Darkness at Noon [MM0032]

1986 MMPB printing of the 1941 English translation. Darkness at Noon is a novel by the Hungarian-born British novelist Arthur Koestler, first published in 1940 - and is a 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."

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "I'm starting off 2026 with a BANG! This great and thought provoking book by Koeslter. There is so much to unpack and the author touches on many themes such as human nature, communism, and the meaning of life. This is similar to 1984; timeless and classic."; "10/10 - Arthur Koestler combines the hopes of an earnest believer with the devastation of the beaten and the betrayed in his novel lamp-shading the anti-socialist, anti-communist purges by Joseph Stalin. There are some tinges of hope within the end of 'Darkness at Noon', just as there are things to be hopeful for in our current predicament."; "Overall, Darkness at Noon is a profound and unsettling work that challenges readers to consider the moral cost of ideological extremism and unchecked power. It remains a relevant and thought-provoking novel that invites critical reflection on justice, leadership, and the role of the individual within the state."