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The Forsyte Chronicles #7-9
The Forsyte Saga Volume Three
In this final volume of The Forsyte Chronicles, Galsworthy writes about the lives and loves of the Cherrell family, cousins of the Forsytes. For centuries, the Cherrell sons have left their home of Condaford Grange to serve the state as soldiers, clergymen and administrators, but the 1930s bring uncertainty in a world of rapidly altering morals and unemployment. Galsworthy’s portrayal of the effect of political change on individuals show him as a great social novelist as well as the author of one of the most gripping family sagas ever written.
806 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1931
22 people are currently reading
508 people want to read
About the author
John Galsworthy
2,416 books470 followersLiterary career of English novelist and playwright John Galsworthy, who used John Sinjohn as a pseudonym, spanned the Victorian, Edwardian and Georgian eras.
In addition to his prolific literary status, Galsworthy was also a renowned social activist. He was an outspoken advocate for the women's suffrage movement, prison reform and animal rights. Galsworthy was the president of PEN, an organization that sought to promote international cooperation through literature.
John Galsworthy was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1932 "for his distinguished art of narration which takes its highest form in The Forsyte Saga."
In addition to his prolific literary status, Galsworthy was also a renowned social activist. He was an outspoken advocate for the women's suffrage movement, prison reform and animal rights. Galsworthy was the president of PEN, an organization that sought to promote international cooperation through literature.
John Galsworthy was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1932 "for his distinguished art of narration which takes its highest form in The Forsyte Saga."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
January 14, 2012
END OF THE CHAPTER is not as good as the two trilogies that precede it---THE FORSYTE SAGA and A MODERN COMEDY---but it's good all the same. In fact, Galsworthy's "worst" is generally better than most people's best! I have always thought him a masterful storyteller. His main problem is that (a) he romanticize his heroines to an almost ludicrous extent and (b) he's often guilty of the social snobbery that he claims to dislike. And while he can and does poke fun at the bourgeois Forsytes, he idealizes the gentry, stressing their fine traditions, good manners and breeding.
END OF THE CHAPTER is all about the Charwell family (pronounced "Cherrell") who still live at the ancestral home, Condaford Grange. The Cherrells don't have much money but their blood is undoubtedly blue. Unlike the self-serving Forsytes they live but to serve God and King. One Cherrell is a vicar, another an anthropologist, a third a judge and a fourth a retired general. Uncle "Cuffs" Cherrell, who dies in chapter one, is a bishop. And Aunt Em---Lady Emily Mont, nee Cherrell---is Michael Mont's mother and a charming eccentric. As Fleur's in-laws these Cherrells may be linked to the Forsytes by marriage but they come across as vastly unlike the Forsytes. The Cherrells seem altruistic and at times even sacrificial, putting the needs of others before their own.
The heroine (and main character) here is Dinny Cherrell, daughter of the general. Dinny soon emerges as the most likable of Galsworthy's creations. She is cheerful and smart, generous and unselfish. Time and again she tries to assist family and friends. In MAID IN WAITING she helps vindicate her brother of a bogus murder charge, even going so far as the Home Office to talk to influential people there. In FLOWERING WILDERNESS she falls in love with nomadic poet, Wilfrid Desert, and staunchly defends his reputation. Wilfrid, it seems, has converted to Islam at pistol point while in the Middle East and is now a social pariah back in England. And when he abandons Dinny---for her own good, he thinks---she hides her deep unhappiness. She doesn't want to "be a burden" to others. Finally, in ONE MORE RIVER, she helps her sister through a messy divorce. Dinny is almost too good to be true but not annoyingly so. Having a sense of humor, she always manages to see the funny side of things.
In the third volume Dinny learns that Wilfrid has died, after which she "shuts down" emotionally. She has another suitor, Eustace Dornford, a nice man who adores her; but Dinny is too shell-shocked to go back into battle anytime soon. It is Fleur who rouses her to action, an older and wiser Fleur giving sage advice: "And you, because you're so stuck on tradition and continuity and all that, ought to carry on. It's the present that counts, and we're the present and our children are the future. Anyone who lets a memory spoil her life---forgive me, old thing, but it's rather obviously now or never with you." Dinny is only twenty-eight, but by the standards of the day it's high time she took the plunge. Her Aunt Em thinks so too and is forever suggesting possible husbands for Dinny. And so, in the final chapter Dinny does the right thing and walks down the aisle with Dornford, much to everyone's relief.
END OF THE CHAPTER has its weaknesses as a piece of writing. There are too many beautiful, elegant sex goddesses here---Dinny, Diana Ferse, Clare, Jean---that Galsworthy idealizes to the nth degree. He seems to have a crush on many of his own female characters. He stresses all their desirable attributes yet makes them oddly unattainable to the men who want them. Diana's married to a deranged husband and so is "off limits" to Uncle Adrian; Clare's married to a sadistic scoundrel and won't let Tony Croom touch her; Jean flirts with Lord Saxenden but has no intention of succumbing to him. And Dinny, whom many men love, remains the virginal princess until Wilfrid Desert comes along. The "sex goddess" formula is repeated again and again, ad nauseam. And I can't help but remember, and miss, the more realistic females of Galsworthy's earlier works: long-suffering wife Winifred Dartie whose husband stole her pearls to give to a dancer; tactless, blundering spinster June; conniving Annette who married for money and made no bones about it. The women of the Cherrell family don't have the flaws of the Forsyte clan and are, in consequence, less interesting.
