Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler

First published: 1940

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Social realism

Time of plot: 1930’s

Locale: Russia

Principal characters

• Nicholas Rubashov, a political prisoner
• Ivanov, a prison official
• Gletkin, another official
• Michael Bogrov, another prisoner
• Kieffer (Hare-Lip), an informer
• Number 1, the supreme leader of the party

The Story:

Nicholas Rubashov, former commissar of the people and once a power in the party, is in prison. Arrested at his lodgings in the middle of the night, he is taken secretly to cell 404, which bears his name on a card just above the spy hole. His cell is located in an isolation block for political suspects.

At seven o’clock in the morning, Rubashov is awakened by a bugle, but he does not get up. Soon he hears sounds in the corridor. He imagines that someone is to be tortured, and he dreads hearing the first screams of pain. When the footsteps reach his own section, he sees through the eye hole that guards are serving breakfast. Rubashov does not receive any breakfast because he reported himself ill. He begins to pace up and down the cell, six and a half steps to the window, six and a half steps back.

Soon he hears a quiet knocking from the wall of the adjoining cell, 402. In communicating with one another, prisoners use the “quadratic alphabet,” a square of twenty-five letters, five horizontal rows of five letters each. The first series of taps represents the number of the row; the second series the number of the letter in the row. Thus, words can be spelled. From the communications Rubashov has with his neighbor, Rubashov pictures him as a military man, one not in sympathy with the methods of the great leader or with the views of Rubashov himself. From his window he sees prisoners walking in the courtyard for exercise. One of these, a man with a harelip, looks repeatedly up at Rubashov’s window. From his neighbor in cell 402, Rubashov learns that Hare-Lip is a political prisoner who was tortured in a steam bath the day before. A little later Hare-Lip, in cell 400, sends Rubashov his greetings, via the inmate of 402, but he will not give his name.

Three days later, Rubashov is brought up for his first examination. The examiner is Ivanov, Rubashov’s old college friend and former battalion commander. During the interview the prisoner learns that he is accused of belonging to the opposition to the party and that he is suspected of an attempt on the party leader’s life. Ivanov promises a twenty-year prison term instead of the death penalty if Rubashov confesses. The prisoner is given a fortnight to arrive at a decision.

After the hearing, Rubashov is given paper and pencil. He uses them to formulate his ideas on the party, society, and his own predicament. As he does so, he remembers a German called Richard whom he expelled from the party, thereby ensuring Richard’s certain death at the hands of the Gestapo. Three weeks later, Rubashov himself was arrested by the German police but resisted giving any information despite hideous torture. Pacing his cell, he also casts his mind back on Little Loewy, a tireless advocate for the party in the Belgian ports. Rubashov expelled him, too, for deviating from the party line, and Loewy hanged himself. In a somber mood, Rubashov finally remembers Arlova, his secretary and mistress, whose cries for Rubashov’s help he totally ignored.

The night before the time set by Ivanov expires, Rubashov feels a tension in the atmosphere. His friend in 402 communicates to him that one of the prisoners is to be shot. This prisoner is Michael Bogrov, who is Rubashov’s close friend. As the condemned man is brought through the corridors, the prisoners tap his progress from one cell to another and drum on the doors of their cells as he passes. The beaten, whimpering figure of Bogrov comes by Rubashov’s cell. Rubashov hears his friend shout to him as his friend is dragged down the stairs.

Rubashov’s second hearing takes place late at night. Ivanov comes to Rubashov’s cell with a bottle of brandy and persuades him that to keep faith with the living is better than betrayal of the dead. Accordingly, Rubashov writes a letter to the Public Prosecutor renouncing his own oppositional attitude and acknowledging his errors. The third night after delivering the letter to the warder, Rubashov is awakened and taken to the office of Gletkin, another official of the prison. Under blinding lights in Gletkin’s office, he is questioned day and night for an interminable period of time. He learns that Ivanov was liquidated for conducting Rubashov’s case negligently. Gletkin calls in Hare-Lip as a witness against Rubashov. It is only with great difficulty that Rubashov recognizes in that broken, cringing man the son of his former friend and associate, Kieffer. The bright spotlight, the lack of sleep, the constant questionings—these factors combine to make Rubashov sign a trumped-up charge that he plotted to take the life of the party leader.

Rubashov committed none of these crimes. He is merely the victim of Number 1’s megalomania. One night he hears the sound of drumming along the corridor. The guards are taking Hare-Lip to be executed. When the drumming starts again, Rubashov knows that his time has come. He is led into the cellar. Another party incident is closed.

Bibliography

Bloom, Harold, ed. Arthur Koestler’s “Darkness at Noon.” Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2004. Collection of essays providing various interpretations of the novel, including a comparison of the novel with George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, discussions of Darkness at Noon as a political novel, the function of Rubashov’s toothache, and reaction to the novel in postwar France.

Cesarani, David. Arthur Koestler: The Homeless Mind. New York: Free Press, 1999. A thorough reassessment of Koestler’s life, ideas, and writings, which explores, among other subjects, his Jewish background, relationships with women, and political activities. Includes bibliography and index.

Judt, Tony. “Arthur Koestler, the Exemplary Intellectual.” In Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten Twentieth Century. New York: Penguin Books, 2008. Judt includes a discussion of Koestler in his book, which seeks to inform twenty-first century readers about the social thought and socially motivated activism of the twentieth century.

Koestler, Arthur. The Invisible Writing: The Second Volume of an Autobiography, 1932-1940. London: Hutchinson, 1969. Koestler discusses his activism in the Communist Party, his travels to the Soviet Union, his imprisonment in fascist Spain, and his denunciation of communism in Darkness at Noon.

Levene, Mark. Arthur Koestler. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1984. Overview of Koestler’s political writing, including a chapter on Darkness at Noon.

Pearson, Sidney A. Arthur Koestler. Boston: Twayne, 1978. Includes a chapter on Darkness at Noon.

Rothkopf, Carol Z.“Darkness at Noon”: A Critical Commentary. New York: American R. D. M., 1963. Scholarly, complete, and well-written discussion of the novel.

Sperber, Murray A., ed. Arthur Koestler: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1977. Includes essays by George Orwell and Saul Bellow, as well as an intellectually tortuous attack on Darkness at Noon by a French Marxist.

Sterne, Richard Clark. Dark Mirror: The Sense of Injustice in Modern European and American Literature. New York: Fordham University Press, 1994. A substantial discussion of Darkness at Noon is included in this book, which analyzes literature that treats the conflict between natural, ethical law and more “realistic” concepts of justice.