John Galsworthy, one of the greatest British writers, was a representative of the literary tradition, which has regarded the novel as a lawful instrument of social propaganda. The Forsyte Saga is a history of three generations of the Forsyte family from the eighties of the 19th century up to the twenties of the 20th century. The Man of Property shows two successive generations of a rich upper-middle-class family at the end of the 19th century. It is a social novel: the author shows the Forsyte family as a small unit of English upper-middle-class society of his own time. The Forsytes possess all the features typical of their class as a whole, and they have to obey the laws which govern it. He who dares to disobey these laws is ostracized by society. Characteristic features of the Forsytes are extreme individualism, egoism, an ability never to give themselves away, contempt for everything foreign, a strong sense of property, money worship, tenacity, snobbery, practicality. The collision between the sense of property and money worship on the one hand, and true love and a keen sense of beauty, on the other hand, motivates the plot of the novel Soames Forsyte- the man of property- is the main character of the novel. He is an embodiment of the spirit of society where the cult of property rules the world. He is sure that everything in the world can be bought with money. He regards not only his pictures, houses and investments as his property but even his wife… Enjoy free online English audiobook “The Forsyte Saga”, a novel by John Galsworthy.
