Summary of The Forsyte Saga by Galsworthy
London, 1887. In the house of Jolyon a lot of guests gathered about the celebration of the engagement of June Forsythe with Bossini Philippe. Within the family relationship between the six brothers Jolyon, Swithin, Nicholas, Roger, Timothy, the law of competition is firmly laid. Their father was proud, of farmers, working as a mason, contractor and building houses, had 10 children. Now the family belongs to the very top of the British bourgeoisie, among whose members there are lawyers, financiers, rentiers and members of joint-stock companies. Conversations among them revolve around money and everything that is associated with them, but distinguishes their proprietary self-confidence. They look parade and respectable, but among them there is tension and object of distrust. This was exactly the person with whom they came to get acquainted. Bosini, the architect, had the nickname “pirate”, which was fixed among all in the family. And the old Jolin, treats with disregard for
The old man is trying to build a relationship with Father June, his son, whom he has not actually met for about 14 years. Then he, as a young father, left the family because of “unauthorized” love, lived modestly, worked as an agent and wrote with watercolor. He deliberately arranged a meeting with his son in the club, then invited him to his place, and afterwards he visited his house. There, his heart was touched by the small grandsons Holly and Jolly.
At Soms, James’s son, the situation in the family is poor, but he tries to hide it. Forsytes perceive his wife as alien to their circle. She was a gold-haired and dark-eyed, like a pagan goddess, who is distinguished by her refinement and charm. After the death of her father, she remains without a livelihood and forced to marry Soames, who long sought her. She did not like him, but decided to marry him, because he promised her that she would get complete freedom if their
Among relatives already there are rumors about strange relations Irene with Bosini, they began to see together more often. Soms annoying strange for him expenses Bosini in the construction of the house, is going to sue him in order to ruin him. At the moment when the romance of lovers reached its climax, Soames got to insist on her rights. The next evening, lovers together noticed George, Irene at this time tells about what happened, and then he followed the behavior of Bosini, who literally did not know where to go from grief. Old man Jolin becomes more just and restores the rights of the son to the inheritance, after which he feels satisfaction from this. In court, they make up their minds to satisfy Soames’s request to the architect, after which Iren leaves the house without taking a single thing. Her husband at this time can not accept that,
Old Jolyon decided to reassemble his loved ones in his house. June asks the old man to at least pay the suit of Soames on the case with Bosini, or even buy his house in Robin Hill. After a while, it became known to everyone that Bosini had knocked down the omnibus that night. Here Irene soon has to return home, like a wounded beast in a hole, she did not understand how to live on. Old Jolyon sends her son to help him, before whom Soames just slammed the door, explaining that he would not allow himself to interfere in his family life.
THE LATEST SUMMER OF FORSIGHT After passing 4 years old, Jolyon still buys Soames’s house and settles in it with his family. At this time, June and his father and stepmother are traveling to Spain, Jolyon misses them. The beautiful nature in Robin Hill helps elderly Jolyon not to feel his eighty-year-old age. During his walk, he meets Irene, and she appears here because of nostalgia for those times when she was happy. They begin to communicate, together they go to the opera, and the old man succumbed to her unusual charm. Irene touches his warmth and participation and is pleased with the opportunity to talk about the deceased beloved. Now Jolyon waits for the son to come back almost with a fuck and the question is how he will explain this really strange friendship. He thinks about the fact that he will have to admit himself to be an old man and surrender to the mercy of love and cares. He certainly will not take leave of her – he began to live by these meetings, and not by the past, than usually people of his age live. Once, sitting in the arm-chair on a July day, he, in anticipation of Irene’s arrival and the arrival of his relatives, he dies.
In the PETLE All the action of the novel takes place in 1899-1901. In the house of Timothy, relatives gather again, exchange gossip, while the older generation has withered – Susan, Swithina, Ann and Roger. Old Jolin was secretly buried in Robin Hill, he first dared to abandon the family crypt. And surprisingly, he left his nephew, Irene, escaped to his wife, according to the will of 15 thousand pounds. Then the idea of him as a true Forsyte died forever.
The capital of the nephew, Somsa, while he lived alone, for 12 years, grew unusually, and his sister Winfid ran away from her husband Darthy with a Spanish dancer. In the family he was always considered reckless, because he never liked money, and therefore did not understand the Forsytes’ hobbies. He even despised them for it, and he valued in money only that they can acquire “sensations”, and his wife, exhausted by the difficulties of her family life, still considers her husband her property. At forty-two she was left alone with four children, the benefit of a divorced brother helping her. They were united by the absurd situation of undecided Forsytes. Soames has already found one that meets the requirements and can become his wife, who could give birth to his heir, so begins to worry that his relationship with this wife is not explained to him.