END OF THE CHAPTER is all about the Charwell family (pronounced "Cherrell") who still live at the ancestral home, Condaford Grange. The Cherrells don't have much money but their blood is undoubtedly blue. Unlike the self-serving Forsytes they live but to serve God and King. One Cherrell is a vicar, another an anthropologist, a third a judge and a fourth a retired general. Uncle "Cuffs" Cherrell, who dies in chapter one, is a bishop. And Aunt Em---Lady Emily Mont, nee Cherrell---is Michael Mont's mother and a charming eccentric. As Fleur's in-laws these Cherrells may be linked to the Forsytes by marriage but they come across as vastly unlike the Forsytes. The Cherrells seem altruistic and at times even sacrificial, putting the needs of others before their own.
The heroine (and main character) here is Dinny Cherrell, daughter of the general. Dinny soon emerges as the most likable of Galsworthy's creations. She is cheerful and smart, generous and unselfish. Time and again she tries to assist family and friends. In MAID IN WAITING she helps vindicate her brother of a bogus murder charge, even going so far as the Home Office to talk to influential people there. In FLOWERING WILDERNESS she falls in love with nomadic poet, Wilfrid Desert, and staunchly defends his reputation. Wilfrid, it seems, has converted to Islam at pistol point while in the Middle East and is now a social pariah back in England. And when he abandons Dinny---for her own good, he thinks---she hides her deep unhappiness. She doesn't want to "be a burden" to others. Finally, in ONE MORE RIVER, she helps her sister through a messy divorce. Dinny is almost too good to be true but not annoyingly so. Having a sense of humor, she always manages to see the funny side of things.
In the third volume Dinny learns that Wilfrid has died, after which she "shuts down" emotionally. She has another suitor, Eustace Dornford, a nice man who adores her; but Dinny is too shell-shocked to go back into battle anytime soon. It is Fleur who rouses her to action, an older and wiser Fleur giving sage advice: "And you, because you're so stuck on tradition and continuity and all that, ought to carry on. It's the present that counts, and we're the present and our children are the future. Anyone who lets a memory spoil her life---forgive me, old thing, but it's rather obviously now or never with you." Dinny is only twenty-eight, but by the standards of the day it's high time she took the plunge. Her Aunt Em thinks so too and is forever suggesting possible husbands for Dinny. And so, in the final chapter Dinny does the right thing and walks down the aisle with Dornford, much to everyone's relief.
END OF THE CHAPTER has its weaknesses as a piece of writing. There are too many beautiful, elegant sex goddesses here---Dinny, Diana Ferse, Clare, Jean---that Galsworthy idealizes to the nth degree. He seems to have a crush on many of his own female characters. He stresses all their desirable attributes yet makes them oddly unattainable to the men who want them. Diana's married to a deranged husband and so is "off limits" to Uncle Adrian; Clare's married to a sadistic scoundrel and won't let Tony Croom touch her; Jean flirts with Lord Saxenden but has no intention of succumbing to him. And Dinny, whom many men love, remains the virginal princess until Wilfrid Desert comes along. The "sex goddess" formula is repeated again and again, ad nauseam. And I can't help but remember, and miss, the more realistic females of Galsworthy's earlier works: long-suffering wife Winifred Dartie whose husband stole her pearls to give to a dancer; tactless, blundering spinster June; conniving Annette who married for money and made no bones about it. The women of the Cherrell family don't have the flaws of the Forsyte clan and are, in consequence, less interesting.
June 11, 2020
Like a soap opera from 1930 London mostly about problems with love but I liked it.
September 25, 2013
Maid in waiting
4/5
Do you remember the Forsyte's? Well, at least in this novel the main family are the Cherrell's. Who? Well, they are the cousin's of Michael Mont, Fleur Forsyte's husband (that is, Soames Forsyte's daughter). It's ok if you don't know who these people are, there isn't much relation between this volume and the two previous ones (or, at least, that's my opinion after reading the first book of End of the Chapter .
It takes place in the late 20's and early 30's and the main character is Elizabeth 'Dinny' Cherrel is a young woman of 22, clever, beautiful and with wit, that doesn't have any intention to marry and likes to meddle in other people's lives (and she's quite good at solving problems). And, if you're a fellow Austenite, no, she's not Emma.
The main problem throughout this novel is Dinny's brother, Hubert. He is a soldier and went with an American scientist to Bolivia, was left alone with the expedition, and he ended up shooting a man (though he claims it was in self-defense). Unfortunately for him, the American Scientist, writes a newspaper article about his failed research and expresses dismay at Hubert's behaviour, which stirs up the matter with the Bolivian authorities that want to extradite him to their country for trial.
