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Darkness at Noon
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Darkness at Noon Hardcover -

by Arthur Koestler


About this book

Darkness at Noon, by Hungarian-born British writer Arthur Koestler, is the tale of Rubashov, an Old Bolshevik who is arrested, imprisoned, and tried for treason against the government that he had helped to create. The novel is understood as an allegory to the USSR in 1938, the Great Purge, and the Moscow Trials. However, the text never mentions the Soviet Union or Russia (just “Country of the Revolution” and “Over There”) or Joseph Stalin (only “Number One,” a menacing dictator). Perhaps the lack of specific references is Koestler’s way of making the story seem more universal, but it’s clear he has in mind actual places, people, and events.

Koestler was actually a proponent of Marxism-Leninism until Stalin’s 1938 Purge and the signing of the Nazi-Soviet pact. Afterwards, he edited an anti-Hitler, anti-Stalin newspaper. Koestler wrote the novel in German while living in Paris, from where he escaped in 1940 just before the Nazi troops arrived. Darkness at Noon owes its publication to the decision of sculptor Daphne Hardy, Koestler’s lover in Paris, to translate the text into English before she herself escaped.

Koestler wrote Darkness at Noon as the second part of a trilogy; the first volume is The Gladiators (1939), first published in Hungarian. It is a novel about the subversion of the Spartacus revolt. The third novel is Arrival and Departure (1943), about a refugee during World War II. By then living in London, Koestler wrote the third in English.

In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Darkness at Noon number eight on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Sidney Kingsley adapted it for Broadway in 1951.    

From the publisher

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 We el stumbled across an entry in the archives of the Zurich Central Library that is a scholar's dream: "Koestler, Arthur. Rubaschow: Roman. Typoskript, Mrz 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.

First Edition Identification

Jonathan Cape published the first English edition of Darkness at Noon — translated by Daphne Hardy — in London in 1940.

Details

  • Title Darkness at Noon
  • Author Arthur Koestler
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Pages 272
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Scribner Book Company
  • ISBN 9781982123734 / 1982123737
  • Weight 0.79 lbs (0.36 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.38 x 5.5 x 1 in (21.29 x 13.97 x 2.54 cm)
  • Library of Congress subjects Totalitarianism, Political prisoners
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2019018703
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC
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Darkness at Noon: A Novel
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Darkness at Noon: A Novel

by Koestler, Arthur

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Darkness at Noon

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Darkness at Noon
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Darkness at Noon

by Arthur Koestler

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ISBN 10
1982123737
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Darkness at Noon
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Darkness at Noon

by Koestler, Arthur

  • Used
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  • Hardcover
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Used - Very Good
Binding
Hardcover
ISBN 13
9781982123734
ISBN 10
1982123737
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Seattle, Washington, United States
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Scribner Book Company, 2019. Hardcover. Very Good. May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed.
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Darkness at Noon
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Darkness at Noon

by Koestler, Arthur

  • Used
  • good
  • Hardcover
Condition
Used - Good
Binding
Hardcover
ISBN 13
9781982123734
ISBN 10
1982123737
Quantity Available
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Seattle, Washington, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 4 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
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£13.94
FREE shipping to USA

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Description:
Scribner Book Company, 2019. Hardcover. Good. Missing dust jacket; Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed.
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£13.94
FREE shipping to USA
Darkness at Noon
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Darkness at Noon

by Koestler, Arthur

  • Used
  • good
  • Hardcover
Condition
Used - Good
Binding
Hardcover
ISBN 13
9781982123734
ISBN 10
1982123737
Quantity Available
2
Seller
Seattle, Washington, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 4 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£13.94
FREE shipping to USA

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Description:
Scribner Book Company, 2019. Hardcover. Good. Former library book; Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed.
Item Price
£13.94
FREE shipping to USA
Darkness at Noon

Darkness at Noon

by Koestler, Arthur

  • Used
  • good
  • Hardcover
Condition
Used - Good
Binding
Hardcover
ISBN 13
9781982123734
ISBN 10
1982123737
Quantity Available
1
Seller
Seattle, Washington, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 4 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£13.94
FREE shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
Scribner Book Company, 2019. Hardcover. Good. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed.
Item Price
£13.94
FREE shipping to USA