Audiobook · read by volunteers
In Chancery (Forsyte Saga Vol. 2)
John Galsworthy (1867–1933)
Read by eva, Andy Minter (1934-2017), Lee Ann Howlett, Simon Evers · 46 chapters · 13 h 34
About the book
Five years have passed since Irene left Soames Forsyte, and the great London family is still talking about it. Old Jolyon, retired and thoughtful, happens to meet Irene and is charmed. His son, Young Jolyon, widowed and kind-hearted, finds himself drawn to her too. Soames, meanwhile, longs for a son and an heir, and he is determined to fix what went wrong. In Chancery is the second part of John Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga, a portrait of a wealthy family in which property, pride and passion collide. Law courts, drawing rooms and the City all play their parts. Four volunteer readers share this recording of forty-six chapters, in about thirteen and a half hours. Passion, pride and property are at the heart of this elegant family drama.
Introduction
John Galsworthy lived from 1867 to 1933. He was an English novelist and playwright, and in 1932 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, mainly for the Forsyte novels. The Forsyte Saga follows an upper-middle-class London family across several generations, from the late Victorian years into the years after the First World War. The first novel of the series, The Man of Property, appeared in 1906, and In Chancery is the second book in the sequence.
The title is a legal pun. A suit in chancery was a lawsuit in the Court of Chancery, and the phrase also suggests a person caught in a hopeless entanglement. Galsworthy gives it both meanings, because the story is about a marriage that has gone wrong and the legal and emotional consequences. The Forsytes believe in ownership, security and reputation, and Galsworthy studies them with a mixture of sympathy and irony. His portrait of the family has long been seen as a critical view of the Edwardian middle class.
This LibriVox recording is divided into 46 parts, including a sequence of four parts titled Indian Summer of a Forsyte, and it lasts more than thirteen hours. It was read by four volunteers. For listeners who like the saga novel, with its large cast and long span, it is a rewarding step in the Forsyte series.
Galsworthy was an observer of manners, and he draws the family with detail and irony, never entirely taking sides. The book can be heard on its own, though it takes a fuller meaning for listeners who have met the Forsytes before, and it prepares the way for the final part of the saga.
Public domain
John Galsworthy died in 1933: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text