Most Popular Books by Arthur Koestler

Originally published in 1941, Arthur Koestler''s modern masterpiece, Darkness At Noon, is a powerful and haunting portrait of a Communist revolutionary caught in the vicious fray of the Moscow show trials of the late 1930s. During Stalin''s purges, Nicholas Rubashov, an aging revolutionary, is imprisoned and psychologically tortured by the party he has devoted his life to. Under mounting pressure to confess to crimes he did not commit, Rubashov relives a career that embodies the ironies and betrayals of a revolutionary dictatorship that believes it is an instrument of liberation. A seminal work of twentieth-century literature, Darkness At Noon is a penetrating exploration of the moral danger inherent in a system that is willing to enforce its beliefs by any means necessary.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Arthur Koestler''s publications manifest a wide range of political, scientific and literary interests. The Trail of the Dinosaur gathers some of his best-known essays and speeches. The Trail of the Dinosaur , first published in 1955, contains a great deal of Koestler''s thinking for the first ten years after the war – a ''farewell to arms'' as he wrote in his preface. These essays deal with the political questions that obsessed him for the best part of a quarter of a century. The essays in ''The Trail of the Dinosaur'' cover the decade 1946–55-the early or classical period of the Cold War. In that confrontation the West was on the defensive, and the majority of its progressive intellectuals were still turning a benevolently blind eye on Soviet foreign policy and the facts of life behind the Iron Curtain . In the dramatic contest between Whitaker Chambers and Alger Hiss, which has been called the Dreyfus Affair of our century, progressive opinion stood firmly behind Hiss. And when, in the New York Times, I took Chambers'' part, I became, if possible, even more unpopular among self-styled progressives than I had been before. In 1937, during the Civil War in Spain, I spent three months under sentence of death as a suspected spy, witnessing the executions of my fellow prisoners and awaiting my own. These three months left me with a vested interest in capital punishment-rather like ''half-hanged Smith'', who was cut down after fifteen minutes and lived on.

Taken together, Arthur Koestler''s volumes of autobiography constitute an unrivalled study of twentieth-century man and his dilemma. Arrow in the Blue ended with his joining the Communist Party and The Invisible Writing covers some of the most important ex

"The Khazars (Turkish: Hazarlar) were a semi-nomadic Turkic people who created one of the largest states of medieval Eurasia, Khazaria, with its capital at Atil. Astride one of the major arteries of commerce between northern Europe and southwestern Asia, Khazaria commanded the western marches of the Silk Road and played a key commercial role as a crossroad between China, the Middle East, and Europe."--Wikipedia.

In this novel the call-girls are the men and women of the international jet-set who, at the lift of a telephone, will fly from conference to congress to symposium to discuss subjects of world importance. This time the place is Switzerland and the subject Survival...

The third volume of Arthur Koestler''s autobiography covering the years 1940-1956.

Thieves in the Night : Chronicle of an Experiment was written in 1946. Originally intended to be the first of a trilogy, Koestler later concluded that the book stood on its own and plans for further novels made redundant. Based on the author''s own experiences in a kibbutz, it sets up a stage in describing the historical roots of the conflict between Arabs and Jewish settlers in the British ruled Palestine. The book tackles many subjects, such as Zionism and idealism. Koestler was Zionist early in life, but later abandoned the idea. The title is a Biblical reference, quoted on the title page: "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night." (2 Peter 3:10)

Arthur Koestler''s extraordinary history of humanity''s changing vision of the universe In this masterly synthesis, Arthur Koestler cuts through the sterile distinction between ''sciences'' and ''humanities'' to bring to life the whole history of cosmology from the Babylonians to Newton. He shows how the tragic split between science and religion arose and how, in particular, the modern world-view replaced the medieval world-view in the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century. He also provides vivid and judicious pen-portraits of a string of great scientists and makes clear the role that political bias and unconscious prejudice played in their creativity.

A brand new edition of Arthur Koestler''s gripping tale of arrest, imprisonment, and subsequent escape to London from Nazi-occupied France. Arthur Koestler is now an essential part of the English literary landscape both as political activist, controversialist and the author of Darkness at Noon. He stands beside George Orwell as one of the key writers of the twentieth century who embraced communism but would later turn against the "party"and denounce the tragic distortions and abuses that had betrayed the great vision.

The distinguished political writer reflects on his early years, particularly his youth in Austria-Hungary, his experiences as an immigrant in Palestine, and his conversion to communism