Audiobook · read by volunteers
To Let (Forsyte Saga Vol. 3)
John Galsworthy (1867–1933)
Read by eva, Lee Ann Howlett, Andy Minter (1934-2017), Simon Evers · 35 chapters · 11 h 26
About the book
The Forsyte family has risen from the middle classes to wealth and respectability, and now, in 1920, the third generation has grown up. To Let, the final book of The Forsyte Saga, brings the story to its close. Twenty years have passed since the events of the previous volume, and old wounds are still felt. Soames Forsyte, Irene and Young Jolyon have moved into a changed world, and their children, Fleur and John, who have never heard of each other, meet and fall in love. The novel considers property, feeling and the passing of time with John Galsworthy’s characteristic restraint. Thirty-five recordings, a little over eleven hours, bring this great family chronicle to its conclusion.
Introduction
John Galsworthy (1867-1933) was an English novelist and playwright, and The Forsyte Saga is the work by which he is best known. To Let, published in 1921, is the third and final book of the saga, although Galsworthy later published two further trilogies that extend the story of the family.
The saga as a whole is the chronicle of a wealthy London family, stretching from the eighteen-eighties to the nineteen-twenties. It examines a social class that values possessions and security and shows how its members are affected by love, jealousy and changing times. The third volume is set about twenty years after the events of the previous one, and it considers what the past has left to a new generation.
Readers who have not read the earlier books should not be alarmed, as Galsworthy gives enough information to follow the story. Even so, the book will mean more to those who know what came before. It is a quiet novel, concerned with emotions as much as with action, and its power builds slowly.
The recording is by LibriVox volunteers and has thirty-five files, with the chapters grouped into parts, lasting about eleven and a half hours. It will appeal to those who enjoy family sagas, English social history and the novel of manners, and to listeners who want to see how a long story is brought to an end. Because each chapter is brief, the novel is easy to follow over several evenings, and the changing readers give the long story a lively variety of voices.
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