In Chancery by John Galsworthy

In this, the second book of the Forsyte Saga, Galsworthy continues his look at an upper-middle class family in late Victorian England, concentrating mainly on the doings of Soames Forsyte and his wife Irene. At the end of book one, The Man of Property, Irene had left her husband after he raped her. This book begins twelve years later, when Soames comes to feel that he needs a son to inherit all the wealth he has so lovingly accumulated. He decides to seek a divorce so that he may remarry, but when he meets his former wife again his old passion is reawakened, and he begins to stalk her to browbeat her into coming back to him. When his first cousin, young Jolyon, helps Irene to escape from him, a family feud begins which will surely extend through the generations.

All of this sounds rather like a standard soap opera, but Galsworthy's extraordinary writing talent makes it so much more. It is also a picture of changing times in attitudes toward standards of conduct and of the roles and rights of women. Soames, who could have been portrayed in an entirely unfavorable light, is afforded a measure of sympathy as a man who has been shaped by his country's and his family's viewpoints concerning the importance of reputation and property who is thus entirely bewildered when his former wife refuses to conform to his wishes, even though she tells him she detests him.

Galsworthy is a wonder of a writer. I look forward to the final installment in the Forsyte Saga.