The Forsyte saga

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The Forsyte Saga (English The Forsyte Saga ) is a trilogy of novels with two short insertions that was published between 1906 and 1921 by the British Nobel Prize winner John Galsworthy . The author received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1932, shortly before his death, on the grounds: "For the elegant art of narrative which finds its highest expression in 'The Forsyte Saga'". The work describes the events in a family belonging to the upper middle class in England in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The novel focuses on the life of the fictional Forsyte family in its various shades. The focus is on Soames Forsyte, who, as the prototype of his economically strengthened bourgeois class, tries to preserve the family ideals and his fortune shaped by the Victorian attitude to life. The story relaxes in dramatic events that deal with the four-generation struggle between family tradition and liberation from social shackles. Numerous characters from the extensive Forsyte family appear and reveal the end of an era in their contradictions.

Individual parts of the saga, such as the first novel The Property Man , were filmed in 1949 with the title Das Schicksal der Irene Forsyte ( That Forsyte Woman ). In 1967 the BBC produced a twenty-six part television series and in 2002/03 there was a new edition of ITV under the title The Forsyte Saga .

construction

The book consists of three separate novels. The title of the first part is The Property Man (published 1906). This is followed by an insertion called Forsyte's Post-Summer (1918), which precedes the second novel, the title of which is In the Snares of the Law (1920). Between parts two and three there is the second insertion Awakening (1920), until the third part For Rent (1921) concludes the saga.

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The Property Man (also The Rich Man , 1906)

The first book begins in 1886, in the Victorian Age with the engagement between June Forsyte and Philip Baynes Bosinney, an architect. June is the daughter of the disgraced younger Jolyon, who left the family because of what the other family members consider to be an inappropriate marriage. Only after fifteen years does his father, Jolyon the elder, contact his son again. The head of the family looked after his granddaughter June during those years. The engagement to Bosinney, who is maliciously called "the privateer", causes resentment in the family. Soames Forsyte, the son of James and a nephew of the elder Jolyon, is married to Irene, an extraordinarily beautiful woman and born Heron. The marriage is unhappy after Irene gave in to Soame's insistence after long and persistent wooing. At first, June is close friends with Irene. This relationship changes suddenly when Bosinney, who was commissioned by Soames to build a house for him, the young Forsyte, apparently has an affair with Soames wife Irene. Meanwhile the eldest of the old Forsytes, Aunt Ann, dies. The funeral becomes a show of the old generation, who express themselves in horror at being mortal too.

The relationship between Soames Forsyte and his wife Irene is noticeably deteriorating. The cost of the house far exceeds the budget Soames approved and he is suing the architect Bosinney for damages. Meanwhile, Bosinney and Irene are seen emerging from a fern grove together. Soames Forsyte and Philip Baynes Bosinney go to trial, which the young architect loses in court in absentia. Irene flees Soames after being raped, leaving almost all of her belongings behind. The rumors of an affair between Irenes and the destitute Bosinney are confirmed.

A short time later, James, Soames' father, receives news that Bosinney has been run over by a car and died from his injuries. Everything points to a suicide of the now bankrupt architect. However, this assumption is not confirmed. Bosinney died of carelessness. After learning of her lover's death, Irene, who has fled Soames, returns to her husband one last time to leave him for good.

Post-summer / post-summer of a Forsyte (1918, first inset)

The action begins at the beginning of the 1890s. Four years have passed since the events of the first part. Jolyon, who now lives in Soame's former house with his son, his family and his granddaughter June, feels lonely because the rest of the family, apart from his two grandchildren, are in Spain. He gets an unexpected visit from Irene and often invites her over so that she can keep him company and give Holly, the young Jolyon's daughter, piano lessons. Irene now lives in a small apartment in Chelsea and takes care of poor women. Jolyon enjoys her presence and decides to give Irene £ 15,000 in his will. One day while old Jolyon Forsyte is waiting for Irene's visit, he falls asleep in the garden and dies.

