Famed English playwright and novelist John Galworthy, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1932, first gained critical and popular acclaim for a series of novels and short stories called The Forsyte Saga, which followed multiple generations of a nouveau riche family of aristocrats. Fraternity focuses on the intricate dynamics of family relationships and romantic entanglements, rendered in Galsworthy's inimitably nuanced style. Joseph Conrad, himself considered a master of prose, described the experience of reading the book as a kind of pilgrimage, "a long and breathless ascent on a commanding summit in view of the promised land."