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Summary: Perfect balance of entertaining readability and deep insight
Review: What a wonderful piece of writing.Koestlers style just has to impress any discerning reader-a beautiful turn of phrase with atmospheric,personal,emotive descriptions.This book is thoroughly engrossing and really the rare book which is both an entertaining easy read and a thought provoking examination of real substance about the theoretical workings of the human mind which may or may not be put into practice,set in the political realm of communist Russia,1930's.It is both personal and philosophic-a must read. By the way,can anyone answer why this was eligible for the top 100 modern library list,given that it was not originally in English?
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Summary: A Grim Tale about Communism That Borders on Reality
Review: Soviet Communism was indeed the focus of evil. All collectivist schemes are rooted in idealism and utopian dreams - founded on a faith in human nature that has never existed - i.e. collective man oblivious and apathetic to his own self-interest. Darkness at Noon portrays one of the adherents to that faith - a man who gave his heart and soul to the "cause" of progress. The "cause" returned the favor by imprisoning, torturing, and executing him for being insufficiently revolutionary. While this book is a fictional account, it is not hard to imagine this type of event playing out in reality. Communism has murdered over 125 million people since Marx inspired the demon ideology. This has included the starvation of peasants, exiling "apostates," torturing and murdering dissenters, and condemning "insufficient revolutionaries" to Gulags, where they will starve or work unto death. All of this was done in the name of good intentions - for collective man and a promised utopia. It is the legacy of an ideology manifestly evil and hostile to God and man.
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Summary: The predecessor to Orwell's 1984
Review: I read this book, not because Bill Clinton or Sidney Blumenthal read it , but because Edward Teller did. Two unforgettable quotes:1. "Ivanov- "Up to now , all revolutions have been made by moralizing diletantes. They were always in good faith and perished because of their dilettantism. We for the first time are consequent..." "Yes," said Rubashov. "So consequent, that in the interests of a just distribution of land we deliberately let die of starvation about five million farmers and their families in one year. So consequent were we in the liberation of human beings from the shackles of industrial exploitation that we sent about ten million people to do forced labour in the Artic regions and the jungles of the East, under conditions similar to those of antique galley slaves. So consequent that, to settle a difference of opinion, we know only one argument: death, whether it is a matter of submarines, manure, or the Party line to be followed in Indo-China. ..." 2. "It was quiet in the cell. Rubashov heard only the creaking of his steps on the tiles. Six and a half steps to the door, whence they must come to fetch him, six and a half steps to the window, behind which night was falling. Soon it would be over. But when he asked himself, For what actually are you dying? he found no answer. It was a mistake in the system; perhaps it lay in the precept which until now he had held to be uncontestable, in whose name he had sacrificed others and was himself being sacrificed: in the precept, that the end justifies the means. It was this sentence which had killed the great fraternity of the Revolution and made them run amuck. What had he once written in his diary? "We have thrown overboard all conventions, our sole guiding principle is that of consequent logic; we are sailing without ethical ballast."
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Summary: Powerful
Review: Though it can be a bit depressing at times, its thankfully short 216 pages does not allow the reader to become bored. And though I feel that this is an extraordinary novel, I feel it must be pointed out that it does not in fact belong on the Modern Library list of the 100 greatest English language novels of the century. Not because of any lack of merit; simply the fact that it was not originally published in English. This is a translation by Daphne Hardy. I am glad that Modern Library drew attention to this great book, but one would think, especially considering the high placement on the list it recevied, that they might have researched these things a bit better.
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Summary: Epic!
Review: Darkness at Noon is a towering moral comment on humanity. The theme and style of the recently released, The Triumph and the Glory, reminded me of this great book, which I'd read years ago, so I read it again and it STILL leaves a pwerful impact. Must reading for anyone with a conscience and concern for humankind.
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Summary: THE KOESTLER CLASSIC EVERYONE SHOULD READ!
Review: Arthur Koestler's most memorable novel, "Darkness at Noon" demonstrates the writer's supreme ability at mastering the English novel. It is a novel of history, of turmoil and of drama. Kostler's prose streams from the hand of a true intellectual; not one that merely writes stories or novels, but a writer of great depth and ideas. To appreciate "Darkness a Noon" is an experience that one is not quite likely to forget.
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Summary: A TRUE MASTERPIECE!
Review: What can one say about Arthur Koestler's "Darkness at Noon"? Well besides the fact that it perfectly documents the Soviet totalitarian regime or that Koestler's prose is one of the most beautiful of the English language. It is hard not to like "Darkness at Noon" because in so many ways it represents something that is very rare in our modern culture: Perfection.
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Summary: emotionally hard, but perfect
Review: an excellently written piece of litterature with the christ/devil imagry at its finest. the way with which the logic and equations are applied to humans and then having Rubashov finally realize that you can not do such a thing, i found it fascinating. the most important idea of the novel is that of "you cannot build paradise with concrete" proving that the Party's methods just will not work.
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Summary: Repetitive....Repetitive...Repetitive
Review: While the book was very intelligent, I found it rather boring. The arguments for communism are basically all the same, just told with different examples. The protagonist's discovery that the word "I" is not present in socialism is hardly a revalation to the reader, only to the charcater. This might be an effective book for someone if they were alredy a communist or socialist, but people brought up in the deomcratic and capitalist way of life will find that there are not too many arguments that we have not heard.
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Summary: Wow.
Review: I read this book in the seventh grade when I asked my history teacher if Stalin was reincarnated in Canada and he replied, "There's a book on the shelf over there called Darkness at Noon. Read it, and then pray that Stalin never DOES become reincarnated." This is one of the most powerful books I have ever read. I loved Rubashov's conversations with Ivanov (who I could totally picture as Gary Oldman. go figure) and Gletkin. The story was a bit boring yes, but I never really thought about that while I was reading it. While President Clinton comparing himself to Rubashov seemed a bit extreme, the book was excellent. One reviewer gave the book one star even though "I haven't read it". I advise them to read the book. They'll come back and give it five.
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