John Galsworthy

Jon Forsyte is back. After years living in America with his mother Irene, he is excited to be home and can't wait to show off his roots to his new bride. When Fleur Forsyte, now Fleur Mont, his first love, hears of his arrival, she doesn't know what to feel. She's married too, though, with a little boy so there's no reason why they all can't meet as friends. But feelings so strong are not easily contained. And when their passion is rekindled, no one can halt the devastating events that follow — the secret culmination of an old, old story!

This sweeping family saga now moves to the lives and loves of the Cherrells in the early 30s, cousins by marriage to the Forsytes. An old English family, their one constant in an age of change and uncertainty is their ancestral home, Condaford Grange. It is especially precious to young Elizabeth Cherrell, or ‘Dinny’, whose family is everything to her. And when her brother faces extradition to South America, falsely accused of murder, and her cousin is threatened by her mentally unstable husband, Dinny does everything she can to shield them from harm.

Dinny Cherrell has been proposed to numerous times. But no one has ever come close to touching her independent spirit. That is, until she encounters Wilfred Desert. They had first met at Fleur and Michael Mont’s wedding and the spark of attraction felt all those years before develops into a deep, all-consuming love. But Wilfred, made cynical by the war and a wanderer, is a complicated and tortured soul. When his past actions come back to haunt him, and the disapproval of Dinny’s family work against them, their love is tested to the very limit...

Clare Cherrell has come home, fleeing the clutches of her violent, abusive husband. When he pursues her she vows she will never return and sets about fighting him in bitter divorce proceedings. Dinny supports her sister all the way, but she has her own heartache to conquer, a grief which threatens to embitter her life for ever. Will the sisters make it safely over the river, or is the stream of painful memories destined to engulf their future?

Separated from his wife Irene for some years now, Soames Forsyte has resigned himself to the fact she’s never coming back. But as he grows older and richer, he yearns for an heir. When he confronts Irene, the raw wounds of his past passion are exposed and he will do anything to claim back what is his. Then his cousin Jolyon Forsyte moves in to protect and champion Irene and the old rift in the family splinters into new jealousy, hatred and fear. But this time it runs too deeply for forgiveness...

Soames Forsyte has built a good life for himself with his second wife Annette. And he has a new focus and purpose; his beautiful, beloved daughter Fleur. But the sins of the father come flooding back to cast a shadow over his child's future. When Fleur, a vibrant and impetuous young woman, catches the eye of warm-hearted and idealistic Jon Forsyte at a chance meeting, it seems fate is determined to torture them all with the hurts of the past!

It’s 1922 and Fleur Forsyte is now married to Michael Mont. Fleur throws herself into the roaring 20s with the rest of London, taking life as it comes. But the marriage is haunted by the ghost of a past love affair, and however vibrant Fleur appears, those closest to her sense her unhappiness. Michael, devoted to Fleur but not blind to her faults, is determined to stand by her through anything. He also finds himself caught up in the tragic and poignant story of a young couple struggling for survival in an age of unemployment and extreme poverty.

Living in their elegant, fashionable house in Westminster, Fleur and Michael Mont mix with and entertain the glittering society characters of the day. As always, Soames Forsyte is constantly by the side of his daughter Fleur, spoiling and watching over her. But London after the war is a place of carefree, ‘live for today’ attitudes which are alarming and baffling to old Soames. And just when he thinks he’s protecting his daughter, he finds himself triggering a major society scandal...

The three novels which make up The Forsyte Saga chronicle the ebbing social power of the commerical upper-middle class Forsyte family between 1886 and 1920. Soames Forsyte is the brilliantly portrayed central figure, a Victorian who outlives the age, and whose baffled passion for his beautiful but unresponsive wife Irene reverberates throughout the saga. Written with both compassion and ironic detachment, Galsworthy's masterly narrative examines not only the family's fortunes but also the wider developments within society, particularly the changing position of women in an intensely competitive male world. Above all, Galsworthy is concerned with the conflict at the heart of English culture between the soulless materialism of wealth Top page and property and the humane instincts of love, beauty, and art.

When The Forsyte Saga was shown on television in 1967 it was hugely successful. The nation was gripped by the masterful visual telling of the Forsyte family's troubled story and adapted its activities to suit the next transmission. The Forsyte Saga comprising The Man of Property, In Chancery and To Let, is here produced by Wordsworth for the first time in a single volume. Initially, the narrative centres on Soames Forsyte — a successful solicitor living in London with his beautiful wife Irene. A pillar of the late Victorian upper middle class, materially wealthy, his appears to be a golden existence endowed with all the necessary possessions for a 'Man of Property', but beneath this very proper exterior lies a core of unhappiness and brutal relationships. The marriage of Soames and Irene disintegrates in bitter recrimination, creating a feud within the family that will have far-reaching consequences.

As the 19th century gives way to the 20th, the Forsytes, presided over by the patriarchal Soames, must face the disintegration of the society that has upheld their family's position for generations. This beloved family saga, with its huge and lively cast of characters, remains a classic of popular literature.

In this second part of John Galworthy's trilogy of love, power, money and family feuding, a new generation has arrived to divide the Forsyte clan with society scandals and conflicting passions.

In this final volume of The Forsyte Saga, Galsworthy writes about the lives and loves of the Cherrell family, cousins of the Forsytes. For centuries, the Cherrell sons have left their home of Condaford Grange to serve the state as soldiers, clergymen and administrators, but the 1930s bring uncertainty in a world of rapidly altering morals and unemployment. Galsworthy's portrayal of the effect of political change on individuals show him as a great social novelist as well as the author of one of the most gripping family sagas ever written.

Galsworthy's nine Forsyte novels span 50 years of family decline, from the 1880s to the 1930s. In seeking to insulate themselves by property from reality and the disintegration of their class, the Forsytes are gradually blinded to the threats of social change and the stealthy march of passion.