Darkness at Noon

by Arthur Koestler, Daphne Hardy (Translator)

Overview

Darkness At Noon stands as an unequaled fictional portrayal of the nightmare politics of our time. Its hero is an aging revolutionary, imprisoned and psychologically tortured by the Party to which he has dedicated his life. As the pressure to confess preposterous crimes increases, he re-lives a career that embodies the terrible ironies and human betrayals of a totalitarian movement masking itself as an instrument of deliverance. Almost unbearably vivid in its depiction of one man's solitary agony, Darkness At Noon asks questions about ends and means that have relevance not only for the past but for the perilous present. It is—as the Times Literary Supplement has declared—"A remarkable book, a grimly fascinating interpretation of the logic of the Russian Revolution, indeed of all revolutionary dictatorships, and at the same time a tense and subtly intellectualized drama..."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781416540267
Publisher:	Scribner
Publication date:	10/17/2006
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Arthur Koestler (1905-1983) was a Hungarian-British author and journalist who immersed himself in the major ideological and social conflicts of his time. In 1931 Koestler joined the Communist Party of Germany until, disillusioned by Stalinism, he resigned in 1938. In 1940 he published his novel Darkness at Noon, an anti-totalitarian work that gained him international fame. Over the course of his life, Koestler espoused many political causes. His novels, reportage, autobiographical works, and political and cultural writings established him as an important commentator on the dilemmas of the twentieth century.

Read an Excerpt

Darkness at Noon

A Novel

---

By Arthur Koestler

Scribner

Copyright © 2006 Arthur Koestler
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9781416540267

---

The First Hearing

Nobody can rule guiltlessly.

-- Saint-Just

Chapter One

The cell door slammed behind Rubashov.

He remained leaning against the door for a few seconds, and lit a cigarette. On the bed to his right lay two fairly clean blankets, and the straw mattress looked newly filled. The wash-basin to his left had no plug, but the tap functioned. The can next to it had been freshly disinfected, it did not smell. The walls on both sides were of solid brick, which would stifle the sound of tapping, but where the heating and drain pipe penetrated it, it had been plastered and resounded quite well; besides, the heating pipe itself seemed to be noise-conducting. The window started at eye level; one could see down into the courtyard without having to pull oneself up by the bars. So far everything was in order.

He yawned, took off his coat, rolled it up and put it on the mattress as a pillow. He looked out into the yard. The snow shimmered yellow in the double light of the moon and the electric lanterns. All round the yard, along the walls, a narrow track had been cleared for the daily exercise. Dawn had not yet appeared; the stars still shone clear and frostily, in spite of the lanterns. Onthe rampart of the outside wall, which lay opposite Rubashov's cell, a soldier with slanted rifle was marching the hundred steps up and down; he stamped at every step as if on parade. From time to time the yellow light of the lanterns flashed on his bayonet.

Rubashov took his shoes off, still standing at the window. He put out his cigarette, laid the stump on the floor at the end of his bedstead, and remained sitting on the mattress for a few minutes. He went back to the window once more. The courtyard was still; the sentry was just turning; above the machine-gun tower he saw a streak of the Milky Way.

Rubashov stretched himself on the bunk and wrapped himself in the top blanket. It was five o'clock and it was unlikely that one had to get up here before seven in the winter. He was very sleepy and, thinking it over, decided that he would hardly be brought up for examination for another three or four days. He took his pince-nez off, laid it on the stone-paved floor next to the cigarette stump, smiled and shut his eyes. He was warmly wrapped up in the blanket, and felt protected; for the first time in months he was not afraid of his dreams.

When a few minutes later the warder tuned the light off from outside, and looked through the spy-hole into his cell, Rubashov, ex-Commissar of the People, slept, his back turned to the wall, with his head on his outstretched left arm, which stuck stiffly out of the bed; only the hand on the end of it hung loosely and twitched in his sleep.

Copyright © 1941 by The Macmillan Company

Copyright renewed © 1968 by Mrs. F. H. K. Henries (Daphne Hardy)

Continues...

