Darkness at Noon. [hardcover].
by Koestler, Arthur. (Hardy, Daphne; translator)
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Very Good/GOOD jacket. Endpapers partly tanned, top outer edge only dust soiled. No names or writings, no cover soil or spine cr
- Seller
-
Beverly Hills, Florida, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
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.
Read More: Identifying first editions of Darkness at Noon. [hardcover].
Reviews
(Log in or Create an Account first!)
Details
- Seller
- Booktopia (US)
- Seller's Inventory #
- 4050423
- Title
- Darkness at Noon. [hardcover].
- Author
- Koestler, Arthur. (Hardy, Daphne; translator)
- Format/Binding
- HARDCOVER. (5.25 x 8 inches)
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good/GOOD jacket. Endpapers partly tanned, top outer edge only dust soiled. No names or writings, no cover soil or spine cr
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Publisher
- Macmillan.
- Place of Publication
- New York.
- Date Published
- 1941.
- Pages
- viii. + 268pp.
- Size
- Small octavo.
- Keywords
- 20th Century Literature Distopian Anti Stalinist Novels Arthur Koestler Nikolai Rubashov
Terms of Sale
Booktopia
About the Seller
Booktopia
About Booktopia
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Octavo
- Another of the terms referring to page or book size, octavo refers to a standard printer's sheet folded four times, producing...
- Soiled
- Generally refers to minor discoloration or staining.