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    To Let
    To Let
    To Let
    Ebook436 pages5 hours

    To Let

    By John Galsworthy

    4/5

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateApr 1, 2006
    Author

    John Galsworthy

    John Galsworthy was a Nobel-Prize (1932) winning English dramatist, novelist, and poet born to an upper-middle class family in Surrey, England. He attended Harrow and trained as a barrister at New College, Oxford. Although called to the bar in 1890, rather than practise law, Galsworthy travelled extensively and began to write. It was as a playwright Galsworthy had his first success. His plays—like his most famous work, the series of novels comprising The Forsyte Saga—dealt primarily with class and the social issues of the day, and he was especially harsh on the class from which he himself came.

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    Reviews for To Let

    4/5

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    • 5/5
      Galworthy's characters and the setting are fabulous. The entire saga was a page-turner. Old and new passions are aroused when Soames' daughter, Fleur, falls in love with Irene and Young Jolyon's son. The saga concludes in 1920 with a marriage, and with Timothy's funeral; the introduction of the new generation and the end of the old. “The hymn was over, the prelate had begun to deliver his discourse. He told them of the dangerous times they lived in, and the awful conduct of the House of Lords in connection with divorce. They were all soldiers--he said--in the trenches under the poisonous gas of the Prince of Darkness, and must be manful. The purpose of marriage was children, not mere sinful happiness.”
    • 4/5
      This is the last book in the Forsyte sage, and the one where the family feud among the Forsytes comes to an ugly end. Both Soames and Young Jolyn now have late-in-life children: Soames a girl names Fleur and Jolyn a young son named after himself but called Jon. It is now 1920 and most of the older generation of Forsytes are now gone and the focus is on the youngest generation.Fleur and Jolly meet cute at June Forsyte's art gallery where there is an immediate attraction. Neither knows the family history, but Fleur, who seems much more on the ball that the somewhat clueless Jon, quickly figures out some of the story and then worms the whole truth out of June. She decides to keep the truth from Jolly, sensing that his knowledge of it will ruin their relationship. Instead she presses him to marry her. Of course, both sides of the family are appalled by this romance. Soames, however, is willing to make allowances in order for the marriage to take place. Irene, however,refuses to accept it and in an overly dramatic climax Jolyn tells Jon of all the sordid facts of Soames and Irene's marriage and the relationship is over. Fleur marries a perfectly nice young aristocrat on the rebound (and the poor boy really deserves better) and Jon heads off to America to lick his wounds.The beautiful house that Soames originally built for Irene is now vacant and "to let."
    • 4/5
      This takes place over a comparatively short period of time, and focuses on the relationship between Jon (son of Young Jolyon & Irene) and Fleur (daughter of Soames and Annette). It is, as one might imagine, doomed from the start. Fleur is very direct and goes after what she wants. She is, after all, the apple of her father's eye and has never been denied anything. Spoilt, in other words. She embarks on the grand passion she has for Jon in a very self centered way, it is always about her. At one point Irene sums them up as Jon is a giver and Fleur a taker - which might look like a model for an ideal marriage, but I suspect it would be a disaster as well. Jon, however, seems a bit bewildered by it all, being swept along by Fleur and never really being actively involved. Until he does make a stand and that one is irrevocable. Of the older generation, Soames is more rounded here, he clearly adores Fleur, but has not really developed any emotional intelligence in the almost 20 years since we sw him last. Irene remains unknowable and distant, known only through young Jolyon, really, we see her through his eyes. It's a period of upheaval for the world, the shadow of WW1 hangs over this, although we don't hear of there being much impact on the Forsytes of this, they are either too old or too young, as a rule. It also has the passing of the last Forsyte and the most complicated will imaginable, which, by my calculation,might just be paid out in a year or so's time! I have thoroughly enjoyed this sequence of books and can see myself finishing the 9 book sequence at some time.
    • 4/5
