The Forsytes (2025 vs 1967)

 

 Around Christmas, the new 2025 TV series version of The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy was broadcasted on Swedish Television (SVT). I watched it, but wasn't impressed - and some things really "disturbed me", as they seemed to totally clash with my memories from the first TV adaptation from1967 - which must have been one of the earliest "grown up" TV series I was allowed to watch (I was 12 years old in 1967); plus I'm pretty sure I also watched it when it was shown here again in 1970 and 1986. 

There was also a second version made in 2002-2003, and I know I watched that one too - but when I think back, it's still the 1967 TV version that sticks in my memory, while I can't really recall the 2002 version at all. 

Having watched the new six episodes now, I still find myself comparing everyone and everything to my memories from the 1967 version (and thinking things like "but surely Irene wasn't a ballet dancer, but a pianist??". So I decided to go back and re-listen to the original novels, written between 1906-1921 by John Galsworthy (English novelist, 1867-1933). In 1932  Galsworthy was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.   

I have listened to this audio book version (narrated by John Williams, and lasting 42+ hours) once before, in 2021, and also mentioned it on my blog back then.

  

Blackstone Audiobooks introduction from 2005: 

"The three novels that make up The Forsyte Saga chronicle the ebbing social power of the commercial upper-middle class Forsyte family through three generations, beginning in Victorian London during the 1880s and ending in the early 1920s. Galsworthy's masterly narrative examines not only their fortunes but also the wider developments within society, particularly the changing position of women.

The Forsyte Saga is a sequence of novels comprising The Man of Property (1906), In Chancery (1920), and To Let (1921) with two interludes, "Indian Summer of a Forsyte" (1918) and "Awakening", published together in 1922.

The saga begins with Soames Forsyte, a successful solicitor who buys land at Robin Hill on which to build a house for his wife Irene and future family. Eventually, the Forsyte family begins to disintegrate when Timothy Forsyte, the last of the old generation, dies at the age of 100.

In these novels, John Galsworthy documented a departed way of life, that of the affluent middle class that ruled England before the 1914 war. The class is criticized on account of its possessiveness, but there is also nostalgia because Galsworthy, as a man born into the class, could also appreciate its virtues."

In my review from 2021, I wrote:

---  I'm guessing that many of my blogging friends around my own age probably remember the old TV-series - I'm talking of the 1967 black & white one, not the one from 2002-03. While I listened to original novel now, it was the characters from the 1967 one that I kept seeing in my head. I do think that first TV series must have kept rather close to the novel. 
--- If you're not familiar with the story, it spans over three generations of a "commercial upper-middle class" family in London, starting in the Victorian era during the 1880s and ending in the early 1920s. It's a lot about their relationship to money and social status, but also deals with the general developments within society during that time - and not least the changing position of women. 

And to answer one of my own "but surely..." questions from the latest TV version: No, in the book Irene is not a ballerina, and she does play the piano. And I still can't figure out why on earth they'd change that... (To me, the new Irene does not at all match my impressions of her, neither from the 1967 TV series nor from the books. And neither does Soames, really.)

 

Irene and Soames 1967 vs 2025

 

Undecorating and Defrosting

 

The amaryllis that I bought just before Christmas is now in bloom - just as it's time to start taking down other kinds of decorations... 

The traditional date in Sweden for "throwing out Christmas" is 13th January. Back in my childhood, it was still common to have what we called julgransplundring ("Christmas tree looting") around this date. I thing the origin is that further back in history, the tree was often decorated with edible things - like gingerbread cookies, candy and apples - and before throwing it out after Christmas, one had a party where the guests were invited to help strip and throw out the tree - and eat the leftover decorations.  In my childhood, it was no longer all that common to use edible decorations in the Christmas tree; but there were games, and sometimes dancing around the tree (if the space allowed!), and cookies and cake etc to eat - and at the end of the party when the guests left, each child also got a "goodie bag" with a few sweets to take home with them. 

