Olga Zilberbourg
@olgaz
Fiction writer. Like Water & Other Stories (WTAW Press) Co-moderator, San Francisco Writers Workshop (Tuesdays 7-9 pm at Noisebridge) Co-founder, Punctured Lines, a blog ab literatures of the former USSR & diaspora, w Yelena Furman Finishing 1st novel
Really enjoying following the #forsytesaga26 conversation from my trip hoping to rejoin next week. Meantime, walked by this place..
Instagram helpfully supplies: (Argh the apps are creepy in how they are totally listening and watching you)
#ForsyteSaga26 It sounds like they worked at that hospital for several months, and then went off to France. Here's a mention of the Russian revolution (that of course was very bad news for the Allies). -- After this Galsworthies went back to London and literary work.
#ForsyteSaga26 And now I'm back to skimming Ada Galsworthy's travelogue Over the Hills and Far Away. There is some gold here -- here's her account of WWI years. Imagine JG giving Swedish massage to soldiers --and then proceeding to write that Old J chapter! And In Chancery.
#ForsyteSaga26 Half a year later, when the book is out in the world, Constance Garnett writes this congratulatory note to JG -- I feel lucky to have this letter from her included in this book! CG fell for the romance of Irene -- that's sweet. David is her son, a future writer and editor himself.
#ForsyteSaga26 To conclude the letter exchange on The Man of Property, here's Galsworthy responding to Constance Garnett -- his editor's wife and famed translator from Russian -- still defending Bosinney's suicide. JG is trying hard to use suicide as a device, even though it doesn't quite stick!
Stuff that came out of a kid's jacket pockets at the end of a school year. There were a few plain rocks there too -- at some point my 11 1/2 year old realized that he likes a weighted jacket and started to hold on to that stuff intentionally?! :))
#forsytesaga26 Ok, I'm deep down the rabbit hole of Galsworthy's Russian connection. Here's a poem the man published in 1917, comparing Russian revolution to American, I believe, and seeing in it the end of tyranny. Oh the dreams of the past!
Picked up Over the Hills and Far Away by Ada Galsworthy (1937), and she has a killer opening. (Independent young women). I love her pick me up recipe (tea and wine!) and laughed at her flirtation with the hay turning. I am skimming this one--but the occasional anecdote is lovely.
#forsytesaga26 At the end of this letter of June 7, Garnett points out basically that JG might have a different *audience* in mind for his book than Garnett himself: JG is addressing the audience of Forsytes, while I think EG's suggestions would be more aimed toward bohemian literary audience.
#forsytesaga26 I quite agree with Garnett here that the rape might provoke anger in Bosinney, instead of fragile reaction of shock. (I had to put a question mark next to EG's use of the word "jealousy" there... really, rape provoking jealousy? WEIRD and YUCK., but maybe it's a shortcut of smth?)
#forsytesaga26 In his response from June 7, Edward Garnett says that he agrees with JG that suicide is an aspect of "every man's character" -- so I think both men view suicide in different terms from us today, when the dominant opinion views it a mental disorder, and so an outlying behavior.
#forsytesaga26 JG continues to write that evening (and I love how this period of writing helps us see his thought developing! incredible access to the workings of his mind.) Here is a big question: how did they see suicide? As a part of character, or circumstances?
#forsytesaga26 Galsworthy continues to think about EG's criticism, and sleeps on it for a day, continuing the response the following day. Here, he's developing the shape of the book that we just read: Bosinney's suicide is made less definite, more like an accident, to satisfy JG's best reader.
#forsytesaga26 Ok, I'm continuing with John Galsworthy's letter from June 1st. First of all, if Irene is passive, it's by design, not accident. This is a key feature to her character... which I do believe is a romantic one (it's inherited from features of heroines of romance), not a realist one.
To get a sense of what we do, come to the fundraiser we're hosting on June 12 to benefit Noisebridge, a makerspace in the Mission that has been hosting our workshop--for free!--for the past four years. You will hear some of our writers read their work and meet some hackers!! 7/7
Once in a while our writers do go on to apply to MFA programs, and they do publish books, and I also want to celebrate the work that all requires. Here are some of the books that are out in the first part of 2026 by our writers from diff eras. 5/7
#forsytesaga26 1)Galsworthy isn't ready to use the word "rape"--he uses a euphemism, "Soames has outraged her." Ok 2)Galsworthy, being a Forsyte himself, doesn't feel like he has the subject position from which to properly write Bosinney--so B actually has almost as little interiority as Irene ...
#forsytesaga26 Notes in the margins are mine. Note that Garnett doesn't mince words in calling Soames's act a rape. (This goes to reception analysis that we discussed earlier). I think his point of "the exhaustion of sexual collapse" might be a reference to Anna Karenina. cont.
#forsytesaga26 So here it is, the letter from May 27, 1905, where Edward Garnett strongly insists that Galsworthy rewrites Bosinney's suicide. I'm copying the letter in full because it's soo good. I love how Garnett begins w/ outsize praise, developing trust, before insisting on revisions... Cont
#ForsyteSaga26 here's a letter from Edward Garnett to John Galsworthy from May 8, 1905. Several things of interest: 1. Gotta remember that Hueffer is Ford Maddox Ford 2. Russian revolution began with a bloody Sunday Jan 22, 1905 3. Russian lit and British lit live side by side thru Garnetts
An interesting theory, but I don't think so. "Indian Summer of a Forsyte" directly connects the rape to suicide:
#forsytesaga26 And here's the first mention of The Man of Property -- June 12, 1904. Sounds like it was an instant hit!
#ForsyteSaga26 Looks like Ada has left a couple of books of her own, including a memoir - travelogue? Thanks to the Internet Archive, it's accessible.. Her practice of calling John "Himself" though is weirding me out and I dunno if I can really get into this book! archive.org/details/in.e...
#ForsyteSaga26 Here are John and Ada Galsworthy -- doesn't he look a bit like Tom Hanks?
#ForsyteSaga26 Ok the path of reading about Galsworthies is full of rabbit holes. His sister Lillian seems like an intriguing person as well, and his brother in law Georg Sauter seems to have been a remarkbale artist! (Georg Sauter's portrait of Lillian and their son Rudolf). too cool.
#Forsytesaga26 Absolutely fascinating bit of correspondence. Galsworthy writing to Tolstoy's translator Constance Garnett, following a conversation, during which -- it looks like Garnett criticized Anna for having an inconsistent personality. She also seems to have criticized T's "style" -- 1/2
#ForsyteSaga26 Publishing this book after Galsworthy's death, Garnett sums up his friend's work rather brutally, though I guess this gives the impression of honesty? Later, I am fascinated by the comparison he makes between Conrad's and Galsworthy's funerals.