Of course, it's an unbearable thought that a Cherrell should go through all this – and that the English court should believe a Bolivian's word against an Englishmen, shocking! So basically she's very efficient going around pulling strings. And also she deals with other possible scandals, two men fall in love with her and, for the time being, she wants no talk of marriage.
As usual, I had a great time reading this one, extremely funny and a nice portrait of aristocracy in decay or already in full (relative) poverty – though here the characters from low classes are a bit clichéd and patronised.
Great great, there's not a character like Soames but, I guess it's hard to come up with someone like him everyday.
Flowering Wilderness
4/5
This books starts around a year after the events in Maid in Waiting. Now, if in the first book there were a couple of story plots secondary to the main one, in this novel there's only one, Dinny Cherrell's new love interest: Wilfrid Desert. He is a poet, just returned from the far East – he appeared in A Modern Comedy as Michael Mont's best friend and was briefly infatuated with his wife. They meet on the street and it's love at first sight and in little more than a week they are already talking about marriage. However, Wilfrid tells Dinny a dreadful secret that is bound to come to light soon and that might put everything at risk.
So basically what this books deals with is society vs. love, and I fear Galsworthy is not very optimistic about the winner. When I knew what was Desert's unspeakably shaming secret I had to read the sentence three or four times because I was not sure whether I had understood. Because it looks so ridiculous from a modern perspective – even if there's a point or two to be made – but in the early 30's it's a big scandal, especially for an old (and still very backward in morals) family like the Cherrells or some other Englishmen who still live with a 19th-century-mindset.
Both of the characters struggle – Dinny with her family, Wilfrid with his inner demons and guilt –, are deeply in love, and try to save their relationship.
All the attention is focused on this couple, but there are other characters that are great, such as Aunt Em (that is, Lady Mont, Dinny's aunt), I always had fun reading their conversations, how they trivialised love and society's conventions – although they do abide them.
One more river (or Over the river, depends on the edition)
3.5/5
This book starts around 16 months after Flowering Wilderness. Dinny is still not quite over her ill-bound affair with Wilfrid Desert, so when her sister come backs from Ceylon she can focus all her energies on worrying about her. Because, oh my, her sister has come to England with the intention of never coming back to her husband, Lord Gerald Corven, still in Ceylon. With her came 'Tony' Croom, a young man who fell in love with Clare during the boat trip, although she seems to feel not much towards him, other than a mean to have fun.
In The Forsyte Saga there is also a book about this state of married-not-married and divorce. Because as soon as Gerald realises Clare is not coming back, he asks for divorce. Even if we're already in the mid-thirties, divorce is no trifle for England's fine society.
But, if her husband is handsome and wealthy, why does Clare wants a divorce? Well, for one, we don't know much about it because it's her private life, it should be enough that she doesn't love him anymore (extra feminist points for you Galsworthy), but apparently he had some kind of fondness for sadistic sexual practices, which Clare did not. And yes, yes, yes, you are thinking of that series written a few years back that I will NOT mention in my review. Because this kind of manipulative, attractive, luring and possessive man have been around for quite a while, and Gerald Corven it's a fine example of this. The problem being, this time he has the law on his side.
I didn't like this book overall that much because, frankly, Clare's issues with her marriage weren't very interesting – although Gerald Corven's character was – and that was pretty much what all the book was about. Also, there's only some talk about the crisis, the decay, although a small hint that the 'powerful' families now use their power/money to have a say at politics (demo what?).
Of course, I highly recommend this book and all the series because it's brilliant. I still cannot help that, even if I enjoyed this book, the two previous volumes about Soames, Jolyon and all the Forsytes were far better than this one.
4/5
Do you remember the Forsyte's? Well, at least in this novel the main family are the Cherrell's. Who? Well, they are the cousin's of Michael Mont, Fleur Forsyte's husband (that is, Soames Forsyte's daughter). It's ok if you don't know who these people are, there isn't much relation between this volume and the two previous ones (or, at least, that's my opinion after reading the first book of End of the Chapter .
It takes place in the late 20's and early 30's and the main character is Elizabeth 'Dinny' Cherrel is a young woman of 22, clever, beautiful and with wit, that doesn't have any intention to marry and likes to meddle in other people's lives (and she's quite good at solving problems). And, if you're a fellow Austenite, no, she's not Emma.
The main problem throughout this novel is Dinny's brother, Hubert. He is a soldier and went with an American scientist to Bolivia, was left alone with the expedition, and he ended up shooting a man (though he claims it was in self-defense). Unfortunately for him, the American Scientist, writes a newspaper article about his failed research and expresses dismay at Hubert's behaviour, which stirs up the matter with the Bolivian authorities that want to extradite him to their country for trial.
Of course, it's an unbearable thought that a Cherrell should go through all this – and that the English court should believe a Bolivian's word against an Englishmen, shocking! So basically she's very efficient going around pulling strings. And also she deals with other possible scandals, two men fall in love with her and, for the time being, she wants no talk of marriage.
