The Forsyte Saga (The Forsyte Chronicles – 1st Trilogy) by John Galsworthy

My colleague Daniel’s review of the first book in this trilogy about the Forsyte family inspired me to read it and continue with the full trilogy, the books entitled “In Chancery” and “To Let”. Galsworthy, the author, takes you into his story gradually. The opening scene in the first book, “The Man of Property”, is of a Forsyte family gathering. As you meet the members, the family tree (provided in the front of the book) comes in handy, but the range of people across generations is a bit overwhelming at first. One has to remember that when Galsworthy wrote, people had a little more time to spare when they read a novel! But the book is so well-written and the characterization so subtle, that you are soon under its spell. No matter that some of the characters are proud and arrogant (Soames) and others inscrutable (Irene) - among the cast there is always someone whose plight touches your heart, and whose actions perfectly portray their random thoughts and intentions. The author sees the human desire to own something as cause for great folly, and beauty as its antidote, to be reveled in for its own sake, without trying to hold or possess it.

The Man of Property / by John Galsworthy

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'Man of Property' is the first novel in John Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga, an epilogue chronicling a set of wealthy Victorians during the second half of the nineteenth century.

"She is Mine!"
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Among the more pretentious members of the eminent Forsyte clan, Soames Forsyte is a man who desires things to be "his alone”. A noted barrister and wealthy heir to a family patriarch, his whims and wants seldom fail to meet with success. Undeterred by the needs of others, his possessiveness targets his beautiful wife Irene, whose marriage to Soames out of financial want has proved a bitter pill indeed. Jealous of Irene’s friendships and eager to remove her from potential acquaintances, Soames' plan for a relocation to a new home in the country backfires when Irene becomes embroiled in an affair with the architect, Philip Bossinney. Their passionate union and subsequent removal from society ends not just one marriage but intended matrimony of Bossinney and June Forsyte, Soames’ cousin. Meanwhile other members of the family cope with money woes, aging, and further marital discord.

Victorian literature was defined by Dickens, Eliot, Hardy, etc.; but it was (and still is) popularized in retrospect by authors like John Galsworthy. Rather than exacting the technical aspects of the “novel”, Galsworthy reveled in exploring the condescending veneer of that period’s social hierarchy, depicting--with reserved aplomb--the scandal and indignities hidden beneath the surface. Spanning over five decades and four generations, the saga follows the family from its prestigious mid-Victorian seat to its more settled bourgeois status at the turn of the century. While the major figures of Soames and Irene, Bossinney, June, and Jolyon are examined most extensively, Galsworthy does well not to totally override the other, less dramatic family members.