Darkness At Noon

Darkness at Noon (German: Sonnenfinsternis ) is a novel by the Hungarian-born British novelist Arthur Koestler, first published in 1940. His best-known work, it tells the tale of Rubashov, a Bolshevik old guard and 1917 revolutionary who is first cast out and then imprisoned and tried for treason by the Soviet government he once helped create.

The novel is set in 1938 during the Stalinist purges and Moscow show trials. It reflects the author's personal disillusionment with Communism; Koestler knew some of the defendants at the Moscow trials. Although the characters have Russian names, neither Russia nor the Soviet Union are actually mentioned by name as the location of the book. Joseph Stalin is described as "Number One", a barely-seen and menacing totalitarian leader.

The novel was originally written in German and translated into English by Daphne Hardy, while living with Koestler in Paris in early 1940. Koestler and Hardy fled Paris in May 1940 just ahead of the German army. Koestler attempted suicide in Bordeaux after hearing a false report that the ship taking Hardy to England (along with the only manuscript) had been torpedoed and all hands lost. Koestler described the episode in Scum of the Earth, his autobiography of that period. On reaching England, Hardy arranged to have the manuscript published and chose the title "Darkness at Noon".

Since the original German text has been lost, German versions, published under the title Sonnenfinsternis (literally "solar eclipse") are back translations from English. Darkness at Noon is actually the second part of a trilogy, the first volume being The Gladiators about the subversion of the Spartacus revolt, and the third Arrival and Departure about a refugee in World War II. The Gladiators was originally written in Hungarian and Arrival and Departure in English. Of these two, only The Gladiators has had much success.

Characters

According to George Orwell, "Rubashov might be called Trotsky, Bukharin, Rakovsky or some other relatively civilised figure among the Old Bolsheviks".

Koestler drew on his own experience of being imprisoned by Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War described in his memoir Dialog with Death. Like Rubashov, he was in solitary confinement, expected to be executed, paced his cell constantly, was permitted to walk in the courtyard in the company of other prisoners, was not beaten himself but knew that others were beaten.

Plot summary

Rubashov has been one of the leading forces in the Bolshevik revolution, and has been active in supporting Communist parties in other countries. He is roused in the middle of the night and arrested. This brings back memories of his previous arrest in Germany, when he was tortured under interrogation. He is taken to a new prison and placed in a cell. There he is almost isolated as a leading member of the party, but he makes unsatisfactory contact with the prisoner in the neighbouring cell, who is unsympathetic towards him.

His first interrogation is by an old friend, Ivanov, who tries persuading him to consider signing a false confession. In due course, Rubashov shows willingness to admit to certain crimes. However, Ivanov is arrested in the meantime, ostensibly for being "too soft" on Rubashov. Rubashov is then ruthlessly interrogated by Gletkin, a representative of the new-type Party official.

As Rubashov is forced to confess to false charges, he thinks of all of the times he betrayed agents in the past — the young German Richard; and the Dutch Little Loewie, who hangs himself, and Arlova, Rubashov's own secretary-mistress. Rubashov recognises that his treatment is carried out with the same ruthless logic as that which he himself employed. Ultimately, his commitment to following his logic to its last conclusion — and his own lingering dedication to the Party — lead him to confess fully and publicly. The final section of the novel is headed with a 4-line quotation (Show us not the aim without the way...) from the German socialist Ferdinand Lasalle and ends with Rubashov's execution.

Influence

The novel's French title is Le Zéro et l'Infini ("Zero and Infinity"). Like the English title, "Darkness at Noon", it reflects Koestler's life-long obsession with the meeting of opposites, and dialectics. Le Zéro et l'Infini sold more than 400,000 copies in France.

American screenwriter and Communist Party USA member Dalton Trumbo told The Worker that he had prevented Darkness at Noon , among other anti-Stalinist books, from being produced into a Hollywood movie.

Darkness at Noon was very influential for George Orwell, who wrote an essay on it. Darkness at Noon was one of the several influences for his own Nineteen Eighty-Four , especially the segment where Winston Smith is interrogated by O'Brien.

In 1954, at the end of a long inquiry and a show trial, Communist Romania sentenced to death former high-ranking Romanian Communist Party member and government official Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu. According to his collaborator Belu Zilber, Pătrăşcanu read Darkness at Noon in Paris while envoy to the 1946 Peace Conference, and took the book back to Romania.

Notes

1. ^ George Orwell, Arthur Koestler. Essay , at www.george-orwell.org
2. ^ Kenneth Lloyd Billingsley, "Hollywood's Missing Movies: Why American Films Have Ignored Life under Communism", in Reason Magazine , June 2000
3. ^ "Arthur Koestler", by George Orwell (1944).
4. ^ Arthur Mizener, "Truth Maybe, Not Fiction," in The Kenyon Review , Vol. 1, No. 4 (Autumn, 1949): 685.
5. ^ ^{a b} (Romanian) Stelian Tănase, "Belu Zilber. Part III" (fragments of O istorie a comunismului românesc interbelic , "A History of Romanian Interwar Communism"), in Revista 22 , Nr.702, August 2003
6. ^ ^{a b} Vladimir Tismăneanu, Stalinism for All Seasons: A Political History of Romanian Communism , University of California Press, Berkeley, 2003, ISBN 0-52-023747-1 p.75, 114

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