?The dark flower of thwarted passion lies at the heart of John Galsworthy's compelling masterpiece. The Dark Flower tells of thirty troubled years in the life and loves of Mark Lennan. It was first published in 1913, portraying a world unwittingly at the end of an era. The wider social and political upheavals of the early twentieth century are intertwined with Lennan's personal travails. In the first dozen pages, Galsworthy establishes his mastery of narrative and draws the reader into a plot which takes on a momentum of its own. It is hard to think of another novelist who explores a lover's heart so poignantly and sustainedly.