"Two households, both alike in dignity...." I ask you, could the novel, of which this quotation is the text, have been written by anyone but Mr. JOHN GALSWORTHY? Actually indeed the disputants belong to two branches of the same family, that grim tribe of _Forsytes_, whom you remember in _The Man of Property_, and of whose collective history the present book is a further instalment (not, I fancy, the last). I should certainly advise anyone not already familiar with the former work to get up his _Forsytes_ therein before attacking this; otherwise he may risk some discouragement from the plunge into so numerous a clan, known for the most part only by Christian names, with their complex relationships and the mass of bygone happenings that unites or separates them. This stage of the tribal history is called _In Chancery_ (HEINEMANN), chiefly from the state of suspended animation experienced by the now middle-aged _Soames_ ("Man of Property") with regard to his never-divorced runaway wife _Irene_. Following the ruling _Forsyte_ instinct, _Soames_ wants a son who will keep together and even increase his great possessions, while continuing his personality. The expiring generation, represented by _James_, is urgent upon this duty to the family. You may imagine what Mr. GALSWORTHY makes of it all. These possessive persons, with their wealth, their hatred and affections and their various strongholds in the more eminently desirable parts of residential London, affect one like portions of some monstrous stone-fronted edifice, impressive but repellent. I have some curiosity to see, with Mr. GALSWORTHY'S help, how the _Forsyte_ castle stands the disintegration of 1914-18. * * * * *