The White Monkey by John Galsworthy (1924)

Nobel laureate (1932) John Galsworthy wrote nine novels about the English upper-middle-class Forsyte family. The first three together, collectively called The Forsyte Saga, take place around the turn of the 19th Century and tell the story of the unhappy marriage of Soames and Irene Forsyte and of the resulting family feud when they divorce and she marries his cousin. The White Monkey is the first of a second trilogy, collectively called A Modern Comedy, which focuses on Soames's daughter Fleur, the child of his second marriage.

While The Forsyte Saga brilliantly explores character and features an engrossing plot, this novel seems more concerned with portraying the sense of unease in England just following the First World War. Plot takes a back seat, with nothing much happening, really. Galsworthy peppers his dialogue with slang and jargon presumably current at the time, some of which is undecipherable for the modern reader. He includes many references to literary and artistic trends, with mentions of fictitious writers and artists that are apparently veiled references to actual people of the time. All of this probably made The White Monkey quite interesting to people in 1924, when it was published, but doesn't make it a very satisfying read for someone in 2016.

I will reserve further judgment until I have read the other books in the trilogy.