The Forsyte Saga

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Thoroughly recommended - Rated
This is a terrific read, and has some of that mysterious alchemy which typifies the real page turner - as opposed to those books you just slog through because you want to get to the end. There are many more Forsytes than in the recent excellent television adaptation, but Galsworthy is extremely skilled at bringing them in and out of focus and reminding you who is who, as his narrative requires. If you do get confused, there is a useful (and witty) family tree at the front of the book, but be careful: you might find out who gets married and who dies before you want to.

In its use of late Victorian and early Edwardian slang, it is fascinating (who knew for example, that 'attractive' in the sexual/aesthetic sense attained that usage c.1890 and was no longer felt to be current by 1920?). Soames must be one of the great characters of modern fiction - 'mousing' along on the shady side of the street - since he is simultaneously reprehensible, forlorn and rather tragic. A number of the scenes featuring confrontations between him and Irene seem to me to be as rivetingly dramatic as those between Angelo and Isabella in Measure for Measure.

What a relief to read a book that has not been 'introduced' and annotated to death. True, there is the odd sentence which is so steeped in the time it was written as to be difficult to decipher, but this is more than balanced out by the lack of distraction - no irritating scattering of asterisks! - as well as by a real sense of the past set before us, strange and partly unfamiliar as it should be.