The figure at the heart of the drama is Soames, a thirtyish member of the younger generation of Forsyte cousins who is the 'man of property' of the title, his most prized possession being his slightly younger wife Irene. It makes for an easy read that translates well to screenplays. More importantly, it pushes the plot contradictions forward. The civilized, unaffected English sounds like how those characters would speak, while bringing out the suppressed emotions under their calm exteriors. As an accomplished playwright, Galsworthy is a dab hand at dialogue. This interaction is, to a great degree, carried by simple conversation. We get everything we need from the interaction of the characters. There is little narration about what is going on. The story continues to advance by scenes. We can imagine a movie camera swooping around the rooms, lingering on a bit of dialogue here, catching a discreet reaction there.

He quickly moves around the stage, bringing on characters to play their large or small roles, keeping the viewers'-I mean, readers'-interest at a peak, as we gobble up small juicy bits in the relations and start piecing together the larger story. Born twenty years later he might have become a screenwriter. This trick draws on Galsworthy's first calling as a playwright. At little more than a dozen pages, it is a compressed master class in introducing myriad characters, noting their individual and shared worlds, while also easing into the main points of conflict that will come to dominate the narrative. The chapter that kicks it all off, ''At Home' at Old Jolyon's', gathers the entire Forsyte clan at the eldest brother's home. In The Man of Property and the other novels and stories making up the Saga, Galsworthy creates wonderful scenes that cry out for cinematic treatment.

Despite concerning itself with what might be considered dull, off-putting topics for a modern audience-the personal travails of an exclusive, upper-class family in Victorian and Edwardian England-the exposition is accessible and engaging, much like in a well-directed film. John Galsworthy's best-known work has been repeatedly adapted for other media because his writing lends itself so well to dramatic interpretation. The adaptations have enchanted everyone who followed them, most of whom have likely never read the books.īut this is actually a compliment to the books' author. It is difficult to separate The Forsyte Saga from the justly acclaimed films and television series that have been based on it. CRITIQUE | THE TEXT The Forsytes take the stage

The forsyte saga author