As usual, I had a great time reading this one, extremely funny and a nice portrait of aristocracy in decay or already in full (relative) poverty – though here the characters from low classes are a bit clichéd and patronised.
Great great, there's not a character like Soames but, I guess it's hard to come up with someone like him everyday.
Flowering Wilderness
4/5
This books starts around a year after the events in Maid in Waiting. Now, if in the first book there were a couple of story plots secondary to the main one, in this novel there's only one, Dinny Cherrell's new love interest: Wilfrid Desert. He is a poet, just returned from the far East – he appeared in A Modern Comedy as Michael Mont's best friend and was briefly infatuated with his wife. They meet on the street and it's love at first sight and in little more than a week they are already talking about marriage. However, Wilfrid tells Dinny a dreadful secret that is bound to come to light soon and that might put everything at risk.
So basically what this books deals with is society vs. love, and I fear Galsworthy is not very optimistic about the winner. When I knew what was Desert's unspeakably shaming secret I had to read the sentence three or four times because I was not sure whether I had understood. Because it looks so ridiculous from a modern perspective – even if there's a point or two to be made – but in the early 30's it's a big scandal, especially for an old (and still very backward in morals) family like the Cherrells or some other Englishmen who still live with a 19th-century-mindset.
Both of the characters struggle – Dinny with her family, Wilfrid with his inner demons and guilt –, are deeply in love, and try to save their relationship.
All the attention is focused on this couple, but there are other characters that are great, such as Aunt Em (that is, Lady Mont, Dinny's aunt), I always had fun reading their conversations, how they trivialised love and society's conventions – although they do abide them.
One more river (or Over the river, depends on the edition)
3.5/5
This book starts around 16 months after Flowering Wilderness. Dinny is still not quite over her ill-bound affair with Wilfrid Desert, so when her sister come backs from Ceylon she can focus all her energies on worrying about her. Because, oh my, her sister has come to England with the intention of never coming back to her husband, Lord Gerald Corven, still in Ceylon. With her came 'Tony' Croom, a young man who fell in love with Clare during the boat trip, although she seems to feel not much towards him, other than a mean to have fun.
In The Forsyte Saga there is also a book about this state of married-not-married and divorce. Because as soon as Gerald realises Clare is not coming back, he asks for divorce. Even if we're already in the mid-thirties, divorce is no trifle for England's fine society.
But, if her husband is handsome and wealthy, why does Clare wants a divorce? Well, for one, we don't know much about it because it's her private life, it should be enough that she doesn't love him anymore (extra feminist points for you Galsworthy), but apparently he had some kind of fondness for sadistic sexual practices, which Clare did not. And yes, yes, yes, you are thinking of that series written a few years back that I will NOT mention in my review. Because this kind of manipulative, attractive, luring and possessive man have been around for quite a while, and Gerald Corven it's a fine example of this. The problem being, this time he has the law on his side.
I didn't like this book overall that much because, frankly, Clare's issues with her marriage weren't very interesting – although Gerald Corven's character was – and that was pretty much what all the book was about. Also, there's only some talk about the crisis, the decay, although a small hint that the 'powerful' families now use their power/money to have a say at politics (demo what?).
Of course, I highly recommend this book and all the series because it's brilliant. I still cannot help that, even if I enjoyed this book, the two previous volumes about Soames, Jolyon and all the Forsytes were far better than this one.
July 20, 2025
While I didn't love this third, and final volume, I'm so glad to have read it and finished the trilogy. End of an era!
September 8, 2009
This writer is phenomenal. He has great insight into the English character - what moves English people, the reasons for their behavior - and he writes a compelling story at the same time.
He is someone I aspire to emulate as an author. His wit is very dry, and his descriptions pithy.
He is someone I aspire to emulate as an author. His wit is very dry, and his descriptions pithy.
November 22, 2018
The End of the Chapter, the last part of the trilogy of trilogies, draws the line: some new sort of mentality emerged which is neither better or worse than the ancient one. If only it is fairer, but that too comes at a price - disillusionment, perhaps. Once again, Galsworthy is an unequal judge of value and character, hence the pleasure of going through the labor of reading 2,500 something pages.
June 12, 2018
Definitely worth reading.
December 19, 2017
This one is best skipped. A noticeable drop in quality from the first trilogy, both in characterization and writing. Recommended only to those who can't get enough of Fleur (I'm not one), but be warned she's only a side character here.
June 13, 2023
An ode to settling, in three parts.
(But an enjoyable one.)
(But an enjoyable one.)
October 30, 2015
The End of the Chapter came as if new to me, though I remember having read all 9 volumes of THE FORSYTE SAGA in my late teens. As compared to "The Forsyte Saga" and "A Modern Comedy", this last part of the huge trilogy has a feeling of modernity that I could not find in the previous two collections. To my opinion, the first two parts (mentioned above) I consider as CLASSICS, in the style of writing and tone of narration. This last part surprises with a vivid pace of narration, plenty of characters well designed and mixed up to make your head twirl at times. Except for a few "monologue-type pages" (which feel like the author was letting his pen loose on favourite descriptions and thougths), the book reads easily and the eyes fly of pages with delight!
