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The White Monkey

The Forsyte Chronicles, Book 4

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The White Monkey

By: John Galsworthy
Narrated by: David Case
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About this listen

 The White Monkey is the fourth of the nine novels in The Forsyte Chronicles and marks the opening of the second trilogy in the series, called A Modern Comedy. In this new chapter, Fleur and Michael Mont begin to question their marriage when their good friend, author Wilfred Desert, can no longer contain his passion for Fleur. Fleur finds herself torn between her love for Michael and passion for Wilfred.

Meanwhile, Soames Forsyte, as a director of the Providential Premium Reassurance Society, must root out the rumored indiscretions of a manager's dubious dealings with the Germans. The whole while, he is haunted by a painting of a white monkey with rinds of crushed fruit flung about it - and with eyes searching for something more.

John Galsworthy received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1932.

Family matters: don't miss our other titles in The Forsyte Chronicles.Produced in 1998 by Phoenix Recordings; (P)2006 Blackstone Audio Inc. Historical Fiction Fiction

Critic reviews

"A social satire of epic proportions and one that does not suffer by comparison with Thackeray's Vanity Fair...the whole comedy of manners, convincing both in its fidelity to life and as a work of art." ( New York Times)
"[Galsworthy] has carried the history of his time through three generations, and his success in mastering so excellently his enormously difficult material, both in its scope and in its depth, remains an extremely memorable feat in English literature." (Anders Osterling, Nobel Prize presentation speech, 1932)
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Found this book- number 4 in the Forsyte Saga- rather ‘different’ to the first 3. I’m not sure if it was because of the narrator, David Case, who I didn’t like as much as Neil Hunt, the narrator of the first 3 Audible books I downloaded, or if it was because Galsworthy’s writing style had changed. Whatever the reason, this book did not fill me with as much joy as the others and overall was a tad disappointing. However, I’m glad I read it and am about to begin the next one in the saga.

Rather disappointing

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The story is excellent but read with too much affectation for my liking. I'm afraid I'll have to put up with David Case's style of reading for the rest of the trilogy. Preview recommended.

Highly enjoyable if you like the narrator's style

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Gives a very good feel of life at the time, and the story grips you once you've got into it.

Fashionable life in the 1920s

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The novel is an excellent instalment of the Forsyte Saga, very evocative of the period, profound, readable, and beautifully written. Recording is let down by the reader’s rather affected style, especially grating when voicing the female characters - he makes Fleur come across very unsympathetically - very frustrating given that Galsworthy is always humane in his portrayal of women. He also constantly mispronounces her name in a strange variety of ways. He also reads too fast - I had to slow the recording down to do justice to Galsworthy’s rich prose. But overall, the novel is definitely worth tolerating the narration.

Great novel, irritating narration

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I found the reading style of this impossible to listen to-very affected and over acted, even though I lived the other Galsworthy books.

Reader’s style very off putting

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