Goodreads | Darkness at Noon (Modern Classics S.) by Arthur Koestler

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Ginnie rated it:

(review of isbn 0553265954)

08/28/08

bookshelves: fiction, history, philosophy-ethics

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.

It is the sort of novel that transcends ordinary limitations, and that may be read as a primary discourse in political philosophy. It is a far cry from the bleak topical commmentaries that sometimes pass as novels. The magic effect of Darkness at Noon is its magnificant tragic irony.

...more 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.

It is the sort of novel that transcends ordinary limitations, and that may be read as a primary discourse in political philosophy. It is a far cry from the bleak topical commmentaries that sometimes pass as novels. The magic effect of Darkness at Noon is its magnificant tragic irony.

But true believers never die For a first time, I paste in here a 2004 review from Barnes & Noble that chilled me to the bone.

* Koestler's book is a shoddy piece of CIA propaganda
Will Podmore (willp@bso.ac.uk), A reviewer, 10/07/2004
A caricature wrapped in a parody wrapped in a novelette. This trashy novel is just a piece of Cold War propaganda. It presents a ludicrous caricature of history, a simple-minded moralism. Koestler claims that all communists are all bad because they believe that 'The ends justify the means'. But doesn't George Bush believe this? Doesn't Blair? Don't you sometimes? It all depends on the circumstances, and no simple dogma will do the job - you actually have to think beneath the idiot slogans. It's no surprise that General Franco at the end of the war freed Koestler from his jails, when he killed without trial so many decent Republicans and their supporters. Franco could see that Koestler was going to be more use to him alive than dead, and this book indeed proves that Koestler was an asset to the forces of reaction. Remember that Koestler composed this anti-communist screed when the communists of the Soviet Union were defeating 70% of Hitler's divisions, and that these same communists were saving us all from Hitler's extermination camps.

In legal logic this argument is called Et tu quoqoe meaning roughly "you do the same thing so you can't complain about the other guy.' So if Bush and Blair do dreadful things that means we are not entitled to render judgments on past evils? This argument would bar us from any attempt to learn from the past and moral equivalence always triumphs....less

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Jared rated it:

(review of isbn 0553265954)

02/03/08

Read in August, 2005

Without hope man has little left to live for. Rubashov was a strong man with an iron heart, willing to sacrifice anyone for Mother Russia (including himself), but without a hopeful reality, idealistic thought doesn’t help much. Set in a Russian political prison during the so-called Moscow Trials of the 1930s, Darkness at Noon paints a solemn picture of life inside a prison, where tapping code on thick cement walls is the only mode of communication and its commonplace to watch a prison mate b...more Without hope man has little left to live for. Rubashov was a strong man with an iron heart, willing to sacrifice anyone for Mother Russia (including himself), but without a hopeful reality, idealistic thought doesn’t help much. Set in a Russian political prison during the so-called Moscow Trials of the 1930s, Darkness at Noon paints a solemn picture of life inside a prison, where tapping code on thick cement walls is the only mode of communication and its commonplace to watch a prison mate being drug to the torturing or execution room down the hall.
The small world of political prisoners tap their politics through the walls as Rubashov tries to unravel what happened to the idealistic Mother Russia that he once believed was possible. He was one of the great men of Russian politics – his picture was hung on the wall in the homes of the entire Russian proletariat and intellectual class. And now he is rotting in the most horrific Russian prison imaginable – all because he subscribes to the same doctrine he did when he, Lenin and the other patriots took over the government on that Red October day.
The reader sees Rubushov’s journal, which includes such political philosophy as the following, “…the ultimate truth is penultimately always a falsehood. He who will be proved wrong in the end appears to be wrong and harmful before it. But who will be proved right? It will only be known later. Meanwhile he is bound to act on credit and sell his soul to the devil, in the hope of history’s absolution. It is said that No. 1 has Machiavelli’s Prince lying permanently by his bedside. So he should: since then, nothing really important has been said about the rules of political ethics…”
Darkness at Noon is one of the most brilliant political novels ever written. It makes the reader contemplate freedoms, politics, ethics and torture. It catalogues the mind of a dictator, without even meeting or speaking to one. And makes you question your beliefs on politics and Russia.
Arthur Koestler wrote Darkness at Noon with a particular passion that helps you understand what it is like physically, mentally and emotionally to be a political prisoner. Koestler was born in Budapest, Hungary, and was a communist most of his life, but became a political prisoner in Spain under the Franco regime. He was sentenced to death and minutes before the execution the British government intervened and cut a deal that gave him his freedom. Later in life he was again imprisoned for political reasons in France. This man was directly involved in the torrential political frame of Europe in the first half of the 20th century, and Darkness at Noon synthesizes this experience.
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