FORSYTE SAGA Complete

       By John Galsworthy

       [ED. NOTE: The spelling conforms to the original: "s's" instead of our

       "z's"; and "c's" where we would have "s's"; and "...our" in colour

       and flavour; many interesting double consonants; etc.]

       Contents

       PREFACE:

       THE MAN OF PROPERTY PART I

       CHAPTER I--'AT HOME' AT OLD JOLYON'S CHAPTER II--OLD JOLYON GOES TO THE OPERA CHAPTER III--DINNER AT SWITHIN'S

       CHAPTER IV--PROJECTION OF THE HOUSE CHAPTER V--A FORSYTE MENAGE 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 I--PROGRESS OF THE HOUSE CHAPTER II--JUNE'S TREAT

       CHAPTER III--DRIVE WITH SWITHIN

       CHAPTER IV--JAMES GOES TO SEE FOR HIMSELF

       1

       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 I--MRS. MACANDER'S EVIDENCE 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

       THE FORSYTE SAGA--VOLUME II

       INDIAN SUMMER OF A FORSYTE I

       II III IV

       IN CHANCERY

       2

       PART 1

       CHAPTER I--AT TIMOTHY'S

       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 CHAPTER XIV--SOAMES DISCOVERS WHAT HE WANTS

       PART II

       CHAPTER I--THE THIRD GENERATION 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!'

       3

       CHAPTER XIV--OUTLANDISH NIGHT

       PART III

       CHAPTER I--SOAMES IN PARIS 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

       AWAKENING TO LET

       PART I I.--ENCOUNTER

       II.--FINE FLEUR FORSYTE III.--AT ROBIN HILL IV.--THE MAUSOLEUM V.--THE NATIVE HEATH VI.--JON

       VII.--FLEUR

       VIII.--IDYLL ON GRASS

       4

       IX. GOYA X.--TRIO XI.--DUET XII.--CAPRICE

       PART II

       I.--MOTHER AND SON II.--FATHERS AND DAUGHTERS III.--MEETINGS

       IV.--IN GREEN STREET V.--PURELY FORSYTE AFFAIRS VI.--SOAMES' PRIVATE LIFE VII.--JUNE TAKES A HAND

       VIII.--THE BIT BETWEEN THE TEETH IX.--THE FAT IN THE FIRE X.--DECISION

       XI.--TIMOTHY PROPHESIES

       PART III

       I.--OLD JOLYON WALKS II.--CONFESSION III.--IRENE

       IV.--SOAMES COGITATES V.--THE FIXED IDEA VI.--DESPERATE VII.--EMBASSY VIII.--THE DARK TUNE

       IX.--UNDER THE OAKTREE

       X.--FLEUR'S WEDDING

       XI.--THE LAST OF THE OLD FORSYTES

       5

       Volumes

       Volume 1. The Man of Property

       Volume 2. Indian Summer of a Forsyte, and In Chancery

       Volume 3. Awakening, and To Let

       THE MAN OF PROPERTY

       TO MY WIFE:

       I DEDICATE THE FORSYTE SAGA IN ITS ENTIRETY, BELIEVING IT TO BE OF ALL MY WORKS THE LEAST UNWORTHY OF ONE WITHOUT WHOSE ENCOURAGEMENT, SYMPATHY AND CRITICISM I COULD NEVER HAVE

       BECOME EVEN SUCH A WRITER AS I AM.

       PREFACE:

       "The Forsyte Saga" was the title originally destined for that part of it which is called "The Man of Property"; and to adopt it for the collected chronicles of the Forsyte family has indulged the Forsytean tenacity that is in all of us. The word Saga might be objected to on the ground that it connotes the heroic and that there is little heroism in these pages. But it is used with a suitable irony; and, after all, this long tale, though it may deal with folk in frock coats, furbelows, and a gilt-edged period, is not devoid of the essential heat of conflict. Discounting for the gigantic stature and blood-thirstiness of old days, as they have come down to us in fairy-tale and legend, the folk of the old Sagas were Forsytes, assuredly, in their possessive instincts, and as little proof against the inroads of beauty and passion as Swithin, Soames, or even Young Jolyon. And if heroic figures, in days that never were, seem to startle out from their surroundings in fashion unbecoming to a Forsyte of the Victorian era, we may be sure that tribal instinct was even then the prime force, and that "family" and the sense of home and property counted as they do to this day, for all the recent efforts to "talk them out."

       So many people have written and claimed that their families were the originals of the Forsytes that one has been almost encouraged to believe in the typicality of an imagined species. Manners change and modes evolve, and "Timothy's on the Bayswater Road" becomes a nest of the unbelievable in all except essentials; we shall not look upon its like again, nor perhaps on such a one as James or Old Jolyon. And yet the figures of Insurance Societies and the utterances of Judges reassure us daily that our earthly paradise is still

       a rich preserve, where the wild raiders, Beauty and Passion, come stealing in, filching security from beneath our noses. As surely as a dog will bark at a brass band, so will the essential Soames in human nature ever rise up uneasily against the dissolution which hovers round the folds of ownership.

       "Let the dead Past bury its dead" would be a better saying if the Past ever died. The persistence of the Past is one of those tragi-comic blessings which each new age denies, coming cocksure on to the stage to mouth its claim to a perfect novelty.

       But no Age is so new as that! Human Nature, under its changing pretensions and clothes, is and ever will be very much of a Forsyte, and might, after all, be a much worse animal.