The Forsyte Saga

John Galsworthy

• Publisher: Caelwick Press
• Year: 2026
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9780116691835
• Subtopic: Classics
• Index: Literature

Between 1906 and 1921 John Galsworthy published three novels chronicling the Forsyte family, a fictional upper-middle class family at the end of the Victorian era: The Man of Property , In Chancery , and To Let . In 1922 Galsworthy wrote two interconnecting short stories to bind the three novels together and published the whole as The Forsyte Saga . While the novels follow the Forsyte family at large, the action centers around Soames Forsyte—the scion of a nouveau-riche London tea merchant—his wife Irene, and their unhappy marriage. Soames and his sprawling family are portrayed as stereotypes of unhappy gilded-age wealth, their family having entered the industrial revolution poor farmers and emerged as wealthy bourgeoise. Their rise was powered by their capacity to acquire, won at the expense of their capacity for almost anything else. Thematically, the saga focuses on the mores of the wealthy upper-middle class, which was still a newish feature in the class landscape of England at the time; duty, honor, and love; and the rapidly growing differences across generations occurring in a period of war and social change. The characters are complex and nuanced, and the situations they find themselves in—both of their own making, and of the making of society around them—provide a rich field for analyzing the close of the Victorian age, the dawn of the Edwardian age, and the societal frameworks that were forged in that frisson. Galsworthy went on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1932 for The Forsyte Saga , one of the rare occasions in which the Swedish Academy has awarded a prize for a specific work instead of for a lifetime of work.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• List of Volumes
• THE MAN OF PROPERTY
• PREFACE:
• THE MAN OF PROPERTY
• PART I
• CHAPTER II OLD JOLYON GOES TO THE OPERA
• CHAPTER III DINNER AT SWITHIN’S
• CHAPTER IV PROJECTION OF THE HOUSE
• CHAPTER V A FORSYTE MÉNAGE
• CHAPTER VI JAMES AT LARGE
• CHAPTER VII OLD JOLYON’S PECCADILLO
• CHAPTER VIII PLANS OF THE HOUSE
• CHAPTER IX DEATH OF AUNT ANN
• PART II
• CHAPTER II JUNE’S TREAT
• CHAPTER III DRIVE WITH SWITHIN
• CHAPTER IV JAMES GOES TO SEE FOR HIMSELF
• CHAPTER V SOAMES AND BOSINNEY CORRESPOND
• CHAPTER VI OLD JOLYON AT THE ZOO
• CHAPTER VII AFTERNOON AT TIMOTHY’S
• CHAPTER VIII DANCE AT ROGER’S
• CHAPTER IX EVENING AT RICHMOND
• CHAPTER X DIAGNOSIS OF A FORSYTE
• CHAPTER XI BOSINNEY ON PAROLE
• CHAPTER XII JUNE PAYS SOME CALLS
• CHAPTER XIII PERFECTION OF THE HOUSE
• CHAPTER XIV SOAMES SITS ON THE STAIRS
• PART III
• CHAPTER II NIGHT IN THE PARK
• CHAPTER III MEETING AT THE BOTANICAL
• CHAPTER IV VOYAGE INTO THE INFERNO
• CHAPTER V THE TRIAL
• CHAPTER VI SOAMES BREAKS THE NEWS
• CHAPTER VII JUNE’S VICTORY
• CHAPTER VIII BOSINNEY’S DEPARTURE
• CHAPTER IX IRENE’S RETURN
• I
• II
• III
• IV
• V
• IN CHANCERY
• PART 1
• CHAPTER II EXIT A MAN OF THE WORLD
• CHAPTER III SOAMES PREPARES TO TAKE STEPS
• CHAPTER IV SOHO
• CHAPTER V JAMES SEES VISIONS
• CHAPTER VI NO-LONGER-YOUNG JOLYON AT HOME
• CHAPTER VII THE COLT AND THE FILLY
• CHAPTER VIII JOLYON PROSECUTES TRUSTEESHIP
• CHAPTER IX VAL HEARS THE NEWS
• CHAPTER X SOAMES ENTERTAINS THE FUTURE
• CHAPTER XI AND VISITS THE PAST
• CHAPTER XII ON FORSYTE ’CHANGE
• CHAPTER XIII JOLYON FINDS OUT WHERE HE IS
• PART II
• CHAPTER II SOAMES PUTS IT TO THE TOUCH
• CHAPTER III VISIT TO IRENE
• CHAPTER IV WHERE FORSYTES FEAR TO TREAD
• CHAPTER V JOLLY SITS IN JUDGMENT
• CHAPTER VI JOLYON IN TWO MINDS
• CHAPTER VII DARTIE VERSUS DARTIE
• CHAPTER VIII THE CHALLENGE
• CHAPTER IX DINNER AT JAMES’
• CHAPTER X DEATH OF THE DOG BALTHASAR
• CHAPTER XI TIMOTHY STAYS THE ROT
• CHAPTER XII PROGRESS OF THE CHASE
• CHAPTER XIII “HERE WE ARE AGAIN!”
• CHAPTER XIV OUTLANDISH NIGHT
• PART III
• CHAPTER II IN THE WEB
• CHAPTER III RICHMOND PARK
• CHAPTER IV OVER THE RIVER
• CHAPTER V SOAMES ACTS
• CHAPTER VI A SUMMER DAY
• CHAPTER VII A SUMMER NIGHT
• CHAPTER VIII JAMES IN WAITING
• CHAPTER IX OUT OF THE WEB
• CHAPTER X PASSING OF AN AGE
• CHAPTER XI SUSPENDED ANIMATION
• CHAPTER XII BIRTH OF A FORSYTE
• CHAPTER XIII JAMES IS TOLD
• CHAPTER XIV HIS - Part 1
• CHAPTER XIV HIS - Part 2
• V.—THE NATIVE HEATH
• II.—FATHERS AND DAUGHTERS
• IX.—THE FAT IN THE FIRE
• VII.—EMBASSY