September 27, 2013
I read the originals years ago, but just now discovered the last three books. I've been enmeshed in the 1900 to 1920 period for a while now--not sure why, and this is a terrific addition.
October 12, 2017
Forsyte Chronicles:-
This work developed over a lifetime and began with a simple theme, that of individual's right to life and love, especially those of a woman. The first trilogy, Forsyte Saga, is the most famous of all. There are three trilogies, Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter being the second and the third. The Forsyte 'Change was written as separate stories about the various characters and spans the time from migration of Jolyon Forsyte the original, referred to usually as Superior Dosset, the paterfamilias of the Forsytes, to London from border of Devon and Dorsetshire, onwards well into the time connecting it to the beginning of the second trilogy. The first two trilogies have interconnecting interludes between each of their two parts.
.......................................................................
.......................................................................
The Forsyte Saga:-
The Forsyte Saga was not planned as such but developed over years with sequels coming naturally as they did, and human heart and passion and minds within settings of high society of a Victorian and post Victorian England - chiefly London - and its solid base in property.
When it was published it was revolutionary in the theme - a woman is not owned by her husband, and love is not a duty she owes but a bond that is very real however intangible, that cannot be faked.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008.
.......................................................................
A Modern Comedy:-
The second part of Forsyte Chronicles begins - with The White Monkey, first volume of the Modern Comedy - where the Forsyte Saga left off, with a six years gap that includes what was then called the great war and is now known as the first world war. The story here continues with Fleur at the centre and her father, Soames, close to her, with Jon and his mother Irene far away in US.
.......................................................................
.......................................................................
End of the Chapter:-
In the third trilogy of Forsyte chronicles the story centres on cousins of Michael Mont, mainly on his mother's side, the Charwells who are socially somewhere bordering on landed gentry and aristocracy, unlike Forsytes who made their way up from farmer to various money making professions (solicitor, investment manager, builders, stockbrokers and more) to artists and gentry of leisure. Being upper caste in England amounts to being bred and brought up to notions of service to the country and accordingly the Charwells are occupied with work dealing with law, church, and so on, when not with actual landownership including caring for the tenants and other residents of the land. Mostly the three parts focus on Dinny, Elizabeth Charwell, an attractive young woman of Botticelli beauty with a sensitive heart and capable mind who cares for not only her own family and clan but anyone around who might need her, and does the care taking actively with initiatives, meeting people and speaking to them, and more.
.......................................................................
Maid In Waiting :-
In Maid in Waiting, Dinny who is the person the title is after, is busy rescuing her brother and an uncle and other related people from various tangles to do with love, empire, standards of behaviour to do with scientific expeditions and treatment of people and animals, love, mental illness and more. She is unable to consider a brighter prospect for herself with either of the two very suitable beaux who fall in love with her, and would not make a match yet.
.......................................................................
Flowering Wilderness:-
In Flowering Wilderness she meets and falls in love with Wilfrid Desert, a friend of her cousin Michael who had fallen in love with Fleur in the White Monkey and left for east to disentangle himself, and Wilfrid is in love with her just as much, except that unfortunately he has been in a circumstance where forced to choose between life and conversion he had chosen life and thus disgraced all of his countrymen, endangering them to future kidnappings and disdain from those under British rule. This cannot be considered suitable for Dinny by her family and clan, and the story cannot be kept quiet, not the least due to the pride and sense of uncertainty Desert has about his own actions, and it ends up in her heart breaking with him leaving for east once again.
.......................................................................
Over the River:-
(One More River, the alternative title used in some editions, is due to the original Over The River by the author being made into a film titled One More River.)
In Over the River Clare, the younger sister, returns home from Ceylon after a brief duration of married life, determined not to suffer any more her husband's sadist behaviour. Since she is young and beautiful, there is the expected entanglement with a young man falling in love with her, only she is unable and unwilling to consider any physical contact for now, and is not in love for a while until her own status is clear. But her husband is more than willing to take all possible steps including a divorce court where she is accused of adultery while she is unable to go into why she left him due to her delicacy about exposing her married life and its unsavoury character, and she comes to appreciate her young lover only when threatened with possibility of losing him. Dinny and the clan stand by her, and in the meanwhile another suitor appears for Dinny, who she is able to accept only post news of her first lover being dead and buried in far east on an expedition up a river, a news that makes her seriously ill. It all ends well with both sisters set well with their respective men and the clan at peace, and Fleur has been of borderline help at crucial moments, not the least with her father's money coming in handy to pay for legal costs of the divorce.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013.
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...........................................................
One of the major beautiful things about Forsyte Chronicles - all three trilogies, but the first and third in particular - is the love of the author for beauty of England in general and countryside, nature in particular. Very lyrical. The other, more subtle, is the depiction of society in general, upper middle class of English society in particular and the times they lived in in the background, empire on distant horizon until the third trilogy where it is still in background but a bit less distant.