      In this third installment of The Forsyte Saga, the missteps of the older generation fall back upon the next. The greatest strength of the series is Galsworthy's masterful creation of Soames Forsyte, a man who, while clearly despicable, also manages to evoke the reader's sympathy. In the first two novels, Soames's first concern was always his reputation--doing what was "right" in the eyes of Victorian society and the law, and holding on to his property with tight fists. Only in a few private moments did we see that he was also a man tormented by deep feelings of passion and rejection. Eighteen years later, in To Let, Soames has poured all the love he can muster into his only child, Fleur, born of a loveless marriage that was made strictly for the purpose of producing an heir. But his relatively happy life is severely disrupted by a chance encounter: while visiting a gallery, he and Fleur come across his first wife, Irene, her son, Jon, and Jon's half-sister, June. (Irene, after being divorced by Soames, had married his cousin, Jolyn; Jon is their only child, and June is Jolyn's daughter from a first marriage.) Attracted to the young man, Fleur drops her handkerchief to force an encounter in what is probably the most devastating handkerchief loss in literature since Othello. She is surprised when her father exchanges a few words with June but coldly moves them on. All she is told is that these are people from another branch of the Forsyte family and that there had been a rift years ago over "property"--which intrigues Fleur all the more. And so it goes . . . A thoroughly enjoyable addition to the series; I'm looking forward to the next.
    • 4/5
      Summary: It's 1920, and the next generation of Forsytes are just entering adulthood. Fleur Forsyte is the impetuous and willful only daughter of Soames Forsyte and his second wife, and he dotes on her without limit. Jon Forsyte is the only son of Soames's first wife Irene and Jolyon Forsyte, Soames's cousin. The two branches of the family never speak after what happened between Soames and Irene, but a chance meeting results in Fleur and Jon falling head over heels in love with each other. Their parents are desperate to keep them apart, but how can they hope to sever the children's attachment to each other without unearthing painful secrets from the past?Review: Now that I've read all three books in the Forsyte Saga, I've discovered a simple rule: How much I enjoy any one of them is inversely proportional to how much they feature Soames. Thus, correspondingly, I liked To Let substantially better than In Chancery, but neither was quite as good as The Man of Property. In fact, in To Let, Soames is almost back around to being, if not likeable, then at least not actively hateful, which is a refreshing change....But the bad news may be that the role of "actively hateful" is currently being filled by Soames's daughter. I was siding with the parental generation of Forsytes throughout this book: Jon and Fleur absolutely should not be together. But it's not because I particularly cared about what their relationship might do to injure the feelings of their parents; it's because Jon is a genuinely nice guy, and Fleur is an insufferable, manipulative little brat. I had this problem when I watched the DVD version as well: it's hard to become emotionally invested in the trials and tribulations of Jon and Fleur's relationship when all you want to do is see him dump her (preferably straight into the river) and go find someone who's not completely horrible.But regardless, overall I did enjoy reading this. Galsworthy's prose is descriptive and smooth and surprisingly easy to read, and he brings the 1920s and their feeling of newness and excitement and careless change to vivid life. The Forsyte Saga is not at the top of anybody's list of must-read classics, but I found it worth my while, and I'm glad I gave it a shot. 4 out of 5 stars.Recommendation: Don't read this one first: make no mistake, The Forsyte Saga really is a saga, and as such, it's best to start at the beginning. But the saga as a whole should appeal to those who like multigenerational family dramas, and late-Victorian England.
    • 4/5
      Fitting end to the saga. Soames, the man of property, has a daughter who also wants to own things, in this case Jon Forsyte, the young son of Jolyen Forsyte the painter. Soames past is revealed, including the rape of Irene, to young Jon. Young Jon gives up Fleur Forsyte as a result. Young Fleur, on the rebound, marries someone--Michael Mort--for whom she feels little affection. The sins of Soames carried on. Jon and Irene end up in British Columbia; Jon's father dies.Some beautiful descriptions, a plot that is almost great, characters that are almost great, a saga that is almost great. I'm glad I read it but I don't know that in good conscience I could recomment it to others.
    • 4/5
      I wasn't as taken with this volume as I was with the previous two. I found more much could have been done with Val and Holly - their marriage seems so underrated considering the way their relationship started. Soames seems to have thrown in the towel unable to compete with his daughter and with modernity. Finally, while there were possibilities with a strong feminist message (Irene liberated from the shackles of her slavery and Fleur, the image of the vibrant head-strong woman), it's not convincing. Galsworthy's style rings still true however and it's a pleasure to read.

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    To Let - John Galsworthy

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