After DarkeReleased from prison after serving his sentence for the assisted death of his wife, his health failing and his chronic impatience exacerbated, Dr James Darke self isolates. But on his return, he understands that he is now a displaced person, lost in a new world for which his education and inclinations have not prepared him. Irascible, misanthropic, intensely bookish, fastidious in his tastes and rich enough to indulge them, Darke is a happy shut in,