The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1921-09-18
The Forsyte Family
Winds Up Affairs
TO LET. BY John Galsworthy Charles
Scribner's Sons.

M nounces simply on page of
ITO Letn that it is the after
noon of the 18th of May 1920. we
sigh with relief. With 314 pages to
go, it looks a fairly safe bet that at
last we are going to catch up with
the Forsyte family
Any one who has had anything to
do with this Forsyte family from the
most casual Galsworthy fan to the
man who sets the type, must share our
feeling. The Forsytes are a splendid
family, aristocratic, intelligent and
amusing, but they are too much mar
| ried. two often divorced and too long
lived to stand up under the strain of
| having four novels and short story
written about them.
Along with the rest of the Gals
worthy reading public. we have fol-
lowed the Forsytes through THE Man
of Property" and "In Chancery," and
more briefly in Indian Summer" of a
Forsyte and Awakening" We have
watched them marry themselves into
| a tansle of relationships and have
done oui best to keep up With the
genealogical orgy. But let double
cousins intermarry and sprinkle the
| issue with other entanglements. He
| thought nothing of permitting d.
vorcees to remarry in the Forsyte
family. He even introduced the Off
spring of correspondents as eligible
matrimonial talent
BY and large, the Forsyte series
chr. Galsworthy calls it "the Forsyte
l.. 49,. g..
son who has tendency to confuse
relationships that are the least bit out
OF the ordinary. Personally, we have
learned to distinguish between half
sisters and stepaunts. In crisis
we can even look a step brot her-in-law
in the teeth without calling for help.
Galsworthy has done that much for
us; but still, we could never quite
keep up with his brood of Forsytes.
Just when everything was straight
ened out, along would come a new
marriage, fresh batch of children and
more trouble
The volume of Forsytes before the
present one, I'm Chancery," brought
the family up through the Boer war.
''To Let jumps nearly a generation
and presents the Forsytes in very mod
ern times. emerging from the great
war. And by way of diversion, it in
cludes a genealogical problem that
threatens TO break all previous rec
ords.
Soames Forsyte has a daughter,
Fleur by his second wife, a French
woman. His first wife, Irene, who
after the divorce has married his
cousin Jolyon, has little Jolyon. The
two young people, ignorant of their
parents indiscretions, meet and be-
come involved In a violent attachment
for each other. Quite apart from its
F'orsyte interest, the love affair is
one that can stand on its own merits.
Fleur has a having" nature and
| isn't too particular about her methods
as long as she gets what she wants.
| She is the sort of girl who after the
| first ter minutes with a Young man re-
m aarks: well, you can Kiss me just
once on the cheek Young Jolyon is
different After the first ten minutes
with Fleur the best he can do is let
his arm steal around her waist and
murmur: Il only want to love once
you" So it is really Fieur who rro-
vides the initiative of the chase.
The affair progresses in disturbing
fashion, growing more passionate with
each turn of the page, until finally
the divorced parents learn of the
amazing situation. OF course, the sim
pie solution is to bring the family
skeletons out of the cupboard and
clear things up In hurry; but neither
parent wants to make the break.
So, for a period of perhaps 200
pages. each parent maintains a watch
full waiting policy. Young Jolyon is
whisked off to Spain to look at rare
sculpture, but he manages to get off
letter each evening after he has gone
| to his room. F'leur spurs him on to
deep declarations of his love and
rather enjoys the mystery Of the pa
rental disapproval
| At the moment when the match
seems inevitable Galsworthy is APP
parently stirred by a twinge of con-
science. If he let's the young couple
marry. he will have to write another
book and tell how it all came out
Figuring out the relationships that
would follow would make any man
dizzy With a sweep of the pen, he
decides against the Fleur-Jolyon nup-
tails. Jolyon exiles himself in British
Columbia and F'leur marries on the
rebound young Michael Mont.
And with these details out of the
way. the author, who has watched
over four generations of Forsytes, fin
ishes off the family i'm short order
Old Timothy the last Of the veteran
Forsytes. passes on and the ancient
family mansion has its sign QUITO
Let"
:" To Let" suggests Galworthy
"the Forsyte age and way Of life. when
man owned his soul, his investments
and his woman, without check or ques-
ton. And now the state had, or would
have, his investments, his woman had
herself, and God knew who had his
soul To Let'--that sane and simple
creed"
Galsworthy Is at his best when writ
ing of the Forsytes He knows them
all too well to make any mistakes in
his characterizations There Is less