.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- The Forsytes Are a Tribe of Owners
- Soames Marries Irene and Cannot Hold Her
- A House Built for Love Becomes a Quarrel
- Old Jolyon Stands Apart from the Clan
- The Quarrel Passes to a New Generation
- Fleur and Jon Meet Under an Old Shadow
- Property Is the Book's Great Theme
- Women in the Saga Press Against Their Limits
- How Galsworthy Tells the Long Story
Who’s who
- Soames ForsyteA careful London solicitor and collector of fine things who treats his marriage as a possession and cannot admit how much he needs affection.
- Irene ForsyteSoames's beautiful wife, who married without love and now longs for freedom and understanding in a household that gives her neither.
- Old Jolyon ForsyteThe eldest Forsyte brother, wealthy and dignified, who loves beauty and his family and slowly questions the narrow values of his clan.
- Young JolyonOld Jolyon's son, a painter who broke with the family for love and lives on modest means, loyal and thoughtful.
- June ForsyteOld Jolyon's spirited granddaughter, engaged to Bosinney, who loves with fierce loyalty and wants to protect those she cares for.
- Philip BosinneyA young architect with artistic ideals and little money, hired to build Soames's country house, who stands outside the Forsyte way of life.
- Fleur ForsyteSoames's clever and determined daughter in the 1920s, who is used to having her way and is drawn to a young man.
- Jon ForsyteYoung Jolyon's gentle, artistic son, who meets Fleur without knowing the old family history that lies between them.
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The Forsyte Saga – Complete
by John Galsworthy · 1922
Soames Forsyte treats his marriage as a possession, while Irene longs for freedom and understanding.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 9
The Forsytes Are a Tribe of Owners
The saga opens with a family gathering in the 1880s. The Forsytes have come together at old Jolyon's house in London to celebrate the engagement of his granddaughter June. The family has risen from farming stock to comfortable wealth in a few generations, and it now lives on investments, houses and careful habits.
Galsworthy introduces the brothers one by one. Old Jolyon is the eldest, a tall and dignified man who is fond of his family but has a streak of independence. Swithin is large and vain. James is anxious and always expecting disaster. Timothy is cautious in business and rarely seen. The sisters, including Aunt Ann, Aunt Juley and Aunt Hester, act as keepers of family memory.
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What is The Forsyte Saga about?
It follows the wealthy Forsyte family of London over several decades, from the 1880s into the 1920s. Its main thread is the unhappy marriage of Soames and Irene and how that conflict passes to their children.
Who is Soames Forsyte?
Soames is a London solicitor and the central figure of the saga. He is proud, careful with money and fond of owning fine things, and he struggles to understand a wife who does not love him.
Is The Forsyte Saga a true story?
No, it is fiction. Galsworthy drew on the world of the English upper middle class that he knew from his own background, and he set the books against real events such as the Boer War and the Great War.
The author
John Galsworthy
1867–1933 · English novelist and playwright
John Galsworthy was an English novelist and playwright born in Surrey in 1867. He lived in England and died in London in 1933. He wrote The Country House, published in 1907, and the play Justice, first performed in 1910. The Forsyte Saga appeared as a collected volume in 1922.
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