John Galsworthy

Consisting of three novels and two interludes, "The Forsyte Saga" chronicles several generations of an upper middle class British family at the beginning of the twentieth century. Full of social satire, "The Man of Property" commences this fictional history and introduces the first generation of Forsytes, prominently featuring Soames and his wife Irene. Keenly aware of their nouveau riche standing and highly desirous of material possessions, Soames...

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 final chapter in the saga of a once-wealthy English family tormented by the sins of their past. Old loves threaten to jeopardize a family's future in the final installment of the Forsyte Saga. Part social satire, part melodrama, this captivating novel brings to fascinating life author John Galsworthy's preoccupations with class, gender, and morality. Soames and Irene Forsyte have finally separated after years of turmoil. Irene is now wed to...

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 1920 play by Galsworthy-made into a 1931 film by Alfred Hitchcock-features a collision between two families: the "old-money" Hillcrists and the nouveau-riche Hornblowers. As the patriarchs of the two families squabble over a piece of land, an innocent young woman will pay the price.

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?

This 1913 novel traces the history of one man, Mark Lennan, from his eighteenth year through his forty-eighth. But Galsworthy's real focus is the women in Mark's life. Each phase of his adulthood focuses on a women – his mother, then wife, then daughter, represented by "Spring," "Summer," and "Autumn," respectively. A contemporary review in the New York Times called the book "his most vital novel."

In its review of this 1911 novel about conflicts arising from the rigid class prejudices of upper-caste English society, the New York Times singled out Galsworthy's heroine for special praise, calling her "at once splendid, simple, crowned with happiness, and somehow caged and tragically looking out between gilded bars."

This 1922 drama, set in the post-World War I era, concerns a wealthy young Jewish man who is robbed by a war hero fallen on hard times. A searing yet fair indictment of anti-Semitism, the play dissects religion, class, and ethics in exposing the ugly roots of British racism.