In Chancery

The second installment of John Galsworthy's The Forsyte Saga, this novel follows the intertwined fates of the wealthy, property-obsessed Forsyte family in late-Victorian and Edwardian England. It is preceded by a novella-length interlude, "Indian Summer of a Forsyte," set in the early 1890s, which bridges events from the first volume, The Man of Property.

Old Jolyon Forsyte, the elderly patriarch of one branch of the family, lives at Robin Hill, the country house his nephew Soames Forsyte once commissioned and later sold. With his son Jolyon and granddaughter June away in Spain, old Jolyon is alone except for his young granddaughter Holly and her governess. On a late May evening, walking in the coppice near the house, he discovers Irene, Soames' estranged wife, sitting on a mossy log. She has been drawn there by memories of the architect Philip Bosinney, who designed Robin Hill and was once engaged to June. Bosinney became Irene's lover and died in a street accident years earlier. Charmed by Irene's beauty and companionship, old Jolyon invites her to dinner and arranges regular visits over the following weeks: opera evenings, walks in Kensington Gardens, and music lessons for Holly at Robin Hill. Her presence gives his fading days new purpose, and he adds a codicil to his will leaving her 15,000 pounds. When word comes that June is returning, Irene writes to say she cannot continue the visits, fearing June will never forgive the betrayal that cost her both her fiancé and her friend. Old Jolyon sends a bitter reply. Too ill the next day to leave his bed, he receives a telegram: Irene is coming after all. He dresses, goes outside, and sits under the oak tree to wait. In the warm summer air, he falls asleep and does not wake. His dog Balthasar, finding his master still, utters a long howl.

The main novel opens in 1899. Old Jolyon's will has caused a stir among the Forsytes, a large upper-middle-class London clan whose collective gossip circulates through the house of the elderly Timothy Forsyte. The bequest to Irene, who is no blood relation, strikes the family as eccentric. Soames remains legally married to Irene but has not seen her in 12 years. He has no heir, and the desire for a son consumes him. He has begun courting Annette Lamotte, a young Frenchwoman who keeps accounts at her mother's Soho restaurant, but cannot propose while still married.

Two crises converge. Soames' sister Winifred discovers that her husband, Montague Dartie, a reckless gambler, has stolen her pearls and fled to Buenos Aires with a dancer. Soames advises Winifred to seek divorce while resolving to free himself from Irene. He asks his cousin Jolyon, old Jolyon's son and now a painter living at Robin Hill, to act as intermediary. Jolyon, trustee of Irene's inheritance, visits her Chelsea flat and learns she has had no lover since Bosinney and has no misconduct to confess. When Soames brings Winifred's eldest son, Val Dartie, along to Robin Hill, the 19-year-old meets Jolyon's 18-year-old daughter Holly. The two begin a secret courtship, riding together in Richmond Park.

Unable to wait for legal channels, Soames visits Irene's flat himself. The encounter is charged with old pain: When he declares she is still his wife, she throws open a window in instinctive self-protection. She tells him to find divorce grounds in his own life. Soames departs shaken, still powerfully attracted. He wavers between Annette and a fantasy of Irene's return, then visits Irene again on her birthday with a diamond brooch, begging her to come back and confessing he wants a son. She answers that she would rather die. He tries to kiss her and is pushed away.

Jolyon, increasingly drawn to Irene, brings his daughter June to see her at the London hotel where she has taken refuge. June, whose fiancé Bosinney once betrayed her for Irene, kisses her former friend and offers forgiveness. Irene decides to go abroad rather than burden Jolyon's family. Soames, stung by defeat, hires the detective agency Polteed's to shadow Irene.

Jolyon follows Irene to Paris, where they spend a month visiting galleries, attending concerts, and exploring the countryside. He recognizes his feelings but makes no declaration. A telegram shatters the interlude: His son Jolly Forsyte has enlisted in the Imperial Yeomanry to fight in the Boer War. Jolyon must return home. He and Irene part at the Louvre with restrained emotion.

Back in England, Jolly discovers Holly and Val's secret courtship in Richmond Park. When Val comes to Robin Hill to propose to Holly, Jolly confronts them. In their grandfather's old study, Jolly dares Val to enlist with him in the Imperial Yeomanry. Val accepts, and both enlist the next day.

Winifred's divorce stalls when Dartie unexpectedly returns from Buenos Aires, gaunt and broken; she decides to take him back. James, Soames' elderly father, urges Soames to remarry and produce an heir. Soames makes one final attempt, following Irene to a fountain in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris. She tells him she has always known she was being watched and refuses absolutely, declaring she will never give herself to a man she hates. She flees Paris that day.

Irene takes refuge at a hotel in Richmond, near Robin Hill. She and Jolyon acknowledge their feelings, though he holds back because Jolly is gravely ill in South Africa. Holly confesses that her romance with Val provoked Jolly's enlistment dare. Jolyon lets Holly and June sail to South Africa as nurses. In a field hospital there, Jolly dies of enteric fever.

Soames serves divorce papers. When he drives to Robin Hill to confront Jolyon and Irene, both refuse to stay apart. He delivers a parting wound to Irene: "I hope you'll treat him as you treated me" (259). That evening, a telegram brings news of Jolly's death. Irene draws Jolyon's head to her shoulder in silent comfort.

The divorce goes through quickly. Val, wounded in the leg, marries Holly in South Africa, uniting the two warring branches of the family. Soames marries Annette in Paris on the last day of January 1901. On the day of Queen Victoria's funeral, he catches a glimpse of Jolyon and Irene in the Hyde Park crowd, looking happy, and turns away. A strange groan rises from the onlookers as the coffin passes, marking the end of an era.

Irene gives birth to a son at Robin Hill. When Annette goes into a dangerous labor, the doctor presents Soames with a terrible choice: operate to save Annette but lose the baby, or risk her life to deliver the child. Soames decides against the operation. Both mother and daughter survive, though Annette can never bear another child. When Annette whispers "Ma petite fleur," Soames seizes on the name: Fleur (303).

James is dying of pneumonia. At his bedside, Soames tells his father a comforting lie: Annette has had a son. James makes a sound of relief and dies peacefully. The next dawn, Soames writes two announcements, one for a death and one for a birth, and underneath traces a single word: son. Visiting the nursery, he looks at the sleeping baby and feels an unexpected rush of warmth and renewed possession.