Customer Reviews

The Man of Property (Forsyte Saga)

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This is the first volume in the 9 volume sweeping family saga, and it sets the high watermark. In many ways I think it is the best, most especially the final chapter, when one era segues into the next, as generational change occurs.

It is probably a particular type of reader who enjoys fiction which examines the drawing room manners and social mores of upper middle class England (the professional class, as opposed to manufacturing/merchant class or aristocracy). I love it, especially when it is delivered with an archly raised eyebrow which questions the assumptions and mores, the hypocrisies of the time. All the better if it can lead you to question the same characteristics of your own time. That is achieved in Galsworthy, in much the same way as Trollope achieved in his Barchester Chronicles in an earlier era.

The writing is not without humour, mostly of an ironic kind. The older generation Forsytes, steadfast in their belief in themselves find it almost inconceivable when one amongst their number has the termerity to die!

Anyone who thrives on a diet of Trollope, Thackeray, Austen, and anyone who has enjoyed Ian McEwan's more contemporary novel, Atonement should enjoy this. Lovers of the British TV 'costume drama' - think The Cazalets, Love In A Cold Climate, The Way We Live Now - for example, should likewise consider reading Galsworthy.

"The Man of Property" is the first novel of the monumental Forsyte Saga created by John Galsworthy. The whole series compound of nine installments that cover about thirty years in the life of the dynasty. In the beginning of the first book, the writer spends some time creating his environment where those Forsyte will inhabit.

The first chapters turn out to be the more descriptive in the book. Not only does he introduces the most important members of the family, but he also describe their moral-social relationships -- that count much more than their blood relations.

Once Galsworthy feels that his characters are established -- and it doesn't take too many pages, as a matter of fact -- he starts the narrative per se, although a slight plot has been developed from the beginning.

"The Man of Property" concerns more on old Jolyon Forsyte's life and his son and his nephew Soames and Soames' wife, Irene (one of the most unforgettable characters in the saga). Soames is the man of property, but not only has he got unanimated properties but he also considers himself the owner of Irene. She will involve herself with another man, and this love affair will affect the all Forsytes in some levels.

This novel is a great beginning for Galsworthy's saga, with vivid characters, a well-built plot and charming writing. While the writer is developing the family affairs, he has the chance to portray the changes in the high society life in the early XX Century in England.