The society changes from the first to the third trilogy but not radically, and in this the author is successful in portrayal of how things might seem radically different superficially but are closer to where progress began, and progress being slow in steps that various people pay heftily during their lives for.
Wednesday, August 28, 2013.
.......................................................................
.......................................................................
.......................................................................
.......................................................................
This work developed over a lifetime and began with a simple theme, that of individual's right to life and love, especially those of a woman. The first trilogy, Forsyte Saga, is the most famous of all. There are three trilogies, Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter being the second and the third. The Forsyte 'Change was written as separate stories about the various characters and spans the time from migration of Jolyon Forsyte the original, referred to usually as Superior Dosset, the paterfamilias of the Forsytes, to London from border of Devon and Dorsetshire, onwards well into the time connecting it to the beginning of the second trilogy. The first two trilogies have interconnecting interludes between each of their two parts.
.......................................................................
.......................................................................
The Forsyte Saga:-
The Forsyte Saga was not planned as such but developed over years with sequels coming naturally as they did, and human heart and passion and minds within settings of high society of a Victorian and post Victorian England - chiefly London - and its solid base in property.
When it was published it was revolutionary in the theme - a woman is not owned by her husband, and love is not a duty she owes but a bond that is very real however intangible, that cannot be faked.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008.
.......................................................................
A Modern Comedy:-
The second part of Forsyte Chronicles begins - with The White Monkey, first volume of the Modern Comedy - where the Forsyte Saga left off, with a six years gap that includes what was then called the great war and is now known as the first world war. The story here continues with Fleur at the centre and her father, Soames, close to her, with Jon and his mother Irene far away in US.
.......................................................................
.......................................................................
End of the Chapter:-
In the third trilogy of Forsyte chronicles the story centres on cousins of Michael Mont, mainly on his mother's side, the Charwells who are socially somewhere bordering on landed gentry and aristocracy, unlike Forsytes who made their way up from farmer to various money making professions (solicitor, investment manager, builders, stockbrokers and more) to artists and gentry of leisure. Being upper caste in England amounts to being bred and brought up to notions of service to the country and accordingly the Charwells are occupied with work dealing with law, church, and so on, when not with actual landownership including caring for the tenants and other residents of the land. Mostly the three parts focus on Dinny, Elizabeth Charwell, an attractive young woman of Botticelli beauty with a sensitive heart and capable mind who cares for not only her own family and clan but anyone around who might need her, and does the care taking actively with initiatives, meeting people and speaking to them, and more.
.......................................................................
Maid In Waiting :-
In Maid in Waiting, Dinny who is the person the title is after, is busy rescuing her brother and an uncle and other related people from various tangles to do with love, empire, standards of behaviour to do with scientific expeditions and treatment of people and animals, love, mental illness and more. She is unable to consider a brighter prospect for herself with either of the two very suitable beaux who fall in love with her, and would not make a match yet.
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Flowering Wilderness:-
In Flowering Wilderness she meets and falls in love with Wilfrid Desert, a friend of her cousin Michael who had fallen in love with Fleur in the White Monkey and left for east to disentangle himself, and Wilfrid is in love with her just as much, except that unfortunately he has been in a circumstance where forced to choose between life and conversion he had chosen life and thus disgraced all of his countrymen, endangering them to future kidnappings and disdain from those under British rule. This cannot be considered suitable for Dinny by her family and clan, and the story cannot be kept quiet, not the least due to the pride and sense of uncertainty Desert has about his own actions, and it ends up in her heart breaking with him leaving for east once again.
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Over the River:-
(One More River, the alternative title used in some editions, is due to the original Over The River by the author being made into a film titled One More River.)
In Over the River Clare, the younger sister, returns home from Ceylon after a brief duration of married life, determined not to suffer any more her husband's sadist behaviour. Since she is young and beautiful, there is the expected entanglement with a young man falling in love with her, only she is unable and unwilling to consider any physical contact for now, and is not in love for a while until her own status is clear. But her husband is more than willing to take all possible steps including a divorce court where she is accused of adultery while she is unable to go into why she left him due to her delicacy about exposing her married life and its unsavoury character, and she comes to appreciate her young lover only when threatened with possibility of losing him. Dinny and the clan stand by her, and in the meanwhile another suitor appears for Dinny, who she is able to accept only post news of her first lover being dead and buried in far east on an expedition up a river, a news that makes her seriously ill. It all ends well with both sisters set well with their respective men and the clan at peace, and Fleur has been of borderline help at crucial moments, not the least with her father's money coming in handy to pay for legal costs of the divorce.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013.
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One of the major beautiful things about Forsyte Chronicles - all three trilogies, but the first and third in particular - is the love of the author for beauty of England in general and countryside, nature in particular. Very lyrical. The other, more subtle, is the depiction of society in general, upper middle class of English society in particular and the times they lived in in the background, empire on distant horizon until the third trilogy where it is still in background but a bit less distant.