In Shackles / In the Snares of the Law (1920)

Seven years have passed since old Jolyon died. Shortly before the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Soames, who had managed to increase his fortune considerably, met a French woman named Anette Lamotte. Helène, the younger Jolyon's second wife, dies. Montague (Monty) Dartie, a bon vivant and the husband of Winifred, a daughter of James Forsyte, is tolerated and financially supported because of James' love for his grandchildren. Dartie then puts all his money on a racehorse and loses it. The man threatens his wife after she accuses him of stealing her jewelry. These are precious pearls that James, Winifred's father, actually bought. Montague Dartie then leaves his wife and four children and flees to Buenos Aires with a Spanish dancer . Winifred calls her brother Soames for help to help her with the divorce formalities. James, who according to his own statements "is never told anything", should not find out about it. In the meantime, Roger, James' brother, who was also not informed of his death, dies. Half a year later, Monty Dartie suddenly returns neglected and is taken back to her house by Winifred under strict conditions.

Young Jolyon now lives in Robin Hill, the house Bosinney built for Soames. He has now become famous for his watercolor painting. Soames is seeking a divorce from Irene at the same time. But when he pays Irene a visit for the first time in over twelve years, the old love for her flares up again. The rich man wants to win her back at all costs. Jolyon is now making advances to Irene and is hanging out with her in Paris . Soames hires a detective to spy on them. Finally he travels to Paris furious with jealousy and meets Irene, who returns to England in disgust . The offended man wants to leave her a letter and threatens his wife, if she continues the liaison with Jolyon, "to make his life unbearable". After divorcing Irene, Soames married the French Anette Lamotte in January 1901, shortly before Queen Victoria's death, an event that marked the end of an era. There are complications during the birth of the longed-for son and heir. Soames has to decide whether the child or the mother should survive. He hesitates and Soames has a daughter, Fleur. Anette survives the birth but is not visited by her husband because Soames has meanwhile been called to his father's deathbed. James is dying of pneumonia and eventually suffocates. His son then returns to his wife and child, a child he regards as "his property". Shortly after their marriage, Jolyon and Irene became the parents of a son, whom they named Jolyon, called Jon.

Val, Winifred's and Montague Dartie's son, who is supposed to study at Oxford , meets Holly, Jolyon's daughter from his second marriage, and falls in love with her. During his mother's humiliating divorce process, Val asks Holly to marry him. Jolly, Hollie's brother, hears this and asks Val to join him as a soldier to fight in the Boer War . Val accepts and is celebrated as a hero in his family. After a few months in South Africa, Jolly fell ill with typhus and died of it. During a vacation from the front, Val marries Holly. The young couple connects two warring Forsyte lines - that of James and Soames on the one hand and that of Jolyon, the elder and Jolyon, the younger, on the other.

Awakening (1920, second inset)

The second and shorter insertion, set in 1909, is about the carefree childhood of Jon Forsyte, the son of Irene and Jolyon. The eight year old spends his time playing imaginative games. It is a time when raising children - at least his own - is handled loosely.

For rent (1921)

The third novel closes the Forsyte saga. Fleur, Soame's daughter, and Jon, Jolyon's son, fall in love. However, they know nothing of their parents' past, such as the marriage between Soames and Irene, Jon's mother. One day Soames, Jolyon and Irene discover their romance and forbid them to have contact. Jolyon warns his son that if he dies, no one will be able to protect his wife Irene from his cousin and her ex-husband. Michael Mont, a son from a noble family, makes advances to Fleur. After marrying him, the family rose from the status of the nouveau riche to the status of the nobility. Uncle Timothy dies at the end of the saga at the old age of one hundred.

Characters

Soames Forsyte (1855–1926) is the son of James. As the prototype of the wealthy Englishman, he is portrayed as cool, brutal, proud and withdrawn. He embodies the selfish principles of a society that indulges in self-satisfaction and presumption through seemingly unlimited material prosperity. After long and successful advertising, he married Irene, who entered into a relationship with the architect Philip Bosinney. After 17 years of separation and a humiliating divorce, he marries the much younger Anette Lamotte, who is to give him a son. Soames is a lawyer and the hope for the Forsyte family. He was appraised by Jolyon the Elder as "the man of property ". Instead of the hoped-for ancestor, a daughter, Fleur, is born to him. The disappointment about this is evident.

