Сага о Форсайтах. В петле

УДК 372.8
ББК 81.2 Англ93
 
Г 60

© КАРО, 2009
ISBN 9785992503173

Голсуорси Дж.
Г 60
Сага о Форсайтах. В петле: Книга для чтения на
английском языке. — СПб.: КАРО, 2009. — 480 с.

ISBN 9785992503173

Предлагаем вниманию читателя второй роман из трилогии Дж. Голсуорси «Сага о Форсайтах» — «В петле».
Неадаптированный текст на языке оригинала снабжен
обширным словарем и подробными комментариями. Книга
предназначена для студентов языковых вузов и всех любителей английской литературы.

УДК 372.8
ББК 81.2 Англ93

IN

CHANCERY

Two households both
alike in dignity,
From ancient grudge,
break into new mutiny.

 Romeo and Juliet

To Jessie and Joseph Conrad

PART I

Chapter I

AT TIMOTHY’S

The possessive instinct never stands still. Through
florescence and feud, frosts and fires, it followed the
laws of progression even in the Forsyte family which
had believed it fixed for ever. Nor can it be dissociated from environment any more than the quality of
potato from the soil.
The historian of the English eighties and nineties
will, in his good time, depict the somewhat rapid progression from selfcontented and contained provincialism to still more selfcontented if less contained
imperialism — in other words, the ‘possessive’ instinct
of the nation on the move1. And so, as if in conformity,
was it with the Forsyte family. They were spreading
not merely on the surface, but within.

1 the nation on the move — нация в движении (в развитии)

IN CHANCERY

6

When, in 1895, Susan Hayman, the married
Forsyte sister, followed her husband at the ludicrously low age of seventyfour, and was cremated, it made strangely little stir among the six old
Forsytes left. For this apathy there were three
causes. First: the almost surreptitious burial of old
Jolyon in 1892 down at Robin Hill — first of the
Forsytes to desert the family grave at Highgate.
That burial, coming a year after Swithin’s entirely
proper funeral, had occasioned a great deal of talk
on Forsyte ’Change, the abode of Timothy Forsyte
on the Bayswater Road, London, which still collected and radiated family gossip. Opinions ranged
from the lamentation of Aunt Juley to the outspoken assertion of Francie that it was ‘a jolly good
thing to stop all that stuffy Highgate business.’
Uncle Jolyon in his later years — indeed, ever since
the strange and lamentable affair between his granddaughter June’s lover, young Bosinney, and Irene,
his nephew Soames Forsyte’s wife — had noticeably rapped the family’s knuckles1; and that way
of his own which he had always taken had begun
to seem to them a little wayward. The philosophic
vein in him, of course, had always been too liable
to crop out of the strata of pure Forsyteism, so
they were in a way prepared for his interment in a

1 had noticeably rapped the family’s knuckles — (разг.)
дал по рукам (всему семейству)

PART I

7

strange spot. But the whole thing was an odd business, and when the contents of his Will became
current coin1 on Forsyte ’Change, a shiver had
gone round the clan. Out of his estate (£ 145,304
gross, with liabilities £ 35 7s. 4d.) he had actually
left £ 15,000 to “whomever do you think, my dear?
To Irene!” that runaway wife of his nephew Soames;
Irene, a woman who had almost disgraced the family, and — still more amazing was to him no blood
relation. Not out and out, of course2; only a life
interest — only the income from it! Still, there it
was; and old Jolyon’s claim to be the perfect Forsyte was ended once for all. That, then, was the
first reason why the burial of Susan Hayman — at
Woking — made little stir.
The second reason was altogether more expansive and imperial. Besides the house on Campden
Hill, Susan had a place (left her by Hayman when
he died) just over the border in Hants, where the
Hayman boys had learned to be such good shots
and riders, as it was believed, which was of course
nice for them, and creditable to everybody; and the
fact of owning something really countrified seemed
somehow to excuse the dispersion of her remains —
though what could have put cremation into her
head they could not think! The usual invitations,