Young Jolyon is now experiencing better times – his paintings are quickly sold out, and June, accustomed to patronize those who live hard, takes care of the future geniuses of the artistic world and dreams of buying an exhibition salon. Jolyon after his father died became a wealthy man and several years as a widower. Unexpectedly for him in Robin Hill Soames brings Bel Darty, who was going to go to Oxford, where he studied the son of Jolie Jolly and offers to introduce them. Val and Holly at first sight fall in love, and Soames asks Jolyon to mediate in his divorce proceedings with Irene. Now Jolyon himself leaves for Irene, whom he has not seen for 12 years and notices that she is as beautiful as before and that the lives of Soames and Irene are paralyzed, as if they are in a loop. Irene notes that those who do not live,
Soames visits her only while they are united by one thing – preparing for a divorce, admits to her that she still cares and leaves her with anxiety. On her 37th birthday, he visits her again and gives her a diamond brooch, invites her to forget everything and give birth to his son, which she seems to hit him with: “It’s better to die.” Avoiding him, she leaves abroad, and he sets up surveillance for her, with the help of a detective agency. Jolyon meets her in Paris, then Soames comes, again, in order to break her resistance. She has to hide again. The trial of Winfyd ends with the decision to restore marital rights, after a while her husband Darty returns and she accepts it. June decided to become a sister of mercy, Val and Holly are engaged. Jolly wants to stop this union and tells Val to volunteer for the front, Holly and June go to Africa. After the departure of his children, Jolyon feels lonely, but it all ends with the arrival of Irene, with whom they connect their destinies. While she was living in Paris, she learned of many of the tricks Somes, who intends to blame her and agrees that it would be better for them to agree with them. Later, Jolyon learns about the death of his son from dysentery and it’s hard to survive.
At her divorce, Irene was not present, at this time she traveled around Europe with Jiolion, so Soames did it and in six months he played his wedding with Annette. Val and Holly were married in Africa, then he was wounded and he asks grandfather James to buy a piece of land for breeding horses. Soames relives again: his nephew marries the daughter of his rival, Irene gives birth to a son. His Annet tormented in difficult births gives birth to a daughter, Fleur and after that can not have children. On the eve of his father dies, and Soames, knowing that he always dreamed of a grandson, tells him that he had a son. Despite everything, Soames feels a triumph and a sense of possession.
LEAVES TO LEASE 1920. Jolyon 72, his marriage to Irene has lasted 20 years. Soames adores her daughter, while with the wife they are strangers. He is already 65 years old, and Annette 40. Soames is not worried even that Prosper Prosper is going around his wife around his wife, and he knows almost nothing about his relatives, except that his aunts are dead, the Forsyte exchange is not there, Timothy is 101 years old and he suffers from dementia, and Val returned from Africa and bought an estate in Sussex. Soames became a collector, he began to understand a lot in paintings and once, in one exhibition, the owner of June, he meets Irene with her son, John. He is very unhappy that her daughter gets to know John and explains to her that they have not been in a feud with them for a long time.
Visiting Val and Holly accidentally meet John and Fleur, and their novel is tied there. Jolyon warned everyone that there was no more talk about the causes of hostility. Somsa is very concerned about her daughter’s preoccupation and prefers her aspiring fan and future owner of land holdings, Mont Michael. Irene also worry about what her son wants to have in common with that Forsyte branch and takes him away for 2 months to Spain. June cared for his lonely father, Jolyon, and reproached him for his cowardice, said that it was necessary to tell John everything. Why do miserable people because of some past, if they really love each other.
Fleur, looking at his father’s photos, sees Irene on them and is eager to know what that means, she finds the answer from Prophon. According to Soames to Fleur, it was very bad that she inherited a passion for her son Irene, said that his feelings for 35 years, and while their short acquaintance did not last, she advises her to leave this crazy hobby that does not end safely. Jiolion is getting worse and worse, so he sends a letter to his son, in which he explains about the past and demands to part with Fleur. He hardly perceives the dark past, but does not have time to talk with his father in person, as he dies. Soames sees this as retribution, because Jolyon enjoyed taking his house and wife away.
Persistent Fleur forces his father to go to Irene, he arrives, sees his house again, whose builder has stolen his happiness, there is some irony from the fact that Fleur can be in it a mistress. There John explains to him that he wants to fulfill his father’s will and therefore he will no longer meet with Fleur. Soames, of course, is glad that he “freed” his daughter, even at the price of her happiness, but it was caught by the fact that this family herself rejected it. In the end, Fleur gives his consent to the wedding with Michael Mont, but without giving the appearance he is very worried about parting with John. After a magnificent wedding, the young went on a journey. Timothy dies, and the Forsyte house is rented, things are sold at auction, there are not many hunters. Soms has a lot of memories connected with them, it’s bitter for him to think that the last comfort of the old world disappears. In the gallery he saw Irene for the last time. She was going to go to her son, to Colombia, where he bought the land, and their house in Robin Hill is for sale.
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