---

Excerpted from Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler Copyright © 2006 by Arthur Koestler. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---

Table of Contents

Contents

The First Hearing

The Second Hearing

The Third Hearing

The Grammatical Fiction

Editorial Reviews

"One of the few books written in this epoch which will survive it."
— New Statesman (UK)

"It is the sort of novel that transcends ordinary limitations. Written with such dramatic power, with such warmth of feeling, and with such persuasive simplicity that it is as absorbing as melodrama."
— The New York Times Book Review

"A rare and beautifully executed novel."
— New York Herald Tribune

"A remarkable book. A grimly fascinating interpretation of the logic of the Russian revolution, indeed of all revolutionary dictatorships, and at the same time a tense and subtly intellectualized drama."
— The Times Literary Supplement (London)

From the Publisher

It is the sort of novel that transcends ordinary limitations, and that may be read as a primary discourse in political philosophy. It is a far cry from the bleak topical commmentaries that sometimes pass as novels. The magic effect of Darkness at Noon is its magnificant tragic irony.-- Books of the Century; New York Times review, May 1941

Harold Strauss

A remarkable book, a grimly fascinating interpretation of the logic of the Russian Revolution, indeed of all revolutionary dictatorships, and at the same time a tense and subtly intellectualized drama.

Times Literary Supplement

Darkness at Noon still lives as a study of fear and victimhood, of state brutality, of unjust imprisonment, of interrogation and forced confession.

The Guardian (UK)

"What makes Darkness at Noon such an enduring artistic work is Koestler’s firsthand knowledge of his source material."

Acton Commentary

"The translation itself shines. It is a smooth, gripping read, and contains passages inserted after Hardy’s translation was made, which now appear in English for the first time...This is a valuable translation of a novel that continues to enthrall."

Los Angeles Review of Books - Maya Chhabra

"A rare and beautifully executed novel."

New York Herald Tribune

"Koestler demonstrates you needn't sacrifice prose for ideas...This is a book that needs to be read...This is a story that everyone needs to know, one that cuts to the heart of what it means to be a prisoner without rights."

Bookslut - Michael Schaub

"Its central theme will probably always seem timely, because every political creed must eventually face the question of whether noble ends can justify evil means...a subversive book even today.

The New Yorker - Adam Kirsch

"Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon was one of the most influential novels of the 20th century, and the 20th century would have been a better century had it been more influential still."

Wall Street Journal - Andrew Stuttaford

"Koestler’s novel is worth reading (or rereading). It shows how easily a smart person can justify monstrous acts."

Foreign Policy - Nancy Updike

Arthur Koestler "left behind him a body of work that will always be absorbing and challenging to anyone who admires men of principle or who enjoys the battle of ideas for its own sake."

Slate - Christopher Hitchens

"One of the few books written in this epoch which will survive it."

New Statesman (UK)

"It is the sort of novel that transcends ordinary limitations...written with such dramatic power, with such warmth of feeling, and with such persuasive simplicity...The magic effect of Darkness at Noon is its magnificent tragic irony."

The New York Times Book Review

"A remarkable book, a grimly fascinating interpretation of the logic of the Russian Revolution, indeed of all revolutionary dictatorships, and at the same time a tense and subtly intellectualized drama."

Times Literary Supplement (UK)

"There is nothing stilted about the new Darkness at Noon. It is a seamless, chilling book about the demands ideology makes on truth."

Air Mail - Aatish Taseer

"A remarkable book. A grimly fascinating interpretation of the logic of the Russian revolution, indeed of all revolutionary dictatorships, and at the same time a tense and subtly intellectualized drama."

The Times Literary Supplement (London)

"Among the first former communists to expose the horror lurking behind the ideology's promise of utopia was the Hungarian-born British journalist Arthur Koestler. His Darkness at Noon (1941) is perhaps the greatest anticommunist novel of all time: at once a warning about the nature of the Soviet regime, issued at a time when few in the West wanted to hear it, and a grand novel of ideas in the tradition of Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Thomas Mann."

The Wall Street Journal