Darkness at Noon
by Arthur Koestler(1940)
Novelc. 210 pages
“The cell door slammed behind Rubashov.”
One great work, every day
by Arthur Koestler(1940)
“The cell door slammed behind Rubashov.”
Arthur Koestler(1940)
Rubashov, an old Bolshevik, is arrested and interrogated by the Party he helped create, and eventually confesses to crimes he did not commit. Koestler wrote this as a former Communist, and the novel explains what the Moscow show trials could not: why dedicated revolutionaries confessed to absurdities. The logic of history, the Party as the only meaning: Rubashov argues himself into submission. The novel was translated into dozens of languages and became the great anti-Stalinist novel. The cell is small. The logic is relentless. Rubashov walks to his execution understanding everything and nothing.