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To Let

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To Let

By: John Galsworthy
Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
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To Let concludes John Galsworthy’s Forsyte Saga, the first trilogy of his epic nine-volume Forsyte Chronicles, which follows the fortunes of the venerable Forsyte family, a moneyed clan whose values are ever at war with its passions.

In To Let, Irene’s son, Jon, and Soames’ daughter, Fleur, now both nineteen years old, fall in love. But when Jon learns of the past feud between their families, he decides that he cannot marry Fleur. To drive her from his mind, he travels to America with his mother, Irene. In despair, Fleur throws herself at her long-standing admirer, Michael Mont, a fashionable baronet’s son, and the two are married.

Meanwhile, Soames Forsyte learns that his second wife, Annette, has been unfaithful to him, and is left desolately contemplating the sale of Robin Hill. When Timothy Forsyte, the last of the old generation, dies at the age of one hundred, the Forsyte family begins to disintegrate.

(P)2006 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Classics Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction
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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 on the Forsyte Chronicles)
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The reader sadly read throughout with a tone of tired ennui and cynicism, and this jarred often when he was describing the thoughts and feelings of some of the more sensitive and loving and idealistic characters, and even more so when describing with great tenderness the beauty of the landscape and trees, lanes, waters, and how the characters felt when their most tragic and passionate moments were encapsulated in this expressive landscape - all tossed off by the narrator in a deeply ironic tone, as though he was utterly bored with it. Was the narrator chosen to be the voice of a materialistic Victorian cynic by some one who views the Forsyte Saga as the story of a property developer who handles love like a property transaction? At the end it is about the tragedy of Soames’s life, that he wants to love and be loved but can’t find the language - the last line sums it up, he longs for beauty and love but cannot reach them. Many of the characters in the novel are loving idealists and their thoughts and the dialogue between them deserves a more full hearted narration rather than being rapped out in stilted staccato by this voice of an old sneering and snobby prune who is bored with it all.

Fascinating account of the evolution of a family

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This is a good book and well read except that the reader can't seem to get some non-English words right. I noticed either in this book or an earlier part of the Forsyte Saga that he kept pronouncing 'Gare de l'Est' as 'Guerre de l'Est' and in this one he can't make up his mind how to pronounce 'Fleur', the name of a character. We get 'Fleur', 'Flure', 'Floo-or'.... The name 'Demetrius' is sometimes said correctly, but he also veers off into 'Demaytrius' and 'Demettrius'. It's not hard to find out how to pronounce names, but if you can't be sure, at least be consistent! It's a shame because the listener soon starts to notice it every time, and in general he reads very well.

The other problem isn't his fault, and that is the occasional repetition of sentences, presumably where he was asked to go back and read something again but the first reading was never edited out.

Despite these comments, I've enjoyed this Audible book.

Enjoyable but some annoying errors

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It was read beautifully that I couldn't help myself listening to it. Of course this book was written so well, but the reader make so interesting that you couldn't wait for the next part of the story.

wonderfully read

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Read really well and so well written that it was worth ignoring the appalling lazy editing - constant repeating left in so you had to listen to the phrase again… If I hadn’t admired the writing, I would’ve given up on it

Excellent writing let down by shoddy editing

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It is a great pity that this excellent reading of the Galsworthy novels has been allowed to go out in its new format without the bother of anyone listening to the original. It comes with occasional advice to 'turn over the cassette because the story continues on the other side' and with numerous retakes of various phrases which should have been edited out - and this criticism applies to 'In Chancery' as well.

Tatty editing spoils a good listen

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