1 became current coin — (разг.) стало общеизвестно
2 not out and out, of course — (разг.) не все, конечно

IN CHANCERY

8

however, had been issued, and Soames had gone
down and young Nicholas, and the Will had been
quite satisfactory so far as it went, for she had only
had a life interest; and everything had gone quite
smoothly to the children in equal shares.
The third reason why Susan’s burial made little
stir was the most expansive of all. It was summed
up daringly by Euphemia, the pale, the thin: “Well,
I think people have a right to their own bodies,
even when they’re dead.” Coming from a daughter
of Nicholas, a Liberal of the old school and most tyrannical, it was a startling remark — showing in a
flash what a lot of water had run under bridges since
the death of Aunt Ann in ’86, just when the proprietorship of Soames over his wife’s body was acquiring the uncertainty which had led to such disaster.
Euphemia, of course, spoke like a child, and had no
experience; for though well over thirty by now, her
name was still Forsyte. But, making all allowances1,
her remark did undoubtedly show expansion of the
principle of liberty, decentralisation and shift in the
central point of possession from others to oneself.
When Nicholas heard his daughter’s remark from
Aunt Hester he had rapped out: “Wives and daughters! There’s no end to their liberty in these days.
I knew that ‘Jackson’ case would lead to things — lug1 making all allowances — (разг.) даже учитывая все
обстоятельства

PART I

9

ging in Habeas Corpus1 like that!” He had, of course,
never really forgiven the Married Woman’s Property Act, which would so have interfered with him if
he had not mercifully married before it was passed.
But, in truth, there was no denying the revolt among
the younger Forsytes against being owned by others; that, as it were, Colonial disposition to own oneself, which is the paradoxical forerunner of Imperialism, was making progress all the time. They were
all now married, except George, confirmed to the Turf
and the Iseeum Club; Francie, pursuing her musical
career in a studio off the King’s Road, Chelsea, and
still taking ‘lovers’ to dances; Euphemia, living at
home and complaining of Nicholas; and those two
Dromios, Giles and Jesse Hayman. Of the third generation there were not very many — young Jolyon
had three, Winifred Dartie four, young Nicholas six
already, young Roger had one, Marian Tweetyman
one; St. John Hayman two. But the rest of the sixteen married — Soames, Rachel and Cicely of James’
family; Eustace and Thomas of Roger’s; Ernest,
Archibald and Florence of Nicholas’; Augustus and
Annabel Spender of the Hayman’s — were going
down the years unreproduced2.

1 Habeas Corpus — (лат.) предписание о представлении арестованного в суд для рассмотрения законности ареста; основной английский закон
2 unreproduced — (зд.) без потомства, не оставляя наследников

IN CHANCERY

10

Thus, of the ten old Forsytes twentyone young
Forsytes had been born; but of the twentyone
young Forsytes there were as yet only seventeen
descendants; and it already seemed unlikely that
there would be more than a further unconsidered
trifle or so. A student of statistics must have noticed that the birth rate had varied in accordance
with the rate of interest for your money. Grandfather ‘superior Dosset’ Forsyte in the early nineteenth century had been getting ten per cent. for
his, hence ten children. Those ten, leaving out the
four who had not married, and Juley, whose husband Septimus Small had, of course, died almost
at once, had averaged from four to five per cent.
for theirs, and produced accordingly. The twentyone whom they produced were now getting barely
three per cent. in the Consols to which their father had mostly tied the Settlements they made to
avoid death duties1, and the six of them who had
been reproduced had seventeen children, or just
the proper two and fivesixths per stem.
There were other reasons, too, for this mild reproduction. A distrust of their earning powers,
natural where a sufficiency is guaranteed, together with the knowledge that their fathers did not

1 Settlements they made to avoid death duties — передача имущества по дарственной записи освобождала от налога на наследство