The Forsyte Saga

By: John Galsworthy

Narrated by: Fred Williams

The three novels that make up The Forsyte Saga chronicle the ebbing social power of the commercial upper-middle class Forsyte family through three generations, beginning in Victorian London during the 1880s and ending in the early 1920s. Galsworthy's masterly narrative examines not only their fortunes but also the wider developments within society, particularly the changing position of women.

The Forsyte Saga is a sequence of novels comprising The Man of Property (1906), In Chancery (1920), and To Let (1921) with two interludes, "Indian Summer of a Forsyte" (1918) and "Awakening", published together in 1922.

The saga begins with Soames Forsyte, a successful solicitor who buys land at Robin Hill on which to build a house for his wife Irene and future family. Eventually, the Forsyte family begins to disintegrate when Timothy Forsyte, the last of the old generation, dies at the age of 100.

In these novels, John Galsworthy documented a departed way of life, that of the affluent middle class that ruled England before the 1914 war. The class is criticized on account of its possessiveness, but there is also nostalgia because Galsworthy, as a man born into the class, could also appreciate its virtues.

(P)2005 Blackstone Audiobooks

One of the most important books

One of the most important books I’ve read recently. Absolutely masterful. Although written a century ago, it’s relevant today. The narrator is excellent.

Most excellent!

I listened to the whole book and did not want it to end despite its length.

The reader is most excellent and skillful. I was also put off at first by his apparently plodding style, but I became quite comfortable and eventually looked forward to it. He managed surprising subtle changes in the characters' moods and dispositions.

Personally, I found myself too much like Soames but I really enjoy this masterful tale of an age at its height and during its passing.

Just wait until you get to the chapters called Indian Summer and the Awakening!

Wait until you hear a boy describe beauty to his mother... Ah feels a little teary-eyed already.

Ben

Wonderful story but terrible narrator

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Unfortunately, no. I loved the TV show of these books, and have also read the books so I was really looking forward to listening to the audiobook, but the narrator was hands-down the worst audio book narrator I have ever listened to.

He read the book like he was reading a science textbook - it was completely dry, unemotional and flat. It was SO hard to listen to, it completely spoilt the book for me.

Was The Forsyte Saga worth the listening time?

The book is great, and with a different narrator I'm sure it would have been an absorbing listen.

Excellence

Undoubtfully excellent philosophical book, but what even more important, wonderfully narrated. Probably, will listen again.

Depressing

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

No. It was depressing with no redeeming area

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Have at least someone end up happy in the end

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Absolutely not