England in 3400 AD

Swan Song (John Galsworthy)

Soames goes to Dorking to see the old family homestead, the origination of the modern Forsytes, and reflects upon the future:

"He had read somewhere that people would live underground, and come up to take the air in their flying machines on Sundays."

And it continues...

"People that wrote those prophetic articles were always forgetting that people had passions. He would make a bet that the passions of the English in 3400 A.D. would still be: playing golf, cursing the weather, sitting in draughts, and revising the prayer-book."

Michael Mont on perfect marital harmony

Swan Song (John Galsworthy)

Michael reflects on his relationship with his wife, Fleur: "Fleur and he were on such perfect terms that they had no real knowledge of each other's thoughts."

Ignorance is bliss?

Soames on America

Swan Song (John Galsworthy)

Soames Forsyte visits New York and his impression is essentially favorable, except for one thing:

"Of course the place was full of Americans, but that was unavoidable."

Soames's view of psycho-analysis

The White Monkey (John Galsworthy)

"There was a thing they called psycho-analysis, which so far as he could understand attributed people's action not to what they ate at breakfast, or the leg they got out of bed with, as in the good old days, but to some shock they had received in the remote past and entirely forgotten."

Poetry and Putney

The White Monkey (John Galsworthy)

"Poetry's only possible when you may be blown up at any moment, or when you live in Putney."

An Unsuitable Job for a Woman...Collins-style

The Moonstone (Wilkie Collins)

"You would have done great things in my profession, ma'am, if you had happened to be a man."

Who needs match.com when we have Wilkie Collins?

The Moonstone (Wilkie Collins)

"I agree with the late William Cobbett about picking a wife. See that she chews her food well and sets her foot down firmly on the ground when she walks, and you're all right. "

Wise words, indeed. I'm very certain my husband succeeded.