The Forsytes - Hardcover

For all who loved John Galsworthy's classic novel The Forsyte Saga and the millions who saw its world-famous Masterpiece Theatre television adaptation, here is the continuation of the epic story, brilliantly capturing both the style and the spirit of Galsworthy himself.

They were the Forsytes, a dynasty ravaged by corrosive secrets and dangerous liaisons. As England is poised on the brink of World War II, the civil war within the ranks of the Forsytes rages on. It had been ignited decades earlier by the incomparable Irene, whose beauty captured two brothers and sundered a family, whose legacy of forbidden desire swept down through the generations to conquer--and divide--again and again.

Now Soame's daughter, Fleur, is Lady Mont, dutiful wife of Michael Mont, M.P. She has buried her passion for her long-lost cousin, Irene's son, Jon Forsyte, under a veneer of motherhood and good works. But when tragedy brings Jon back to England, Fleur is determined to recapture the past--and the love of her life. Thus the story continues, as a brave and reckless new generation pursues the Forsyte destiny.

It's been a while since the public television series based on the Forsyte saga lobbed that epic of grasping Victorianism at American audiences and even longer since the three trilogies (plus the odd volume) brought John Galsworthy both fame in his own country and a Nobel Prize right before his death in 1933. Although this is her first book, Dawson does a fine job, continuing to focus on Fleur Forsyte Mont, daughter of Soames and victim of the long-running rift between her branch of the family and that of Irene and Young Jolyon Forsyte. Soames is dead, all the old Forsytes are dead and soon Anne Wilmot, wife of Fleur's beloved second cousin Jon, will be dead too, bringing Jon once more to the forefront of Fleur's thoughts?despite her devoted husband, Michael, and two children. Other incidents rouse old ghosts: of Philip Bosinney's masterpiece; of Montague Dartie's mesalliance; of Wilfred Desert's painful affair; and WWII reminds one and all of the losses of WWI and the Boer War. There may, in fact, be too many ghosts, as it really does help to have read at least the original Forsyte Saga and the subsequent A Modern Comedy (though one can pretty safely skip End of the Chapter). But for those who have and want still more, this is good stuff. Dawson, who has a degree in English literature from Oxford (the similarity of her name to Max Beerbohm's heroine makes this aside irresistible) does a good job of capturing Fleur's self-indulgence, and she's also got plenty of fine description and the occasional humorous moment. If there isn't much of the grand, sweeping statement on sentiment, art or Forsytism, perhaps that's a reflection of the preferences of our time.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.