John Galsworthy

The Man of Property, the first novel in the first trilogy of the epic nine book series, introduces us to Soames Forsyte, a solicitor and prominent figure in his family. Accustomed to getting whatever he wants, he sets his sights with absolute determination on the beautiful Irene, in spite of her pennilessness and her indifference to him. Irene, a lover of art and beauty, eventually accepts his marriage proposal over a life of degraded poverty, but...

Excerpt: "It was a dark room at that hour of six in the evening, when just the single oil reading-lamp under its green shade let fall a dapple of light over the Turkey carpet; over the covers of books taken out of the bookshelves, and the open pages of the one selected; over the deep blue and gold of the coffee service on the little old stool with its Oriental embroidery. Very dark in the winter, with drawn curtains, many rows of leather-bound volumes,...

The saga concludes with a new generation of Forsytes in the 1920's.

A brilliant social satire by Nobel Prize-winning author John Galsworthy, this monumental trilogy chronicles the lives of three generations of an upper-middle class London family obsessed with money and respectability. The first book, The Man of Property, established Galsworthy's reputation as an author and a keen observer of society. His masterly prose, always scorchingly accurate and often very funny, introduces Soames Forsyte, an avaricious man...

Justice is a 1910 play by the British writer John Galsworthy. It was part of a campaign to improve conditions in British prisons. Winston Churchill attended an early performance of the play at the Duke of York's Theatre in London. The play opens in the offices of James How & Sons, solicitors. A young woman appears at the door, with children in tow, asking to see the junior clerk, William Falder, on a personal matter. She is Ruth Honeywill, Falder's...

This 1908 collection of short sketches and essays contains pieces on everything from the everyday to the philosophical, including: "The Lost Dog," "Demos," "Old Age," "The Careful Man," "Fear," "Fashion," "Sport," "Money," "Progress," "Holiday," "Facts," "Power," "The House of Silence," "Order," "The Mother," "Comfort," "A Child," "Justice," "Hope," and the title essay.

This 1912 collection of twenty-six "essays and studies," divided between "Life" and "Letters" was praised by the New York Times reviewer as "a string of the finest pearls." Contents include the title entry, as well as "The Black Godmother," "Magpie Over the Hill," "Sheep-shearing," "Evolution," "On Our Dislike of Things as They Are," and "A Christian," among others.

This 1907 novel-later specifically cited by the Nobel Committee-is set in an English country house that stands as a microcosm of genteel society, where Victorian mores are coming into conflict with the realities of modern industrial life. When young George Pendyce falls for a "common" woman, the cracks in his family life are revealed.

In the novel Saint's Progress, published in 1919, Galsworthy wrestles with issues of the Great War. What was really being fought for: love as the guiding principle of life, a balance between Might is Right and Right is Might or a basic belief in God?