Darkness At Noon.
by Koestler, Arthur. (Text) Hardy, Daphne. (Trans. ) Roth, George. (Illustration)
- Used
- Hardcover
- Signed
- first
- Condition
- Near Fine in Fine dust jacket
- Seller
-
Santa Monica, California, United States
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About This Item
Franklin Center: Franklin Library.. Near Fine in Fine dust jacket. 1979. First Edition; First Printing. Hardcover. First SIGNED limited edition. Near fine in black leather binding with gilt titles and edges, without dust jacket as issued. (Trace of foxing at gilt top edge. ) ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 238 pages .
Synopsis
Darkness at Noon, by Hungarian-born British writer Arthur Koestler, is the tale of Rubashov, an Old Bolshevik who is arrested, imprisoned, and tried for treason against the government that he had helped to create. The novel is understood as an allegory to the USSR in 1938, the Great Purge, and the Moscow Trials. However, the text never mentions the Soviet Union or Russia (just “Country of the Revolution” and “Over There”) or Joseph Stalin (only “Number One,” a menacing dictator). Perhaps the lack of specific references is Koestler’s way of making the story seem more universal, but it’s clear he has in mind actual places, people, and events. Koestler was actually a proponent of Marxism-Leninism until Stalin’s 1938 Purge and the signing of the Nazi-Soviet pact. Afterwards, he edited an anti-Hitler, anti-Stalin newspaper. Koestler wrote the novel in German while living in Paris, from where he escaped in 1940 just before the Nazi troops arrived. Darkness at Noon owes its publication to the decision of sculptor Daphne Hardy, Koestler’s lover in Paris, to translate the text into English before she herself escaped. Koestler wrote Darkness at Noon as the second part of a trilogy; the first volume is The Gladiators (1939), first published in Hungarian. It is a novel about the subversion of the Spartacus revolt. The third novel is Arrival and Departure (1943), about a refugee during World War II. By then living in London, Koestler wrote the third in English. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Darkness at Noon number eight on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Sidney Kingsley adapted it for Broadway in 1951.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Waverley Books
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 3112393
- Title
- Darkness At Noon.
- Author
- Koestler, Arthur. (Text) Hardy, Daphne. (Trans. ) Roth, George. (Illustration)
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Near Fine in Fine dust jacket
- Edition
- First Edition; First Printing
- Publisher
- Franklin Library.
- Place of Publication
- Franklin Center
- Date Published
- 1979
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About the Seller
Waverley Books
Biblio member since 2005
Santa Monica, California
About Waverley Books
Waverley Books is a mail order operation.We conduct business from our home. Lists of books for sale are issued regularly during the year. Customers are welcome by appointment to view the inventory.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Edges
- The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
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