Darkness at Noon: A Novel

Arthur Koestler

Scribner, Nov 24, 2009 - Fiction - 288 pages

Originally published in 1941, Arthur Koestler's modern masterpiece, Darkness At Noon, is a powerful and haunting portrait of a Communist revolutionary caught in the vicious fray of the Moscow show trials of the late 1930s.

During Stalin's purges, Nicholas Rubashov, an aging revolutionary, is imprisoned and psychologically tortured by the party he has devoted his life to. Under mounting pressure to confess to crimes he did not commit, Rubashov relives a career that embodies the ironies and betrayals of a revolutionary dictatorship that believes it is an instrument of liberation.

A seminal work of twentieth-century literature, Darkness At Noon is a penetrating exploration of the moral danger inherent in a system that is willing to enforce its beliefs by any means necessary.

What people are saying

Review: Darkness at Noon

User Review  - Zadignose - Goodreads

An excellent book. Two good things about it: First, it avoids the temptation to be too clever. Rather, it remains sincere. I anticipated several ways that the book could have gone wrong, for the sake ...

Review: Darkness at Noon

User Review  - Jeffrey Keeten - Goodreads

”This is a diseased century. We diagnosed the disease and its causes with microscopic exactness, but wherever we applied the healing knife a new sore appeared. Our will was hard and pure, we should ...

About the author

Born in Budapest in 1905, educated in Vienna, Arthur Koestler immersed himself in the major ideological and social conflicts of his time. A communist during the 1930s, and visitor for a time in the Soviet Union, he became disillusioned with the Party and left it in 1938.  Later that year in Spain, he was captured by the Fascist forces under Franco, and sentenced to death. Released through the last-minute intervention of the British government, he went to France where, the following year, he again was arrested for his political views.  Released in 1940, he went to England, where he made his home. His novels, reportage, autobiographical works, and political and cultural writings established him as an important commentator on the dilemmas of the 20th century. He died in 1983.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Darkness at Noon: A Novel
• Author: Arthur Koestler
• Publisher: Scribner, 2009
• ISBN: 1439188459, 9781439188453
• Length: 288 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Classics; Fiction / General