Darkness at Noon

Summary

Darkness at Noon is a novel about the arrest, interrogation and execution of Nicholas Salmanovitch Rubashov, a veteran revolutionary and former People's Commissar in an unnamed country ruled by a single party and its leader, known only as No. 1. The setting is never named, but the novel is plainly modeled on the Soviet Union during Stalin's purges and the Moscow show trials of 1936 to 1938. Rubashov is arrested at night and taken to solitary confinement. In the cell next to his is a former Tsarist officer, with whom he communicates by tapping on the wall in a code of knocks. As he waits, Rubashov remembers the people he sacrificed for the Party in his years of service abroad: Richard, a young German communist he expelled for deviating from the line; Little Loewy, a dockworkers' organizer in Belgium who hanged himself after Rubashov enforced a Party decision to supply oil to a hostile power; and Arlova, his secretary and lover, whom he failed to defend when she was accused and who was executed. The novel is divided into three hearings and a final section. In the first, Rubashov is questioned by Ivanov, an old comrade from the civil war, who appeals to the logic they once shared: if the end justifies the means, the individual counts for nothing against the Party's historical mission. Rubashov begins to doubt that logic and to recognize in himself what he calls the grammatical fiction, the first person singular that the Party had taught him to dismiss. Ivanov is himself arrested and shot for being too lenient, and the interrogation passes to Gletkin, a younger official formed entirely by the new regime, who uses sleeplessness, glaring lights and relentless questioning. A fellow prisoner known as Hare-lip, the son of an old friend, is made to testify against Rubashov. Exhausted, and persuaded that a public confession is his last service to the Party, Rubashov signs a confession to crimes he did not commit and repeats it at a public trial. In the final section, The Grammatical Fiction, he reflects on what has been lost, and he is shot in the cellar of the prison. Koestler wrote the book in German in Paris in 1938 to 1940, and his companion Daphne Hardy translated it into English for publication in London in 1940. It had a large influence on Western views of Soviet communism. The German manuscript, thought lost, was found in 2015, and a new translation from it by Philip Boehm appeared in 2019.

Plot or Argument

• The First Hearing

  Rubashov is arrested and imprisoned. Through the wall he talks by tapping with No. 402, a former Tsarist officer. He recalls Richard and is questioned by Ivanov, who gives him time to consider a confession.

• The Second Hearing

  Rubashov recalls Little Loewy and Arlova, keeps a diary of his reflections on history and morality, and debates with Ivanov the logic of ends and means.

• The Third Hearing

  Ivanov is executed and Gletkin takes over, using sleep deprivation and constant questioning. Hare-lip testifies against Rubashov, who finally agrees to confess.

• The Grammatical Fiction

  Rubashov's confession is read at a public trial. Before his execution he reflects on the individual conscience the Party denied, and he is shot in the cellar.

Characters

• Nicholas Salmanovitch Rubashov, protagonist

  Old Bolshevik and former Commissar, arrested in a purge, who looks back on his own past.

• Ivanov, major

  Rubashov's former comrade and first interrogator, who argues from shared revolutionary logic.

• Gletkin, antagonist

  Young interrogator of the new generation who breaks Rubashov by exhaustion.

• No. 1, symbol

  The unseen leader of the Party, modeled on Stalin.

• No. 402, minor

  Former Tsarist officer in the next cell who talks with Rubashov by tapping.

• Arlova, minor

  Rubashov's secretary and lover, executed after he does not defend her.

• Little Loewy, minor

  Communist organizer in a Belgian port who hangs himself after the Party betrays its principles.

• Richard, minor

  Young German communist whom Rubashov expels from the Party.

• Hare-lip, minor

  Young prisoner, son of Rubashov's old friend, forced to give false testimony.

Lessons

• Ends and means

  Ivanov and Rubashov once accepted that any means were justified by the end of a classless society. The novel tests that principle against its human costs.

  • How does Ivanov justify the sacrifice of individuals?
  • Where does Rubashov's own past show the same reasoning?

• Why confess?

  Rubashov confesses to crimes he did not commit. The novel offers one explanation of the Moscow show trials and invites students to weigh others.

  • What arguments finally persuade Rubashov?
  • Is his confession an act of loyalty, defeat or something else?

• The individual conscience

  The 'grammatical fiction' is the first person singular, which the Party treats as unimportant. Rubashov rediscovers it in prison.

  • What does Rubashov mean by the grammatical fiction?
  • Why might a political system want people to forget it?

