Man of Property (Forsyte Saga Vol. 1)

At its heart, this is not so much the story of two might-be, could-be lovers whose blossoming liaison threatens to destroy the marriage of an upper-middle-class London lawyer as a study in family dynamics, exploring how different members of the lawyer's extended family respond when confronted with evidence of this liaison. So well does Galsworthy capture the grip a dreary conservatism holds over almost the whole Forsyte family that his occasional excursions into the erotic acquire an undeniable power that at times feels almost creepy. (Summary by Peter Dann)