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Scribner Book Company

Darkness at Noon: A Novel

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Description

The newly discovered lost text of Arthur Koestler’s modern masterpiece, Darkness at Noon—the haunting portrait of a revolutionary, imprisoned and tortured under totalitarian rule—is now restored and in a completely new translation. Editor Michael Scammell and translator Philip Boehm bring us a brilliant novel, a remarkable discovery, and a new translation of an international classic. In print continually since 1940, Darkness at Noon has been translated into over 30 languages and is both a stirring novel and a classic anti-fascist text. What makes its popularity and tenacity even more remarkable is that all existing versions of Darkness at Noon are based on a hastily made English translation of the original German by a novice translator at the outbreak of World War II. In 2015, Matthias Weßel stumbled across an entry in the archives of the Zurich Central Library that is a scholar's dream: “Koestler, Arthur. Rubaschow: Roman. Typoskript, März 1940, 326 pages.” What he had found was Arthur Koestler’s original, complete German manuscript for what would become Darkness at Noon, thought to have been irrevocably lost in the turmoil of the war. With this stunning literary discovery, and a new English translation direct from the primary German manuscript, we can now for the first time read Darkness at Noon as Koestler wrote it. Set in the 1930s at the height of the purge and show trials of a Stalinist Moscow, Darkness at Noon is a haunting portrait of an aging revolutionary, Nicholas Rubashov, who is imprisoned, tortured, and forced through a series of hearings 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 betrayals of a merciless totalitarian movement masking itself as an instrument of deliverance. Koestler’s portrayal of Stalin-era totalitarianism and fascism is as chilling and resonant today as it was in the 1940s and during the Cold War. Rubashov’s plight explores the meaning and value of moral choices, the attractions and dangers of idealism, and the corrosiveness of political corruption. Like The Trial, 1984, and Animal Farm, this is a book you should read as a citizen of the world, wherever you are and wherever you come from. Read more

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Scribner; Reprint edition (September 17, 2019)


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Paperback ‏ : ‎ 272 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1501161318


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 15


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.9 x 8.38 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #49,442 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #911 in Psychological Fiction (Books) #1,745 in Classic Literature & Fiction #4,083 in Literary Fiction (Books)


#911 in Psychological Fiction (Books):


#1,745 in Classic Literature & Fiction:


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Top Amazon Reviews

    • "1984" in 1938
I'm afraid to read anything else by Arthur Koestler. "Darkness at Noon," his excellent novel about an aging revolutionary awaiting a show-trial and execution in Stalin's Soviet Union, is so thoroughly compelling and readable, alive with ideas and general brilliance, and so widely recognized as Koestler's masterpiece, that I fear his other books will be disappointing by comparison. This, on the other hand, may well be my favorite book. Ever. Despite the fact that my "to-read" pile is a paper stalagmite that grows faster than I can chip away at it, I ripped through this one twice in under six months, and if I were somehow locked in the bathroom with only this on the toilet tank, and forced to start it a third time--I can't imagine this actually happening, but bear with me here--I can't say I'd be all that disappointed. This reads like "1984," but it preceded Orwell's book, and presumably greatly influenced it. More importantly, although the real 1984 eventually rolled around to make Orwell's dystopia seem at least somewhat absurd (in execution, if not idea and desire), this still feels incredibly realistic. And scarily, this is more relevant to today's America. While our level of freedom and political discourse may be completely different than that of Stalin's Soviet Union, the methods they used would not be unfamiliar in Guantanamo or Abu Grahib--or in some police precincts. Not the shrill and scary tactics of "1984," but the soft and simple: psychological games, sleep deprivation, and the like. Sleep deprivation may seem downright kind in the pantheon of torture, and I'm sure it starts off relatively innocuously--"They're terrorists, they're criminals, so why should we coddle them? Why should they get a good night's sleep?"--but any tactic whereby one compels the body to betray the mind is torture. And the sad thing is that torture doesn't work. Forget all the crazy ticking time-bomb scenarios, the fact is simple. Torture. Doesn't. Work. It does not provide reliable information or accurate confessions. And this book shows why. Rubashov, kept up for days on end, becomes willing to say or do anything for a few blessed moments of sleep. He will sell himself out. He will say anything. He will lie. The strange peculiarity of Soviet Russia is that the victim and the torturers both know these lies are lies. But he says them, and they listen, because they both have their roles to play. The show trial is not really a trial. It is only a show. But the great thing about "Darkness at Noon" is that it isn't just a polemic about tactics or a lesson about history; it is a powerful meditation on good and evil, and the extent to which we allow the latter in the short term because we believe it will somehow help us get the former in the long term. One reads this and feels sympathy not just for Rubashov, but for his interrogators, because they grapple with a timeless question: can we, and should we, make today difficult and imperfect and unjust for the sake of a better tomorrow? This is a weighty question, and the book abounds with such meditations: like Dostoyevsky's works--to which it is clearly in debt--it is a philosophical novel with true weight and depth. In "The Grand Inquisitor", one of the most famous chapters in literature, Dostoyevsky concocts a prison scene in which the head of the Spanish Inquisition discourses to Jesus on why the Church felt it necessary to behave in ways contrary to Jesus' teachings. And this book feels like "The Grand Inquisitor" writ large. Though it revolves around ideology instead of religion, the effect is similar--disciples explaining to the master why they needed to stray, why they needed to corrupt and pervert their beliefs in order to save them from external enemies, why they needed to destroy the movement in order to save it. On this and many other issues, Rubashov ponders but--importantly--does not always come up with clear answers. "How can one change the world if one identifies oneself with everybody?" he muses early on, then asks, "How else can one change it? He who understands and forgives--where would he find a motive to act? Where would he not?" I don't think Koestler wants to give us answers. Like the best artists, he's not so much interested in telling us what to think as he is in making us think. It's not always about finding answers; it's about remembering to ask questions. And that's something we need to remember today. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2008 by Brenn
    • Darkness at Noon
Excellent book.
Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2024 by Sonia Soares
    • A disturbing, yet essential book
I just finished reading Darkness at Noon, a 1940 novel by the late Hungarian-British author Arthur Koestler. It's a disturbing, yet essential, book for anyone who wants to understand the dark side of political orthodoxy and human behavior. Set in Russian during the Stalinist purges of the late 1930's, Darkness at Noon tells the story of the fictional character , Rubashov, a hero of the 1917 revolution and one of the founders of the Communist state. As Stalin (simply referred to as" No. 1" in the book) tightens his grip on power and eliminates all of the old guard, Rubashov is arrested, interrogated and tried for treason and other crimes against the revolution. He relives his life through flashbacks of those he has had exterminated over his career for petty failings, failure to strictly adhere to the party line, and, in one case, to protect himself from accusation. Now a victim of his own methods Rubashov takes an introspective look at his life, his party, his philosophy and the meaning of it all. The book portrays Communism as it was practiced in Stalin's era as philosophically empty. The party exists and acts only for self-preservation. Everything else, even - especially - the stated goals of the revolution become secondary to that end. This is how the Party can justify the extermination of millions to starvation, the prison like conditions that peasants must work under and the utter disregard for the truth that is practiced at every turn. Any thought, deed or mistake that disagrees with the orthodoxy of the day is cause for suspicion -- or worse. Koestler, the author, is an interesting person; I suggest reading up on him on the Internet. This book of his is one of the most important books of the 20th century. It exposed the Communist Party for the corrupt entity it was. By the way, it also was a great influence in a later work by a fellow named George Orwell. That book? 1984. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2010 by Gary M. Scoggin

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