Overview
Please note that the next run of this course will be in 2026
Course start date: 12th January 2026
Course end date: 20th March 2026
Early Bird Price: £135 BOOK NOW
Tutor: Lynne Thompson
Course Code: LITR050
Level: Non-accredited, non-credit bearing
Assessments/Exams: None. Throughout the course you will be given ideas and questions to respond to in the online discussion area. Participation in online discussion is encouraged, but not compulsory.
Duration: 10 weeks
Estimated Student Study Time: 3 – 4 hours per week are recommended, but time spent is flexible and at your discretion.
Fee: £150.00
Pre-Requisites: No academic qualifications or experience of studying literature are required – only a strong enthusiasm for this subject. You are encouraged to read the recommended reading, but this is not necessary to complete the course.
Delivery: Online Distance Learning
Late Entrants: If this course is not full by the start date then late entrants will be accepted for up to two weeks after the start of the course. As a late entrant you can choose to catch up on the material you have missed or you can skip the missed weeks and concentrate on the material at the point where you join the course, but unfortunately we cannot offer fee reductions or course extensions for late entrants.
Recommended Reading**:
In order to appreciate the course in full, it would be useful to have read at least the first two volumes of the Chronicles:
- The Forsyte Saga
- The Man of Property (1906)
- Indian Summer of a Forsyte (1918) – an “interlude”
- In Chancery (1920)
- Awakening (1920) – an “interlude”
- To Let (1921)
- A Modern Comedy
- The White Monkey (1924)
- The Silver Spoon (1926)
- A Silent Wooing (1927) – an “interlude”
- Passers By (1927) – an “interlude”
- Swan Song (1928)
- and, if possible the third volume, End of the Chapter
- Maid in Waiting (1931)
- Flowering Wilderness (1932)
- Over the River (1933)
No matter if you have not completed all of them, since Lynne will fill in the gaps.
You may want to read more about events and history of the period under discussion. There will be a bibliography at the end of each unit, and a general reading list which you might like to dip into as the course progresses.
Required Reading**: There are no required texts for this course.
Recommended Viewing**:
The 1967 BBC TV series “The Forsyte Saga”.
**Please note: All courses are subject to sufficient numbers of students registering before they are confirmed as running. Therefore, after booking your place you are advised not to purchase any texts nor videos until you have received confirmation that the course is running.
Summary
In 1932 John Galsworthy won the Nobel Prize for Literature, an achievement to which he would not have aspired in his early career, but seldom has a writer been so determined to develop literary craftsmanship into a recognised art form. He is principally remembered for his Forsyte Chronicles: a trilogy tracing the life and times of a prosperous upper middle class English family from the later Victorian period to the early 1930s, although he was better known as a playwright in his lifetime.
In this course we will revisit the Forsyte fortunes through a largely historical perspective, so as to provide a background through which Galsworthy brought his characters to life. It will be designed thematically as much as chronologically, picking up on and developing ‘real’ events which impacted upon the family’s rise and fall, and with a particular focus on metropolitan and country life. We know Galsworthy was a keen observer of both milieus and during the course we will be examining how far his magnum opus reflected events in his own life and times.
Syllabus Plan
The first half of the syllabus focuses largely on the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the second half relates to the interwar period, but there will be chronological overlaps, such as, for instance, when we consider Forsyte women in Unit 04.
Week 01 – Introduction
Week 02 – John Galsworthy – his life, family and the Forsytes
Week 03 – The Edwardian era
Week 04 – Forsyte women: continuity and change
Week 05 – The Forsytes, war and empire
Week 06 – Strike, strife and class
Week 07 – ‘Service’, ethics and the ‘condition of England’
Week 08 – Town and country relations
Week 09 – The arts as the Forsytes saw them: Soames’ picture gallery
Week 10 – History and literature – what have we learned from The Forsyte Saga?