The Eldest Son

"Of Master Medley's three sons it is Harry, the eldest, who inherits the past. A dark, dominating strain in his nature sets him apart, and he is forever in conflict with father. The fourth title of the series centers on Harry Medley who longs to turn the family farm into an iron foundry. But when a stranger brings the plague, disaster strikes. From the devastation there emerges for Harry a triumph both exalting and bitter.

The Eldest Son

Nina, said the Squire, "I'm most infernally worried." He was sitting in his wife's morning-room, in a low chair by the fire. In front of him was a table set for tea for one—himself. There were buttered toast and dry toast and preserves, a massive silver teapot, milk jug, cream jug, and sugar basin, a breakfast cup of China tea, and two boiled eggs, one of which he was attacking, sitting forward in his chair with his legs bent. He had come in from hunting a few minutes before, at about six o'clock, and it was his habit thus to consume viands which most men of his age and bulk might have been afraid of, as likely to spoil their dinner. But he was an active man, in spite of his fifty-nine years and his tendency to put on flesh, and it would have taken more than a tea that was almost a meal to reduce his appetite for dinner at eight, after a day in the saddle and a lunch off sandwiches and a flask of sherry. When his tea was over he would indulge himself in half an hour's nap, with the Times open at the leader page on his knee, and go up to dress, feeling every inch of him a sportsman and an English country gentleman. His tea was generally brought to him in his library. This evening a footman had followed him into that room immediately upon his entering the house, as usual, had unbuckled his spurs, pulled off his boots for him, and put on in their place a pair of velvet slippers worked in silk, which had been warming in front of the fire. Only when his coat was wet or much splashed with mud did the Squire change that. He considered smoking-jackets rather effeminate, and slippers, on ordinary occasions, "sloppy." It was only in his dressing-room or on these evenings after hunting that he wore them. Otherwise, if he had to change his boots during the daytime he put on another pair. He was particular on little points like this. All his rules were kept precisely, by himself and those about him. This evening he had told the footman, and the butler who had followed him into the room with the tray, that he would have his tea in Mrs. Clinton's room, and he had marched across the hall with a firm and decisive step, in his red coat and buckskin breeches, between which and his hand-knitted heather-mixture socks showed a white expanse of under-drawers round a muscular calf. Mrs. Clinton sat opposite to him in another low chair, at work on a woollen waistcoat. He always wore waistcoats made by her, thick for the winter, light for the summer, and she knitted his socks for him, of which he required a large number, for he hated them to be darned. He liked to see her working for him like this. He was a rich man, but a woman ought to work with her hands for her husband, whether he was rich or poor. It was her wifely duty, and incidentally it kept her out of mischief. Mrs. Clinton, at the age of fifty-four, with her smooth yellow-grey hair and her quiet and composed face, did not look as if she would be up to serious mischief, even if this and other restrictions were removed from her. She looked up when her husband addressed her, and marked the furrow between his heavy eyebrows. Then she looked down again at her work and waited for him to unbosom himself further.

"The Eldest Son" by John Galsworthy is a captivating drama that delves into the complexities of family dynamics, class conflict, and personal ambition in early 20th-century England. Set against the backdrop of a wealthy English family's estate, the play explores themes of inheritance, duty, and the struggle for individual identity. At its core, "The Eldest Son" revolves around the Forsyte family, a wealthy and influential clan grappling with the challenges of maintaining their social status and preserving their legacy. The focus is on the eldest son, James Forsyte, whose sense of duty and obligation to his family clash with his desire for personal fulfillment and autonomy. As James navigates the expectations placed upon him by his domineering father and the traditions of upper-class society, he must confront the conflicting demands of loyalty to his family and the pursuit of his own happiness. His journey becomes a microcosm of the tensions between tradition and modernity, duty and desire, that define the era.