This splendid novel is set in the tumultuous Soviet Union of the 1930s during the treason trials. Rubashov, the protagonist and a hero of the revolution, is arrested and jailed for things he has not done, though there is much about the current Soviet state that veered from his ideals as a revolutionary. His investigators, Ivanov and Gletkin, seek a public confession and interrogate him using a number of methods. Through the ordeal, Rubashov reaches an epiphany or two while his interrogators suffer the cruel fate of the Soviet machine. Darkness at Noon succeeds as political/historical novel, but even more so as a refreshing tale of the human spirit.


The New York Times Book Review, Harold Strauss
It is the sort of novel that transcends ordinary limitations ... written with such dramatic power, with such warmth of feeling, and with such persuasive simplicity that it is as absorbing as melodrama.


Language Notes
Text: English (translation)


The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature
Novel by Arthur Koestler, published in 1940. The action is set during Stalin's purge trials of the 1930s and concerns Nicholas Rubashov, an old-guard Bolshevik who at first denies, then confesses to, crimes that he has not committed. Reflecting Koestler's own disenchantment with communism, the plot examines the dilemma of an aging revolutionary who can no longer condone the excesses of a regime he helped establish. The book is a powerful examination of the moral danger inherent in a system that is willing to employ any means to an end.


From the Publisher
Darkness At Noon stands as an unequaled fictional portrayal of the nightmare politics of our time. Its hero is an aging revolutionary, imprisoned and psychologically tortured 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 human betrayals of a totalitarian movement masking itself as an instrument of deliverance. Almost unbearably vivid in its depiction of one man's solitary agony, Darkness At Noon asks questions about ends and means that have relevance not only for the past but for the perilous present. It is--as the Times Literary Supplement has declared--"A remarkable book, a grimly fascinating interpretation of the logic of the Russian Revolution, indeed of all revolutionary dictatorships, and at the same time a tense and subtly intellectualized drama..."


From the Inside Flap
Darkness At Noon stands as an  unequaled fictional portrayal of the nightmare  politics of our time. Its hero is an aging  revolutionary, imprisoned and psychologically tortured 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 human betrayals of a totalitarian  movement masking itself as an instrument of  deliverance. Almost unbearably vivid in its depiction of  one man's solitary agony, Darkness At  Noon asks questions about ends and means  that have relevance not only for the past but for  the perilous present. It is--as the  Times Literary Supplement has declared--"A  remarkable book, a grimly fascinating  interpretation of the logic of the Russian Revolution, indeed  of all revolutionary dictatorships, and at the  same time a tense and subtly intellectualized  drama..."

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Darkness At Noon stands as an unequaled fictional portrayal of the nightmare politics of our time. Its hero is an aging revolutionary, imprisoned and psychologically tortured 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 human betrayals of a totalitarian movement masking itself as an instrument of deliverance. Almost unbearably vivid in its depiction of one man's solitary agony, Darkness At Noon asks questions about ends and means that have relevance not only for the past but for the perilous present. It is—as the Times Literary Supplement has declared—"A remarkable book, a grimly fascinating interpretation of the logic of the Russian Revolution, indeed of all revolutionary dictatorships, and at the same time a tense and subtly intellectualized drama..."

FROM THE CRITICS

Times Literary Supplement

A remarkable book, a grimly fascinating interpretation of the logic of the Russian Revolution, indeed of all revolutionary dictatorships, and at the same time a tense and subtly intellectualized drama.

Harold Strauss