The Forsyte Saga

John Galsworthy · 1867–1933 · England

Why it matters

Three novels and two interludes track the Forsytes, a dynasty of upper-middle-class Victorians for whom possession is instinct, tested hardest by Soames's marriage to the one Forsyte asset he can never fully own: his wife Irene. The English family chronicle at full scale, indictment wrapped in upholstery.

At a glance

Traditional prose across nearly nine hundred pages and three generations of a large cast.