The young Jolyon Forsyte (1847–1920) is the son of Jolyon the Elder. He is a warm, ironic and kind, sometimes naive man. After his first marriage to Frances Crisson, who is from June, he married Heléne Hilmer in 1880. This connection leads to great disappointment within the family and a break with it. From this marriage spring Jolly, who dies of typhus in the Boer War, and Holly. After Helene's death, Jolyon married Irene, the divorced wife of Soames. This deepens the long-standing hostility with his cousin Soames. Jolyon anticipates his eternal competitor Soames with the birth of his son Jolyon, known as Jon.

June Forsyte (* 1869) is the oldest child of Jolyon Forsyte, the younger. Her mother was Jolyon's first wife, Frances Crisson. She was engaged to the architect Philip Bosinney in her early twenties, but broke up after the affair with Irene became known. Up until this point she was close friends with Irene. June lived separately from her father with her grandfather in her childhood and youth. After the events around Bosinney, she withdrew and has lived with Jolyon, the younger, ever since. During the Boer War, she joins her half-sister Holly and joins the Red Cross in South Africa. Upon her return, she joins the movement to liberate women. She later opened a contemporary art gallery in London.

Jolyon Forsyte , the Elder (1806-1892) was the head of the family and father of Jolyon the Younger, with whom he was reconciled 15 years later after the breakup. He was married to Edith Moor. He held the family together and upheld their values ​​until his death. In the inset after summer his friendship with Irene is described. Jolyon, the elder, dies at the end of it.

James Forsyte (1811-1901) is a lawyer, the younger brother of old Jolyon, husband of Emily, née Golding, and the father of Soames. He has a twin brother named Swithin, who was called "the fat one" by everyone. His life is also oriented towards the preservation of old values ​​and morals, and especially towards increasing wealth. In old age he often complains that you "never tell him anything when important things happen". James dies of pneumonia at the age of 90.

Irene Forsyte (* 1863), née Heron, married Soames in 1883, from whom she divorced in 1900 after a long separation. Since Irene Soames never loved and could not 'learn to love' either, she suffers greatly from the marital relationship. After the divorce became final, she married the young Jolyon Forsyte in 1901 and gave birth to Jon, his second son. She is described as beautiful, sensual, and seductive.

Philip Bosinney is a young architect and engaged to June, Jolyon's eldest daughter. While building a house for Soames in Robin Hill, he enters into a secret love affair with Irene Forsyte. Because of the costs that were exceeded several times during the construction work, Soames finally sued him and found him guilty in a trial; However, Bosinney dies in a traffic accident on the day of the trial. Irene then leaves her husband and moves into a small apartment.

Ann Forsyte (1799–1886) is the eldest of ten children of Jolyon Forsyte, who was called "the great dosset", and his wife Ann. She dies as the first member of the old generation and shows the family the painful realization of mortality. Ann lived with her sisters Julia and Hester and her brother Timothy until her death.

Swithin Forsyte (1811-1891) is the twin brother of James and is called "the fat one" within the family because of his obesity.

Sequels

The Forsyte saga was continued by Galsworthy with two further trilogies of novels : Modern Comedy , consisting of the novels The White Monkey (1924), The Silver Spoon (1926) and Swan Song (1928) and The End of the Song consisting of A Girl Waiting (1931 ), Blooming Wilderness (1932) and Across the Stream (1933). Galsworthy also wrote a prequel to The Possessing Man , On Forsyte 'Change (1930).

In 1994 Suleika Dawson published the novel The Forsytes: the Saga Continues with which the third volume of the first trilogy is continued.

