Holiday cottages generally come with a rather poor selection of DVD's and rather than spend a fortnight subject to the vagaries of freeview, I usually stock up with some blockbuster or other to keep us ticking over. On this occasion I thought to visit CeX in the High Street (very near Oxfam) where, as luck would have it I got hold of Mildred Pierce, never before heard of, and a newish ITV version of the Forsyte Saga, a saga which I had heard of but had had no closer connection. I thought a fiver was a good price for what must be getting on for twenty hours or so of reliable viewing, good reliable costume drama. I reported on Mildred at reference 1 and now it is the turn of the Forsytes.
We got through the ten episodes fairly briskly. Well made. Entirely watchable, if more or less all the characters were more or less unpleasant. Or silly at best. My only real beef was with Robert Graves as young Jolyon, the one who runs to three wives, and whom I found irritating and unconvincing.
I then thought that it would be interesting to take a look at the BBC version, all 26 episodes and now nearly fifty years old. BH knew all about them but I had never indulged, my family not acquiring a television until after I had left home. Tried Amazon and they wanted £50 which seemed a bit steep, or rather less if you didn't mind Region 1, which I thought I did. So off to ebay where I found mostly £50 sets, but for some reason one at £12 including postage. So bought, and it arrived a few days later. Now just started, to be reminded that colour television had not been invented in 1967. And now I have a beef with Kenneth More, whom I find as inappropriate for young Jolyon as Robert Graves. Very properly, BH reminds me of the difficulty of casting for a story which spans 50 years or more.
In parallel, we found ourselves in Epsom Library, on an occasion to be noticed shortly, and thought we would get the book of the series. The Library offered three fat Penguins, Volume 2 of which I could take away there and then and Volume 1 of which turned up yesterday, after reservation. I agreed with the young lady behind the jump that it was a lot of stuff to read at one go and it was quite likely that I would not go the distance - very much BH's view as it happens, she having had a go years and years ago. But so far all is well, with several major changes to the story line having turned up already. Much triangulation between the three versions yet to come.
I also noticed that the saga had been dedicated to Edward Garnett, the chap noticed at reference 2, and it turns out that Garnett was midwife to Galsworthy. The story being that Galsworthy met Conrad while coming back from the east, at which time Conrad was the first mate of the ship in question, Conrad subsequently introduced him to Garnett, who supervised the subsequent arrival of the Forsytes in the world. They were good friends for a while, friends enough to have violent arguments about the proper end of the arty architect (Bosinney). I also learned that Galsworthy had a long affair with the pianist wife of his first cousin and I wonder now what they thought of being immortalised as Forsytes.
Also with a quotation from the Merchant of Venice (Agatha Christie is another one fond of this sort of thing): '... You will answer / The slaves are ours...'. I tried finding the quote by hand and failed, so had to have recourse to Bing which ran it down, via reference 3, to one of Shylock's speeches to the Duke in the trial scene. Act IV, Scene I, Line 98 to be precise. All very apt - with the Bard's incidental comments on slavery being surprisingly modern in tone - and I wonder now who supplied such things, such quotations. Were authors expected to know their Shakespeare or was there some swat in a back room for that sort of thing?
Net result of all of which being that consumption of Maigret - presently on volume 22 out of 24 or so - might slow down while the Forsyte fad works its way through the system.
I might also say that the family tree printed in the front of Volume 1 is most helpful, with a copy each for myself and BH run off for greater convenience. Thank you, Hewlett Packard. One might have thought the that television people would have thought to include such a thing in their boxed sets and I shall have to inquire about 'Game of Thrones' in that respect, another complicated saga.
Reference 1: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/07/mildred-pierce.html.
Reference 2: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/01/midwife.html.
Reference 3: http://nfs.sparknotes.com/merchant/page_168.html.
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