Arthur Koestler’s Followers (938)

Arthur Koestler

Born

in Budapest, Hungary

September 05, 1905

Died

March 01, 1983

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Politics, Philosophy

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Darkness at Noon (1940), novel of Hungarian-born British writer Arthur Koestler, portrays his disillusionment with Communism; his nonfiction works include The Sleepwalkers (1959) and The Ghost in the Machine (1967).

Arthur Koestler CBE [*Kösztler Artúr] was a prolific writer of essays, novels and autobiographies.

He was born into a Hungarian Jewish family in Budapest but, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria. His early career was in journalism. In 1931 he joined the Communist Party of Germany but, disillusioned, he resigned from it in 1938 and in 1940 published a devastating anti-Communist novel, Darkness at Noon, which propelled him to instant international fame.

Over the next forty-three years he espoused ma ...more

Combine Editions
Arthur Koestler’s books

Average rating: 4.07 · 68,196 ratings · 4,739 reviews · 151 distinct works • Similar authors

	Darkness at Noon 4.12 avg rating — 33,473 ratings — published 1940 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of the Universe by Arthur Koestler, Herbert Butterfield (Introduction) 4.24 avg rating — 1,219 ratings — published 1959 — 26 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Thirteenth Tribe: The Khazar Empire and its Heritage 3.93 avg rating — 939 ratings — published 1976 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Ghost in the Machine 4.03 avg rating — 662 ratings — published 1967 — 42 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Scum of the Earth 4.32 avg rating — 563 ratings — published 1941 — 43 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dialogue with Death 4.13 avg rating — 565 ratings — published 1937 — 48 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Act of Creation 4.25 avg rating — 532 ratings — published 1964 — 58 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Arrival and Departure 3.68 avg rating — 482 ratings — published 1943 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Gladiators by Arthur Koestler, Edith Simon (Translator) 3.85 avg rating — 421 ratings — published 1939 — 24 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Roots of Coincidence 3.82 avg rating — 401 ratings — published 1972 — 23 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by Arthur Koestler (?)

“The principal mark of genius is not perfection but originality, the opening of new frontiers.”
― Arthur Koestler

tags: creativity

129 likes

“Satan, on the contrary, is thin, ascetic and a fanatical devotee of logic. He reads Machiavelli, Ignatius of Loyola, Marx and Hegel; he is cold and unmerciful to mankind, out of a kind of mathematical mercifulness. He is damned always to do that which is most repugnant to him: to become a slaughterer, in order to abolish slaughtering, to sacrifice lambs so that no more lambs may be slaughtered, to whip people with knouts so that they may learn not to let themselves be whipped, to strip himself of every scruple in the name of a higher scrupulousness, and to challenge the hatred of mankind because of his love for it--an abstract and geometric love.”
― Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon

tags: ethics, satan

125 likes

“Nothing is more sad than the death of an illusion. ”
― Arthur Koestler

110 likes

See all Arthur Koestler's quotes »

Polls

November 2025 New School Poll

The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen (1929) 303 pages.

42 votes, 23.2%

The Periodic Table by Primo Levi (1975) 233 pages

37 votes, 20.4%

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. (1959) 338 pages

29 votes, 16.0%

Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Høeg (1992) 480 pages

22 votes, 12.2%

Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler (1940) 216 pages

21 votes, 11.6%

Doomsday Book (Oxford Time Travel, #1) by Connie Willis (1982) 578 pages

19 votes, 10.5%

The Atom Station by Halldór Laxness (1948) 192 pages.

11 votes, 6.1%

181 total votes

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Arthur Koestler’s Followers (938)

Arthur Koestler

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