The Forsyte Saga: In Chancery

by John Galsworthy

Book Overview

In the second installment of John Galsworthy's classic Forsyte Saga, we explore the separate lives of Soames Forsyte and his estranged wife and their attempts at love and acceptance more than a decade... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0755340868
• Release Date: June 2008
• Publisher: Headline Book Publishing
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 1.0" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

Obsessions in trust

They say you never really get over the important exes in your life. But Soames Forsyte takes that to weird, creepy levels. In fact, his obsession with his estranged wife Irene is the one aspect of "In Chancery," the second novel in the Forsyte Saga, that remains unchanged. The brilliant John Galsworthy changes just about everything else for the noveau riche Forsytes, as the older generations pass away and younger ones take their place -- and he also crams it with plenty of scandal, love and obsession. It's been twelve years since Irene left Soames. When Dartie runs off to Buenos Aires with a dancer, Soames advises his cousin Winifred to divorce her wayward husband. Soames has a similar problem: he desperately wants a son, and has a new wife lined up, but is still technically married to Irene. Though he hasn't been faithful himself, he's determined to ferret out imagined love affairs of hers as grounds for divorce. So he sends his cousin Young Jolyon over to Irene -- but it isn't long before his possessive passion toward Irene is rekindled. And to make things more complicated, a mutual attraction has sprung up between Jolyon and Irene, infuriating Soames further. But Jolyon has caused scandal before for love, and he's willing to do it again, shocking the entire Forsyte clan with his new romance -- and what comes from it. And as Soames chases the life he feels he's been cheated of, his time with Annette isn't going to be the way he wanted... John Galsworthy once stated that the Forsytes never change. But twelve years in a rapidly-shifting era is a long time, and there's been a lot of changes since "A Man of Property." Younger Forsytes are replacing the dying elders, and the stuffy, male, money-centric focus of the big respectable clan is starting to fade away. Just about the only thing that hasn't changed is Soames, and his obsession with Irene. Galsworthy's dignified, detailed prose is still very much here. He hadn't lost his knack for delicate, simple descriptions of beauty and suppressed emotion, and he can conjure exquisite images with only a few words (June is described as having "red-gold hair and her viking-coloured eyes, and that touch of the Berserker in her spirit"). It's like having the words painted with vivid colors. Though the plot deals with scandalous sexual affairs, stalking, family infighting, divorce and other fun topics, Galsworthy never resorts to soppy, sordid melodrama to get the point across. But he also relaxed his style in "In Chancery" -- one entire chapter is from the jumbled, fragmented point of view of Soames' dying father, showing that Galsworthy definitely wasn't restricted to just one style. Soames remains a fairly repellent creature in this book. His narrow vision of the world and his hypocrisies (it's okay for him to have lovers, but not Irene) keep him from ever realizing what drove his wife away. His obsession with what he considers "his" takes him to stalkerish heights -- and that obsession is more a

Don't start in the middle

Everyone's heard of "The Forsyte Saga," the BBC family epic of the late Victorian Age. Fewer have read the Galsworthy book, and that's a shame, because it's fascinating on so many levels. "In Chancery" is the story of the divorce of the two main characters, Soames and Irene. But without what came before, you'll lose the significance of what happens. On the surface it's the story of Soames Forsyte, the quintessential icon of the growth of the upper middle classes and the decline of the nobility during the Victorian era. Descended from a farmer in Dorset in the not-too-distant past, Soames is a lawyer and a man of property. He buys wisely, sells more wisely, and husbands his wealth and that of the family. He is in control of everything that affects him, except one thing--his wife. Desiring to possess the sensitive, beautiful, genteel but poor Irene, and with the help of a callous mother, Soames pressures Irene into becoming his wife. From this single mistake, the one time Soames let passion rule, his life and the lives of his family and their descendants are changed in unpredictable and frightening ways. Galsworthy's theme is the constant tussle in life between property and art, love and possession, freedom and convention. In the fine tradition of family sagas, these themes play themselves out over and over with each generation. On another level, this is the story of an age, the story of the British Empire at its peak. Galsworthy packs his book with allusions to the great crises of the time, the Boer War and WWI, the rise of Labour, the death of the Queen, the spread of "democracy." The Forsyte homes are meticulously detailed, from the French reproduction furniture to the dusty sofas to the heavy drapes, to the fireplace grate, to the electric lights in the old chandeliers. Soames collects art, and Galsworthy showers us with the opinions of a British gentleman of the great and not so great art of the day. The saga was written over a period of many years, and on yet another level I found the the changes in Galsworthy's style from the rather clipped, detailed recitations of events and commentary typical of the 19th century to the more expressive style of the 20th. Especially in the first volume of the three, family relationships are painstakingly laid out, the rounds of dinners and family gatherings carefully chronicled. By the third volume, To Let, Galsworthy reveals the love of the countryside and the pain of repressed emotions that the family members a generation ago would have hidden. The writing is very beautiful--as in this sentence: "Fleur raised her eyelids--the restless glint of those clear whites remained on Holly's vision as might the flutter of a caged bird's wings." It took me a good six weeks to plow through The Forsyte Saga, but it was worth it.

More family affairs

In the second installment of "The Forsyte Saga", writer John Galsworthy reassumes the life of the Forsyte family. "In Chancery" is situated a few years after the events told in "The Man of Property", in a few pages recaps some of the most important facts of the first book and their aftermath. After that he is able to move on. And on he moves -- but the narrative still concerns on young Jolyon, Soames and Irene that forms a love triangle. While the remaining Jolyon become a close friend to Irene, her ex-husband --from whom she hasn't divorced in all those years -- fells jealous and considers claiming his wife back. Needless to say that this is not the only plot in the novel. Galsworthy develops more family plots. It is impossible not to have the feeling that while he is sometimes depicting the shallowness of the elite from his time, at the same time he has an indulgent look upon the rich and wealthy -- which is not a bad thing as a matter of fact. Those who like "The Man of Property" will certainly find more pleasure in "In Chancery". He finishes the book with the perfect hook what will come next.

Continuing the Saga

_In Chancery_ is the second of the novels in the first Forsyte Saga trilogy. A delightful and pointed look at the rising upper middle class in England, this book picks up where the interlude "Indian Summer of a Forsyte" left off and continues the story of Young Jolyon and the man of property himself, Soames. This installation continues the theme of musing on the nature of possession and freedom as they relate to love and marriage as Soames wishes to remarry so that he can have a son who can help keep the family property intact. Usually bound together with "Awakening", the interlude that binds this book generationally to _To Let_.Discovering the world of the Forsytes has been one of my delights of the year. I have no idea why these books have been forgiven, but they're really wonderful. Discover them yourself!

Galsworthy writes perfection.

The second volume of the Forsyte Saga; this time primarily the story of Jolyon (Young Jolyon), Soames (who might be called Young James), and Irene ~ Soames' wife who becomes Jolyon's lover. Galsworthy is really the forerunner of Joyce, with at least as much understanding of how men think, and close to (if not as much) the ability to portray it ~ in a more readable fashion. There is real affection in the portrayal of his characters, as much because Galsworthy was by birth a member of the rising upper middle class in England during the time of which he wrote as for any intrinsic value in those characters. As he shows them, though, they are close to loveable, certainly Jolyon is admirable, and Soames is, by his lights, decent ~ even if he does have an unrequitable passion for his wife. Though this is by no means an action-packed plot ~ i knew the essence of the action before i read it, from having read the Introduction ~ it nevertheless compelled me to read, read closely, read quickly. I shall be hard pressed to wait the few weeks i've promised myself before i borrow this volume from the library again and read "To Let," the third novel in the Saga.