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Darkness At Noon
by Arthur Koestler
- Used
- Hardcover
- Signed
- Condition
- Very Good+
- Seller
-
Cape Town, South Africa
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Pennsylvania: The Franklin Library. Very Good+. 1979. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Special signed edition, part of the 60 limited edition series published between 1977 and 1982. Beautifully bound in leather with gilt letter and design in 22kt gold and printed on archival paper with gilt edges. The end sheets are of moire silk fabric with a silk marker sewn in, still in the original position. VG+ book with only issue being some foxing / duststaining at the top and fore edge and a few spots internally. Leather binding in fine condition. Tight binding, unread book ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 238 pages; Signed by Author .
Synopsis
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.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Rare Collections
(ZA)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 1398
- Title
- Darkness At Noon
- Author
- Arthur Koestler
- Illustrator
- George Roth
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good+
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- Limited Edition
- Publisher
- The Franklin Library
- Place of Publication
- Pennsylvania
- Date Published
- 1979
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About the Seller
Rare Collections
Biblio member since 2021
Cape Town
About Rare Collections
Rare Collections formed as a celebration of passion. A passion for the printed word, for history, for rare finds and new adventures. We're a two-person company with a focus in Audubon, Fantasy, Fine Press, Illustrated Books, John Updike, Limited Editions Club, Modern First Editions, Science Fiction, and Signed Books.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Fore Edge
- The portion of a book that is opposite the spine. That part of a book which faces the wall when shelved in a traditional...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- Edges
- The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
- Good+
- A term used to denote a condition a slight grade better than Good.
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
- Tight
- Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.
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