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This will surely remain the last word on the simple facts of Galsworthy's life and writings, and therein lie the book's merits and defects. Gindin succumbs to the temptation to catalog endlessly the minutiae of his subject's career. Chapter after chapter recount a few months of travel, the progress of a novel or play, a plot summary, a critical analysis, and the work's public and private reception. Since Galsworthy published 35 books, the reader's patience is exhausted long before 600 pages have been consumed. Dwarfed by Lawrence, Joyce, and Woolf, the author of "The Forsyte Saga" doesn't deserve such massive documentation. For subject collections only; general readers will want to avoid this book's soporific effects. Michael Edmonds, State Historical Soc. of Wisconsin Lib., MadisonCopyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.