The Man of Property by John Galsworthy

'The Man of Property' is the first novel in Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga.

'The Forsyte Saga, sequence of three novels linked by two interludes by John Galsworthy. The saga chronicles the lives of three generations of a moneyed middle-class English family at the turn of the century. As published in 1922, The Forsyte Saga consisted of the novel The Man of Property (1906), the interlude (a short story) “Indian Summer of a Forsyte” (1918), the novel In Chancery (1920), the interlude “Awakening” (1920), and the novel To Let (1921).

Soames Forsyte, a solicitor and “man of property,” is married to the beautiful, penniless Irene, who rebels against his values. She falls in love with Philip Bosinney, the French architect whom Soames had hired to build a country house. Soames rapes Irene, whom he considers his property, and proceeds to ruin Bosinney, who subsequently dies in a traffic accident in London. Irene returns to Soames.'

Paperback

318 pages

Published in 1951 - First Published in 1906