The society changes from the first to the third trilogy but not radically, and in this the author is successful in portrayal of how things might seem radically different superficially but are closer to where progress began, and progress being slow in steps that various people pay heftily during their lives for.
Wednesday, August 28, 2013.
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March 16, 2020
I really liked this book, especially due to the look at the times and English people as such. In the Forsyte Saga's first books I loved the characters but by Modern Comedy, I was not really into most of them (Michael Mont and his parents aside), however, I loved how it showed the chaotic and I got a closer feel of the roaring 20s and how jumpy and chaotic they were. I don't like Fleur but her goings on illustrated that era so well. Now, I did not really feel very close to Dinny either, not dislike but rather, she was just so unbelievable in her selflessness and not that much interesting either. BUT, again, I liked how through her life we saw the 30s, how it was a bit less chaotic, what new changes were taken place and so on. In the Over the River, it was interesting to see a comeback to the divorce and another threesome, where the husband had behaved badly, but so different from Irene's story since the times, characters and family support of Claire was different from Irene's situation. Galsworthy's observations about the English and the times and country are so spot on, that all the philosophical parts were probably my favourite.
November 28, 2025
This seems generally to be the least favoured of this trilogy of trilogies, but aside from the slight dip in volume 1 I enjoyed it just as much as the earlier novels. Possibly some of the disappointment is the absence of Forsytes! This does largely focus on the Cherrels, the family of Michael Mont’s mother, although Fleur is still holding the banner for the titular family. Most miraculous for me was the continuation of the transformation of Soames, from the villain of the first sequence to an almost heroic figure by the end of this. It's a psychological progression you simply couldn't plausibly convey outside of a brilliantly executed multi-generational 9-novel narrative.
Serendipitously whilst finishing this the telly-box started trailing a new 'adaptation' of the Forsytes, which, name aside, looks utterly unrelated to the novels. I should warn that anyone coming to these looking for Dynasty-style shenanigans or an Edwardian shagfest will be sorely disappointed...
Serendipitously whilst finishing this the telly-box started trailing a new 'adaptation' of the Forsytes, which, name aside, looks utterly unrelated to the novels. I should warn that anyone coming to these looking for Dynasty-style shenanigans or an Edwardian shagfest will be sorely disappointed...
June 5, 2025
"The night was an unwritten poem — the gleam and drip of the light like the play of an incoherent mind, fluttering, slipping in and out of reality; never at rest; never the firm silver of true metal; burnished and gone like a dream."
Finally made it to the end of this series! I have to be honest, I think I may have enjoyed this volume the most. It was overall a lot less depressing, and I found the characters much more memorable. I simply loved Dinny as heroine, and I thought the new conflicts Galsworthy introduced with each volume were thoughtful and poignant. He made me care a lot more about the Charwells than I ever did the Forsytes.
Want to read
February 4, 2024Maid in waiting-focuses on dinny (Michael monts sister) and her relentless pursuit to acquit her brother from a questionable decision while he was serving in the military in India. Diny refuses several suitors and attempts to help a cousin whose husband returns from a mental health sanitarium and eventually loses his grip on reality and falls into a ravine and dies. The sense of the novel is the independence of diny in the face of several obstacles and how she must learn to fend for herself. She goes to great lengths to gain her brothers freedoms including pawning jewelry and sitting for paintings
flowering wilderness-aka Dinny-and her love for Wilson Desert who returns from the east. I continued to love John's writing style, even if most of his plots are a bit soap-opery. Unlike other authors, however, he has a gift for long character arcs and storylines. Hence, themes of pride, love, betrayal, and love of family vs. self continue in this novel. It was intruiging to compare Wilson (who ultimately cannot face the english world considering him a coward for renouncing his faith and escapes, to the detriment of dinny) and Flur whose pride (or the pride of the forstyes) has shapen many aspects of herown and others lives. In some ways, Flur retains her pride yet forsakes herself because she has no other options but to marry. I enjoyed the ending and picture of Dinny removing herself to the beauty of nature around her and her companionship of her spaniel.
flowering wilderness-aka Dinny-and her love for Wilson Desert who returns from the east. I continued to love John's writing style, even if most of his plots are a bit soap-opery. Unlike other authors, however, he has a gift for long character arcs and storylines. Hence, themes of pride, love, betrayal, and love of family vs. self continue in this novel. It was intruiging to compare Wilson (who ultimately cannot face the english world considering him a coward for renouncing his faith and escapes, to the detriment of dinny) and Flur whose pride (or the pride of the forstyes) has shapen many aspects of herown and others lives. In some ways, Flur retains her pride yet forsakes herself because she has no other options but to marry. I enjoyed the ending and picture of Dinny removing herself to the beauty of nature around her and her companionship of her spaniel.
December 11, 2020
Took me about 20 years, but I finally finished the Forsyte Saga!
February 9, 2023
Well written social novel with separate stories in each of three stories with intersecting plots of related characters.
September 21, 2023
England’s still aristocratic underneath. All that keeps us going comes from the top. Service and tradition still rules the roost.
