Over the River

📖 In the last three volumes of the Forsyte Chronicles Galsworthy is concerned more with the Cherrells than with the Forsytes to whom they are related by marriage. Since 1217, Cherrell sons have left Condaford Grange to serve the State as soldiers, clergymen and administrators. But the 1930s find them uneasy in a world of changing values, unemployment and depression. In the'End of the Chapter' trilogy, Galsworthy shows with irony, sympathy and great narrative skill how the Cherrells come to terms with a century driven by hand-to-mouth opportunism, setting little store by service.After seventeen months of marriage, Clare Cherrell leaves her husband, Sir Gerald Corven, a careerist in the Colonial Service, revolted by his sadistic practices. Corven, anxious to avoid a scandal, pleads for her return with promises of future self-restraint. Then Clare's friendship with young Tony Croom presents Corven with an altogether more effective lever of persuasion...