The Man of Property

book cover

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Main characters

Soames Forsyte Irene Bosinney

• movie photo

• ( Ioan Gruffud as Bosinney, Damian as• Soames and Gina McKee as Irene)

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Summary

• The central figure in this novel is Soames Forsyte whose sole aim of life is the accumulation of wealth. His young and beautiful wife Irene who is 20 years of his junior, on the contrary, loves art and cherishes noble ideals of life. Irene feels quite unhappy about her marriage because Soames never pays any attention to her feelings and thoughts, but takes her only as part of his property.

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• In order to please Irene, Soames asks Bosinney, a young architect, to build a country house for him. Bosinney is engaged to June Forsyte, the daughter of “young Jolyon” Forsyte. During the designing and building of the house, Irene and Bosinney become more and more attracted to each other because of common interest in art. They fall in love with each other and rumours arise. Soames tries to have his revenge by suing Bosinney for spending more money than stipulated. The conflict of the triangle ends with the tragic death of Bosinney in a car accident and Irene's leaving Soames for good.

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Themes

• Through the description of the money-making world of the Forsytes and its effect upon the personal relationships of the family, the writer exposes to us the oppressive nature of the property instinct of the bourgeoisie and observes that human relationships of the contemporary English society are merely controlled by property relationships.

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