THE FORSYTE SAGA by John Galsworthy
THE FORSYTE SAGA by John Galsworthy THE AUTHOR John Galsworthy (1867-1933), British playwright and novelist, was born to wealthy parents in Surrey, England. He studied law at Oxford, but soon left the practice to travel with his family’s shipping business. While in Australia he met Joseph Conrad, who at the time was still a sailor, and the two became close friends. His first published work was a book of short stories entitled From the Four Winds (1897), but his reputation was established through his plays, the first of which was The Silver Box (1906), followed later by Strife (1909) and The Skin Game (1920). In 1906 he also published the first of the novels on which his fame today is largely based, The Man of Property, the first of three novels and two interludes that make up The Forsyte Saga. This was eventually followed by Indian Summer of a Forsyte (1918), In Chancery (1920), Awakening (1920), and To Let (1921). He continued the tale of the Forsyte clan in two more trilogies, A Modern Comedy (1924-28) and End of the Chapter (1931-33). He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1932, weeks before his death from a brain tumor, largely on the strength of The Forsyte Saga. Galsworthy was a liberal in his politics and social views. In 1895, he began a ten-year affair with Ada Cooper, the wife of his cousin, and married her in 1905 after her divorce. They lived happily together until his death in 1933. In politics, Galsworthy championed social reform, including the rights of women, prisoners, and animals.
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