The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy

The Forsyte Saga is a book by John Galsworthy, first published between 1906 and 1921. It contains three novels and two interludes. It is the start of a trilogy of books that continues with 'A Modern Comedy', and ends with 'End of the Chapter'. The novels in this book are The Man of Property, In Chancery, and, To Let. The two interludes are 'Indian Summer of a Forsyte', and, 'Awakening'. As a whole, the novels follow the lives of a large upper-middle-class English family, particularly the main character, Soames Forsyte. In the first book, The Man of Property, the reader is introduced to the family and also to Soames' desire to own things, including his wife, whom he wishes to move away to a house away from her friends. His wife, resisting this, falls in love with someone else, with tragic consequences. In the second book, In Chancery, the subject is the marital discord of both Soames, and his sister, as they take steps to divorce their spouses. In the final novel of this book, To Let, the Forsyte saga is concluded with forbidden relationships, new ones beginning, and old ones ending, and with Soames realising that for all his attempts, he never really possessed anything he truly wanted.