by Joan L. Cannon

These days, creating a believable world for readers who have never known anything like it seems to be the province of fantasy and sci-fi. Yet John Galsworthy and the eponymous Forsyte Saga make a reader understand comprehensively what Victorian England was like. If you’re a lover of Dickens, you may be surprised to discover there really was a whole other level of culture from that in most of his stories.

You find out what the clothes were like, the landscapes familiar to that caste of Englishman (and woman), the (to us) peculiar routines of people who did nothing, with the exception of a few hours a week on the part of the men, and interminably tedious "calling" for women. (The movie poster was an adaptation of The Man of Property, the first novel in The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy)

Except for the military, men worked at desks and in boardrooms, women did no housekeeping, no childcare, little or no charity work. Like a perfectly arranged workshop, their lives were ordered, with a place for everything (and everyone), and everything in its place. Not many writers could hold modern attentions with such a world, yet it is more real than if it were shown on a movie screen.

The characters in their houses, the décor, the customs, the music and art and social events are so meticulously portrayed that the reader is like an eavesdropper. You see these people and hear them, but most impressive of all, Galsworthy takes you inside their histories and their hearts, and in the gradual way one comes to know the people in real life — not all at once.

Read more: http://www.seniorwomen.com/news/index.php/the-forstytes-and-victorian-england

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