Top 30 Modern Classics - XVI

Darkness At Noon

Arthur Koestler

Darkness at Noon, by Hungarian-born British novelist Arthur Koestler, was published in 1940.

Rubashov has been an underground organiser, a military leader, a political commissar, and a member of the Central Committee. His photo hangs next to that of No. 1 (implying Stalin) on people's walls. But one day they come for him at dawn...

The novel begins with Rubashov's arrest in the middle of the night by two men from the secret police. One of the men is about Rubashov's age, the other is younger. He is imprisoned.

He begins to communicate with No. 402, the man in the adjacent cell, by using a tap code. Rubashov quickly realises the inferior nature of subject preferred by 402 and refrains from communicating with him.

Rubashov meditates on his life. Despite 20 years of power, in which the government caused the deliberate deaths and executions of millions, the Party does not seem to be any closer to achieving the goal of a socialist utopia. That vision seems to be receding. Rubashov is not able to reconcile between a lifetime of devotion to the Party, and his conscience.

Koestler deals between the brutality and modernity of Communism on the one hand, and the gentleness, simplicity, and tradition of Christianity. Although Koestler is not suggesting a return to Christian faith, he implies that Communism is the worse of the two alternatives.

Koestler brings out the contrast between the trust of the rank and file communists, and the ruthlessness of the Party elite. The rank and file trust and admire men like Rubashov, but the elite betrays and uses them with little thought.

After about a week in prison, he is brought in for the first examination or hearing, which is conducted by Ivanov, an old friend. Ivanov tries to convince Rubashov to confess to the charges, though the charges are not known. Both of them understand the process. Rubashov says that he is tired of the whole sham and does not want to participate in it. Ivanov sends him sent back to his cell, asking him to think about it.

Ivanov and a junior examiner, Gletkin, discuss Rubashov's fate in the prison canteen. Gletkin urges using harsh, physical methods to demoralise the prisoner and force his confession, while Ivanov insists that Rubashov will confess on realising the situation.

Their conversation continues the theme of the new generation taking power over the old: Ivanov is portrayed as intellectual, ironical, and at bottom humane, while Gletkin is unsophisticated, straightforward, and unconcerned with others' suffering. 

Taking over the interrogation of Rubashov, Gletkin uses physical abuses, such as sleep deprivation and forcing Rubashov to sit under a glaring lamp for hours on end, to wear him down. Rubashov finally capitulates.

As he confesses to the false charges, Rubashov thinks of the many times he betrayed agents in the past: Richard, the young German; Little Loewy in Belgium, and Arlova, his secretary-mistress. He recognises that he is being treated with the same ruthlessness.He finally confesses to fabricated charges, fully and publicly, as he had made others do in the past.

The climax is for the reader to find out.

It ranks as a classic political novel of the 20th century.


Namaste


Prabir