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.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
Fiction is rarely as good as reality:
I had recently read Gulag Archipelago which I thought was magnificent. As so many reviews recommended this book by Koestler, I decided to read it. It held my attention, but I did not find it eye-opening. And the rather long and convoluted "justifications of bad behavior" put into the mouth of examiner Ivanov I found artificial and tedious. I guess it would be interesting to a sociologist, which Koestler was. It would have been much more interesting to me to read what Koestler experienced himself, at first... more info
Novel of Ideas:
"Darkness at Noon" is one of those books that stays in your mind long after you put it down. I first read it more than 30 years ago when I was a high school student reading "serious" books for the first time. It just knocked me over. It raised questions about personal morality and the ends of politics that made other authors I was reading at the time (such as Ayn Rand) seem incredibly shallow. I loved it. Recently I read the book again to see if it was as good as I remembered. It's actually even... more info
"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... more info
Psychological Examination of Stalinist Show Trials:
Set during the Stalinist purges and show trials, `Darkness at Noon' presents a fictionalized account of the interrogation and breaking of a (former) communist leader `Rubashov'. Under Stalin, 'former communists' were limited to those persons about to be executed, already executed, or waiting to be uncovered. As an original Bolshevik, a leader of the 1917 revolution, Rubashov's disillusionment was simply inadmissible to Number One (as Stalin is referred to by Koestler). Koestler explores the journey of... more info
