Darkness at Noon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Darkness at Noon | |
 Cover of Darkness at Noon |
|
| Author | Arthur Koestler |
|---|---|
| Language | German |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Bantam Books |
| Publication date | 1940 |
| Published in English |
1941 |
| Pages | 224 pp (paperback edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-553-26595-4 |
| Preceded by | The Gladiators |
| Followed by | Arrival and Departure |
Darkness at Noon is the most famous novel by Hungarian-born British novelist Arthur Koestler. Published in 1940, it tells the tale of Rubashov, a Bolshevik old guard and 1917 revolutionary who is first cast out and then imprisoned and tried for treason by the Soviet government he once helped create.
The novel is set in 1938 during the Stalinist purges and Moscow show trials. It reflects the author's personal disillusionment with Communism and Stalin's destruction of the revolution; Koestler knew some of the defendants at the Moscow trials. Although the characters have Russian names, neither Russia nor the Soviet Union are actually mentioned by name as the location of the book. Joseph Stalin is described as "Number One", a barely-seen and menacing totalitarian leader.
Due to Koestler's complex life, the novel was originally written in German and translated into English. However, the original German text has been lost, and German versions are back translations from English. Darkness at Noon is actually the second part of a trilogy, the first volume being The Gladiators about the subversion of the Spartacus revolt, and the third Arrival and Departure about a refugee in World War II. The Gladiators was originally written in Hungarian and Arrival and Departure in English. Of these two, only The Gladiators has had much success.
Contents |
[edit] Characters
Several inspirations have been suggested for Rubashov. According to George Orwell, "Rubashov might be called Trotsky, Bukharin, Rakovsky or some other relatively civilised figure among the Old Bolsheviks".[1]
Koestler arguably drew on his own experience of being imprisoned by Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War. Like Rubashov, he was in solitary confinement, expected to be executed, paced his cell constantly, was permitted to walk in the courtyard in the company of other prisoners, was not beaten himself but knew that others were beaten.
[edit] Influence
The French language title is Le Zéro et l'Infini, meaning "Zero and Infinity". Like "Darkness at Noon", it reflects Koestler's lifelong obsession with the meeting of opposites, and dialectics. The book sold over 400,000 copies in France.
American screenwriter and Communist Party USA member Dalton Trumbo openly bragged in the party periodical The Worker that he had prevented Darkness at Noon, among other anti-Stalinist books, from being produced into a Hollywood film.[2]
In 1954, at the end of a long inquiry and a show trial, Communist Romania sentenced to death former high-ranking member of the Romanian Communist Party and one-time government official Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu, on various charges.[3][4] According to his collaborator Belu Zilber — himself a victim of the trial —, Pătrăşcanu had read Darkness at Noon during the time when he visited Paris as an envoy to the 1946 Peace Conference, and had brought the book back to his native country.[3][4]
[edit] References
- ^ George Orwell, Arthur Koestler. Essay, at www.george-orwell.org
- ^ Kenneth Lloyd Billingsley, "Hollywood's Missing Movies: Why American Films Have Ignored Life under Communism", in Reason Magazine, June 2000
- ^ a b (Romanian) Stelian Tănase, "Belu Zilber. Part III" (fragments of O istorie a comunismului românesc interbelic, "A History of Romanian Interwar Communism"), in Revista 22, Nr.702, August 2003
- ^ a b Vladimir Tismăneanu, Stalinism for All Seasons: A Political History of Romanian Communism, University of California Press, Berkeley, 2003, ISBN 0-52-023747-1 p.75, 114
[edit] External Links
- New York Times book review of Darkness at Noon (May 25, 1941)
