Identify Books To Darkness at Noon
Original Title: | Sonnenfinsternis |
ISBN: | 0553265954 (ISBN13: 9780553265958) |
Edition Language: | English |
Characters: | Nicolas Salmanovitch Rubashov |
Arthur Koestler
Mass Market Paperback | Pages: 216 pages Rating: 4.04 | 25169 Users | 1365 Reviews
Present Based On Books Darkness at Noon
Title | : | Darkness at Noon |
Author | : | Arthur Koestler |
Book Format | : | Mass Market Paperback |
Book Edition | : | First Edition |
Pages | : | Pages: 216 pages |
Published | : | March 1984 by Bantam Books (first published 1940) |
Categories | : | Fiction. Classics. Historical. Historical Fiction. Politics. Literature. Cultural. Russia. Novels |
Relation Supposing Books Darkness at Noon
Darkness at Noon (from the German: Sonnenfinsternis) is a novel by the Hungarian-born British novelist Arthur Koestler, first published in 1940. His best-known work tells the tale of Rubashov, a Bolshevik 1917 revolutionary who is cast out, imprisoned and tried for treason by the Soviet government he'd helped create.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 relives 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, it 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."
Rating Based On Books Darkness at Noon
Ratings: 4.04 From 25169 Users | 1365 ReviewsWrite-Up Based On Books Darkness at Noon
(view spoiler)[ Bettie's Books (hide spoiler)]"If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him" - Cardinal Richelieu. Nicholas Rubashov is about to find out that sometimes it doesn't even take six lines...
Before I read Darkness at Noon, I could never quite comprehend the source of the wretched servility and abject self-negation with which the Old Bolsheviks broadcast their guilt and apostasy in so convincing a manner at the Moscow Show Trials in the mid-thirties. Koestlerno stranger to dark, narrow prison cells and the exquisite torture of living minute to precious minute awaiting the stark drum roll of the executioner's approaching footstepsbrings all of his harsh experience to this
This is a diseased century.We diagnosed the disease and its causes with microscopic exactness, but wherever we applied the healing knife a new sore appeared. Our will was hard and pure, we should have been loved by the people. But they hate us. Why are we so odious and detested?We brought you truth, and in our mouth it sounded a lie. We brought you freedom, and it looks in our hands like a whip. We brought you the living life, and where our voices is heard the trees wither and there is a
Koestlers principle character, Rubashov, spends his entire adult life pushing the master narrative of the Soviet Revolution only to fall victim to it when the Stalinist purges of the 30s come calling. Hes arrested, seemingly for no reason, and forced to swallow the same cold philosophy he not only espoused but also used to justify the deaths of friends, compatriots, and even his lover. The Soviet prison where he finds himself is a Kafkaesque nightmare, but for Rubashov, all the conflict is
This is a diseased century.We diagnosed the disease and its causes with microscopic exactness, but wherever we applied the healing knife a new sore appeared. Our will was hard and pure, we should have been loved by the people. But they hate us. Why are we so odious and detested?We brought you truth, and in our mouth it sounded a lie. We brought you freedom, and it looks in our hands like a whip. We brought you the living life, and where our voices is heard the trees wither and there is a
Definitely one of the greatest novels of the 20th century. I am embarrassed, frankly, that I'm 37 and reading this only now. This is a work I should have read in high school, then in college, then again almost every year since. Standing guard silently behind greats like Orwell and Hitchens is Arthur Koestler. Rubashov is one of the best-realized characters and Darkness at Noon is a near-perfect novel. Dostoevsky would have killed Koestler with an axe, and Tolstoy would have pushed his ass in
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