The Paris AtlasCharting the artists, works, and places worth returning to.
Cover of Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler

Darkness at Noon

by Arthur Koestler

A revolutionary is arrested by the state he helped create and ordered to confess to crimes he did not commit.

Published
1940
Setting
Russia
Shelf rating
4.6

The story, briefly

Spoiler-free

Rubashov spent his life defending a revolutionary system that now imprisons and interrogates him. The novel forces him to confront the human cost of the ideology he served.

Why we recommend it

  1. The revolution devours its own

    It gives Boxer's tragic loyalty a human political counterpart.

What this book explores

Book editions

Paperback
Paperback

Reader reviews

Loading reviews…

Cover of Animal Farm by George Orwell

Animal Farm

George Orwell

The animals drive the farmer out and take over the farm. Orwell's 1945 fable is about what happens after that.

Read our take

Recommended alongside A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.

Also recommended in books like Animal Farm.

If you like Arthur Koestler

Explore authors with a similar voice, perspective, and influence.

  • Illustrated portrait of Aldous Huxley

    Aldous Huxley

    English novelist of Brave New World, which he wrote not in Paris but on the Mediterranean coast at Sanary-sur-Mer. His French years ran from a rented house at Suresnes on the western edge of Paris, where he pushed the dying D. H. Lawrence towards the city's presses, to seven years on the Riviera; he then left for California, wrote the best-known modern account of taking mescaline, the hallucinogenic drug made from the peyote cactus, and died on the day President Kennedy was shot.

    View author
  • Illustrated portrait of George Orwell

    George Orwell

    English novelist, essayist and journalist, born Eric Arthur Blair, who wrote Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. He was an imperial policeman in Burma, a plongeur in Paris kitchens off the rue Mouffetard, and a militiaman shot through the neck in Spain before any of it.

    View author
  • Illustrated portrait of Franz Kafka

    Franz Kafka

    Prague novelist who worked fourteen years as an accident-insurance official, left three novels unfinished, told his friend Max Brod to burn everything, and was disobeyed. His Paris is a holiday, not an exile: he came twice as a tourist with Brod between 1909 and 1912, and never lived there.

    View author
References

References

The sources below include the primary text, editions, scholarship, archival materials, and other records that informed this page. They document Darkness at Noon, its publication, and its place in literary history.

  1. 1Darkness at Noon — Open Library ISBN catalogue

    Official record
    Open Library, Internet Archive
    Used for

    Open Library ISBN catalogue used to verify the title, ISBN, and publication metadata.

    View source
  2. 2Darkness at Noon — Google Books edition record

    Official record
    Google Books
    Used for

    Google Books catalogue record used to cross-check the title and edition metadata.

    View source
  1. 3Darkness at Noon — Internet Archive ISBN catalogue

    Official record
    Internet Archive
    Used for

    Internet Archive ISBN catalogue used to cross-check the edition and its availability in library holdings.

    View source
  2. 4Darkness at Noon — Library of Congress books catalogue

    Official record
    Library of Congress
    Used for

    Library of Congress books catalogue used to cross-check the bibliographic record by ISBN.

    View source
i
Why these sources are here

The primary text is the baseline reference for every book page. Additional references document publication history, interpretation, and historical context where that evidence is available.

Explore more resources