Below is a photo from my very first such party, I think from 1960, which was the year when we moved from a flat in town to a house of our own in a village. I'm the one to the right (5 years old), and the three other girls were friends of around my own age living in the neighbouring houses on the same street. Whether parents nowadays still manage to find time to throw "throwing out" parties, I don't know... Back in those days, there was no preschool or kindergarten, though  (or at least not in the village where we lived). So all the mums in our street were stay-at-home housewives (or possibly worked part time when the children were old enough to go to school).

 

Nowadays I tend to take my Christmas decorations down gradually, pretty much in reversed order to how I put them up in December - and no party... (I still have some gingerbread biscuits left, though. Bought, not home baked, this year...) 

Yesterday I put various "gnomes" and "santas" (Swedish: tomtar) back to bed; and will continue packing angels and whatnot later in the week. My electric candles may be staying for a while longer, though.

Today it struck me that as the weather (according to forecasts) may be about to change to somewhat milder temperatures again, I should probably take the opportunity to defrost my freezer - as just now it was fairly easy to just put the contents of the freezer in bags out on the balcony while the indoors thawing was going on. 

My freezer is in a tricky position though, as it's fitted into a cupboard with another ordinary cupboard underneath it. So defrosting requires an intricate arrangement of pots and pans and towels, in order to stop melting ice from falling/dripping down where one doesn't want it... So that took pretty much all afternoon today. The photo below is from another year, but it looked very similar this year.

 

 

Snowy Shadow Shot Sunday

 

Another sunny and really cold winter day today. I was out for about half an hour in the middle of the day, walking very slowly with support of both my poles. Above a photo from the playground park in the middle of the housing estate; but mostly I just walked back and forth on a path along the football field for a while, because it was both sunny and quiet there. Safer than the street, and hardly even any other people about just then.

 

 

 

One Day at a Time

 

Left: Friday - Right: Saturday

 
The snow that fell during the week remains. Today has been sunny, but cold. Around -8'C (17-18 F) according to my weather apps - and probably feeling even colder because of wind. (Today I haven't been out at all.)

Yesterday I was expecting a delivery of groceries between 10-13. I was among the last on their list that day, and with the snow and everything, they didn't arrive until shortly after 13 this time. (And then it took me nearly an hour to unpack and sort everything into fridge, freezer and various cabinets. Because of all the holidays it was my first delivery in three weeks.) As I live only 1 km or so from the supermarket, I'm usually either among the very first or the very last on their route - and I never know which until the same day. But then I can follow updates of expected time of delivery on their app, and also get a text message when I'm next. With the present snow situation, one has to be prepared for delays; but they were only like 10 minutes late in the end, and I got everything I had ordered.   

Today I had the laundry room booked for the afternoon, starting at 12. Normally I try to avoid booking weekends; but again, with all the red days lately, normal routines have been set aside. Recently I've felt more need of keeping the few non-holidays "free", in case I should need to transport myself somewhere for some errand or other. (But with the snow situation, combined with my knee, have ended up mostly just staying in anyway...) 

One result of all this is that just now, I still frequently have to keep reminding myself what day of the week it really is!  

We have a word for this in Swedish which doesn't have an exact translation in English (to be veckovill). I asked Google AI for an equivalent in English, but instead of just admitting that it didn't know, it came up with suggestions way off the mark (like "weekly").

Turning to an old and trusted printed Swedish-English dictionary, that simply gives the matter-of-fact paraphrase: "not know what day of the week it is". 

 

Snow Update

 

Yesterday we had more snow added, without any plough coming round duirng the day, and I just stayed in. This morning the walkway outside my building had been ploughed, though; so I siezed the opportunity to take out some rubbish to the bins. I also prolonged my walk a little (20 min or so, walking slowly and with poles), but kept close to home. 

The latest weather forecasts for this area predict no more snow over the weekend, but temperatures remaining cold. I have a home delivery booked tomorrow, and hope that will work out pretty much as usual, without too much delay.