To Let

“One's eyes are what one is, one's mouth is what one becomes...”



To Let is the last volume of the Forsyte Saga, a groundbreaking work of Victorian literature that chronicles the affairs and fortunes of the venerable Forsyte family, a moneyed clan whose values are ever at war with its passions. 


In this final novel, John Galsworthy is tying up loose ends and setting the scene for the next stage in the life of the family in the luscious prose that would establish him as one of English literature’s brightest luminaries.


There is a moving scene, when Soames, alone at Highgate cemetery looks wistfully out over London and thinks about his family, property and the future generation.  


He concludes that his loved ones are sufficiently financially secure not to have to work to create more money, or much else for that matter.  They vaguely enjoy the arts and travel.  Women now ride bicycles for pleasure; people own cars and the property class are plagued by taxes.  


The world has left him behind. 



JOHN GALSWORTHY (1867–1933) was a British novelist and playwright. His most notable works include The Forsyte Saga (1906–1921) and its sequels, A Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1932.