Forsyte Saga, The, Volume 1: The Man of Property

A compelling drama and merciless scrutiny of a newly-monied upper middle class family at the turn of the twentieth century, The Forsyte Saga has a sumptuous range of characters; Soames, he of the `perpetual sniff'; Old Jolyon, `typifying the essential individualism born in the Briton'; the sensuous Bosinney with `an air as if he did not quite know on which side his bread was buttered'; Young Jolyon, the free thinker; and, of course, the sexually alluring and impenetrable Irene, catalyst for...