may's textual experiments

just as it's going to be the summer of tall due to my two new pairs of summer sandals that both happen to be platform-y, so too will it be the summer of forsyte, due to the three volume penguin edition of john galsworthy's the forsyte saga that i picked up while on a weekend getaway to chichester and arundel in the spring. the forsyte saga has always been literature on the periphery of my consciousness. i've never had cause to read it -- it has never figured in any of my academic work, and i've never been overwhelmed by a bridget jones-esque reaction to the male lead in a tv adaptation -- and until discovering the pristine, almost untouched volumes in the shelf of kim's bookshop in arundel, it hadn't made it on to my list of shit i must read.

i started the first volume this weekend, while on the way to visit the country estate house in petworth, and i'm not 100% sold on galsworthy's prose. the character of old joylon has figured prominently in the opening chapters of the first book of the first volume, and he's not endearing, unless it's in that conservative-old-man-looking-back-on-his-missed-opportunities-and-realizing-money-doesn't-make-you-happy kind of way. i'm attracted to the character of irene, his niece by marriage, who seems to be one of those women you can only find in victorian and edwardian literature: a woman, created by a man, who exists within the constraints of gender ideology, but who at the same time transcends them. old joylon's determined eldest daughter june also captures my interest, but overall, i'm finding it slow going.

at the same time that i'm beginning my summer saga, i'm also reading the last gervaise fen mystery novel by edmund crispin that is currently available, buried for pleasure, and looking forward to reading some bret easton ellis for the first time.