March 5, 2008
These are the last three books in the Forsyte Saga series (there are 9 books in all, 3 trilogies.) The novels in this book take place around 1930 and deal mostly with the Cherrells, who are cousins to the Forsytes (although Fleur and Michael do play fairly large roles.) I don't think these last novels are quite as compelling as the others in the saga--the plots in seem very dated by now (the main "crises" in each novel have to do with things like "the honor of England" and the "scandal" of divorce.) Despite this fact, I still love them for Galsworthy's writing style. I think he has an amazing ability to get inside a character and really show us how he or she is feeling.
Read
August 11, 2007So I started reading this book that I found at The Book Thing in Baltimore because it is by the same guy who wrote the Forsyte Saga, which I loved. Having just searched for it on this website, I see that it is actually part of the series, which I didn't realize.
So, this fact in itself is rather telling. I had know idea this mediocre book is the sequel to a very good book, its that "eh". I am only partway through book seven, so we'll see, perhaps it'll pick up.
I guess I know why it is called book seven now. jeesh.
So, this fact in itself is rather telling. I had know idea this mediocre book is the sequel to a very good book, its that "eh". I am only partway through book seven, so we'll see, perhaps it'll pick up.
I guess I know why it is called book seven now. jeesh.
November 22, 2011
I have completed the three volume Foresyte Chronicle. It was well worth the discipline to tackle the entire family saga. The writing was consistently witty, elegant and crisp throughout. My only disappointment is that the final volume marginalized the primary characters from the earlier sections and introduced a new family branch. I found myself missing the former figures, attentively watching for signs of their appearance. This is an excellent writer who can make me miss fictional figures as if they were good friends who I grew to like dispite their obvious flaws.
June 22, 2013
I loved this book (or books)! I loved the storyline of decay among the aristocracy--it's an interesting counterpoint to the climbing, energetic Forsytes. I love the dismal Cherrells and their take on the world.
Granted, there are some issues. For example, I'm not sure why Wilfred's conversion to Islam was the earth-shattering event for all of them that it was (even though he converted under duress). That seemed a bit heavy, but then again, I think the weight of it colluded with the reality that sometimes things will not work without any good reason.
Granted, there are some issues. For example, I'm not sure why Wilfred's conversion to Islam was the earth-shattering event for all of them that it was (even though he converted under duress). That seemed a bit heavy, but then again, I think the weight of it colluded with the reality that sometimes things will not work without any good reason.
January 13, 2017
Where are the Forsytes?
Extremely vain and disappointing. This doesn't have the appeal the two previous trilogies have. In fact, it bears nothing in common.
Most of the dialogue are artificial and only serve to express the ideas of the author or his generation while not advancing the plot at all. In fact, they are completely unrelated to it.
As for the different situations, well, I don't actually care for any of them because I expected this to be about the Forsytes. The word "Forsyte" itself barely even comes out.
I probably won't go through to the end of this.
Extremely vain and disappointing. This doesn't have the appeal the two previous trilogies have. In fact, it bears nothing in common.
Most of the dialogue are artificial and only serve to express the ideas of the author or his generation while not advancing the plot at all. In fact, they are completely unrelated to it.
As for the different situations, well, I don't actually care for any of them because I expected this to be about the Forsytes. The word "Forsyte" itself barely even comes out.
I probably won't go through to the end of this.
May 30, 2025
I really enjoyed the story of the Cherrell family, Especially Dinny. I found her much more likeable than her cousins featured in the earlier Forsyte novels.
I found Dinny's story very moving. It was very sad - but also very satisfying.
As always, the insight into the social and historical background is fascinating. I wish we'd been taught all this in history at school! But the characters are more likeable in this last trilogy. For me, anyway.
I found Dinny's story very moving. It was very sad - but also very satisfying.
As always, the insight into the social and historical background is fascinating. I wish we'd been taught all this in history at school! But the characters are more likeable in this last trilogy. For me, anyway.
March 12, 2010
Read these as separate books and really enjoyed the saga continuing into the time of the Great Depression (even though it was never referred to be that name). The characters and their circumstances are so foreign to me, yet Galsworthy was able to make them quite sympathetic and their various dilemmas engaging.
August 5, 2014
This is the final 3 books of the Forsyte Saga I think you would only start this if you had already read and loved books 1 to 6 as I have. To me it seemed slightly less Galsworthy and slightly more Wodehouse. This isn't necessarily a bad thing and the wit is great. I dint want to finish as it means nor more Forsytes for me!
April 28, 2024
Where does one start with one of the greatest family sagas ever written. Brilliant descriptions and insightful and thought provoking characterisation. It is now over 100 years old but the book is not dated because it deals with the human condition. If you haven’t read this book then you have missed an absolute gem.
Read
June 1, 2010He occupies such a well-ordered universe--England in the 1930's--that his work has become my default comfort read. I've also been a little dubious about his worthiness as a Nobel prize winner--but when you consider they gave it to Pearl Buck, too....
Want to read
November 25, 2011I finally found it!
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