The Forsyte Saga, Volume II.: Indian Summer of a Forsyte: In Chancery
The Forsyte Saga, Volume II.: Indian Summer of a Forsyte: In Chancery
The second volume of The Forsyte Saga opens on old Jolyon at his country estate, Robin Hill, where the autumn of his life unfolds in quiet contemplation. Haunted by memories and longings he can barely name, he watches his grandchildren play and finds himself drawn inexorably toward Irene, the woman who represents everything his practical life has lacked. Meanwhile, the legal battle between Soames and his cousin 'Young' Jolyon over family property rages in Chancery Court, exposing the raw materialistic impulses beneath the Forsyte family's polished surface. The Boer War shadows the narrative, threatening the international prosperity that underpins their comfortable world. Galsworthy traces the fault lines of kinship and desire with surgical precision: the feud between cousins, the impossible attraction between an aging man and a woman years his junior, the way property and pride warp human connection. This is a novel about what it costs to maintain respectability, and what remains when life offers only the memory of beauty rather than its possession.
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“Curious how he jibbed away from sight of his wife and child!One would have thought he must have rushed up at the first moment. On the contrary, he had a sort of physical shrinking from it”
— John Galsworthy
“Prima ancora del suo primo disastroso matrimonio, si ricordava d’aver seguito con ardore le ribellioni dell’Irlanda, e le cause di divorzio di donne che cercavano di liberarsi da uomini che odiavano. Avevano un bel da dire i parroci che la libertà spirituale e corporale son cose affatto diverse! Perniciosa dottrina, quella! Il corpo e l’anima non si possono separare in tal modo. La libera volontà costituisce la forza di ogni legame, e non la sua debolezza.””
— John Galsworthy
“«Qual è la vostra ricetta per conservare la giovinezza, Irene?»«Quando non si vive ci si conserva meravigliosamente».””
— John Galsworthy
