The Man of Property (1906), the opening novel of John Galsworthy's The Forsyte Saga, portrays the upper-middle-class Forsyte family in Victorian England. Soames Forsyte, a wealthy and possessive solicitor, regards everything—including his beautiful wife Irene—as his property. Unhappy in her marriage, Irene falls in love with the architect Philip Bosinney, who is engaged to June, Soames's cousin. As Bosinney designs a country house for Soames, financial disputes and jealous passion collide, culminating in tragedy and scandal. Through the Forsytes, Galsworthy sharply critiques the possessive instinct, materialism, and moral hypocrisy of the propertied class of his era.