Translations

  • 1910: Lise Landau
  • 1925: Luise Wolf and Leon Schalit
  • 1951: a completely new translation of Wolf / Schalit (1925) by Erika Kaiser and Ilse Winger
  • 1985: Jutta Schlösser

German-language editions

  • The three novels of the Forsyte Saga (Zsolnay), translation Wolf / Schalit (1925), editions 1925, 1926, 1930, 1932, 1933, 1936, 1938, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1961, 1972
  • The Forsyte Saga (Gutenberg Book Guild), translation Wolf / Schalit (1925/1951), editions 1951, 1973, 1974
  • The Forsyte Saga (German Book Community), translation Wolf / Schalit (1925), gänzl. Revised by Kaiser / Winger, editions 1953, 1973, 1986
  • The Forsyte Saga (Rowohlt), translation Wolf / Schalit (1925), editions 1954
  • The Forsyte Saga (List), translation Wolf / Schalit (1925), editions 1957, 1968
  • The Forsyte Saga (Ullstein), translation Wolf / Schalit (1925/1951), editions 1973
  • The Forsyte Saga (Kiepenheuer), translation Schlösser (1985), edition 1985
  • The Forsyte Saga (dtv), translation Schlösser (1985), edition 1988
  • The Forsyte Saga (Heyne), translation Wolf / Schalit (1925/1951), edition 1989
  • The Forsyte Saga (Piper), translation Schlösser (1985), edition 2003
  • The Forsyte Saga (Melzer), translation Wolf / Schalit (1925), edition 2006
  • The Forsyte Saga (Edition Oberkassel), translation by Johanna Bönisch, edition 2017

Adaptations

Film adaptations

Radio plays

Secondary literature

  • Dudley Barker: John Galsworthy, Gentleman and Poet. Vienna u. a .: Zsolnay 1964.
  • James Gindin: John Galsworthy's life and art. An alien's fortress. Basingstoke et al. a .: Macmillan 1987. ISBN 0-333-40812-8
  • Johanna Kroener: The technique of realistic drama in Ibsen and Galsworthy. Leipzig: Tauchnitz 1935. (= contributions to English philology; 28)
  • Jan MacDonald: The "new drama" 1900-1914. Harley Granville Barker, John Galsworthy, St. John Hankin, John Masefield. Basingstoke et al. a .: Macmillan 1986. ISBN 0-333-30873-5
  • Ralph Hale Mottram : John Galsworthy . London u. a .: Longmans Green 1953. (= Writers and their work; 38)
  • Kurt Otten: The English novel. From naturalism to the art of consciousness. Berlin: E. Schmidt 1986. (= Basics of English and American Studies ; 15) ISBN 3-503-02237-6
  • Anne Holden Rønning: Hidden and visible suffrage. Emancipation and the Edwardian women in Galsworthy, Wells, and Forster. Bern u. a .: Lang 1995. ISBN 3-906750-07-8
  • Wilhelmine Schmitz: Man and society in the works of John Galsworthy. Bochum-Langendreer: Pöppinghaus 1936. (= Cologne English studies; 27)
  • Sanford V. Starlight: John Galsworthy. Boston: Twayne 1987. (= Twayne's English authors series; 447) ISBN 0-8057-6947-1
  • Rudolf Weiss : The Janus head of traditional modernism. The Drama Aesthetics of St. John Hankins and John Galsworthy. Trier: WVT 2002. (= CDE studies; 9) ISBN 3-88476-514-0

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The term 'The rich man', chosen in the first translation by Lise Landau (1910) and since then naturalized, misses the actual meaning of 'The Man of Property', because 'rich men' are all the Forsytes. To say this after Soames would be pointless. Old Jolyon describes Soames as a 'possessor' because he embodies the Forsyte mentality in its purest form, since in him all physical and spiritual sense is dominated by the sense of having. see. Anselm Schlösser: Afterword, in: John Galswothy: The Forsyte Saga. Munich 2003, p. 1094.
  2. ↑ In older editions also incorrectly translated as 'Der rich Mann' (Lise Landau, 1910).
  3. ↑ Translated by Ilse Landau as 'In Fesseln'.
  4. ↑ Anselm Schlösser: Afterword, in: John Galsworthy: The Forsyte Saga. Munich 2003, p. 1091.
  5. ↑ The Forsyte Saga - Part 1: The Possessive Nerd . In: edition oberkassel . October 13, 2017 ( editionoberkassel.de [accessed November 22, 2017]).