Context

Between 1936 and 1938 leading Bolsheviks, including Zinoviev, Kamenev and Bukharin, confessed at public trials in Moscow to fantastic crimes and were executed, while hundreds of thousands of others were shot or sent to camps in the Great Terror. Many Western observers struggled to understand why the defendants confessed.

Composition

Koestler wrote the novel in German in Paris between 1938 and 1940, drawing on friends who had been purged and on his own imprisonment in Spain. Daphne Hardy translated it into English as France fell, and Jonathan Cape published it in London in December 1940; Macmillan published it in New York in 1941.

Reception

The novel was widely read and, after its French translation in 1945, became a best seller in France and a factor in postwar debates about communism. Orwell admired it and reviewed Koestler's work. The rediscovery of the German typescript in a Zurich archive in 2015 led to a new translation by Philip Boehm in 2019.

Comparisons

• Nineteen Eighty-Four

  Orwell's O'Brien, like Gletkin, aims not merely to punish but to make the prisoner accept the Party's version of the truth.

• The Gulag Archipelago

  Solzhenitsyn documents from survivors' testimony the arrests, interrogations and confessions that Koestler imagined in fiction.

• The Origins of Totalitarianism

  Arendt's analysis of ideology and terror helps explain why the purges demanded confessions from loyal members of the Party.

• Animal Farm

  Orwell's fable includes its own version of the purge trials, in which animals confess to imaginary crimes and are killed.

• The Brothers Karamazov

  The Grand Inquisitor's claim that people must be relieved of freedom for their own good anticipates the Party's reasoning in Koestler's novel.

• The Road to Serfdom

  Hayek's chapter on why the worst get on top describes the type of official, ruthless and unconcerned with truth, whom Gletkin represents.

• One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

  Solzhenitsyn's novella shows the camp life that awaited many victims of the same terror whose trials Koestler depicts.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The memories that interrupt Rubashov's present and what each shows about his past.
• Differences between Ivanov and Gletkin as interrogators.
• The tapping conversations with No. 402.
• Rubashov's diary entries on history and morality.

Key terms and names

Show trial

A public trial staged for propaganda, with the verdict decided in advance.

Old Bolshevik

A member of the Bolshevik party from before the 1917 revolution.

Purge

The removal, often by imprisonment or execution, of members judged disloyal.

Grammatical fiction

Rubashov's term for the first person singular, the individual self the Party discounts.

No. 1

The Party's leader, modeled on Stalin.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension Why has Rubashov been arrested, according to the charges?
2. Comprehension How does Gletkin's method differ from Ivanov's?
3. Interpretation Why do the memories of Richard, Little Loewy and Arlova return to Rubashov in prison?
4. Interpretation What does the conversation with No. 402 show about honor?
5. Big Question Can a good end ever justify sacrificing an innocent person?
6. Big Question Is it ever right to say something false for the sake of a cause?

Faith Connections

• Mark 8:36 (Scripture)

  'What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?' Rubashov's discovery of his own conscience after a life spent for the Party invites comparison with this question.

• Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, 'The Grand Inquisitor' (Great Conversation)

  The Inquisitor's willingness to deceive people for their happiness parallels the Party's justification of falsehood for historical ends.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: A movement that treats the individual as a mere means to a historical end will eventually devour its own members, and the logic that justified Rubashov's earlier acts is the same logic that destroys him.

Rhetorical device: irony. Rubashov is condemned by the very reasoning about ends and means that he once used against Richard, Loewy and Arlova.

Debate: Resolved: Rubashov's confession was a betrayal of the truth rather than a service to his cause.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Trace how Rubashov's view of the 'grammatical fiction' changes during the novel.

Comparison with Nineteen Eighty-Four: Compare Gletkin's interrogation of Rubashov with O'Brien's of Winston Smith. What does each interrogator want?

Creative Prompts

• Essay

  Analyze why Rubashov confesses. Use at least two of the reasons the novel offers and decide which is most important.

• Fiction

  Write the tapped conversation between Rubashov and No. 402 on the night before the trial.

• Classroom

  Divide the class into Ivanov's and Rubashov's positions and debate whether a good end can justify any means.

Further Reading

• Dialogue with Death, Arthur Koestler

• The God That Failed, Richard Crossman (ed.)

  Essays by Koestler and other former communists, 1949.

• Koestler: The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth-Century Skeptic, Michael Scammell

• The Great Terror, Robert Conquest