Arthur Koestler fu un prolifico scrittore di saggi, romanzi e autobiografie. La sua carriera iniziale fu nel giornalismo, e in seguito divenne noto per i suoi intricati saggi e romanzi che spesso esploravano complesse idee politiche e filosofiche. Basandosi sulle sue esperienze, approfondì temi come la fede, il tradimento e la ricerca di significato in tempi turbolenti. La sua opera è caratterizzata da un acuto intelletto e da un potente stile narrativo.
Nicolaj Salmanovic Rubasciov è un commissario politico dell'Unione Societica durante la dittatura di Stalin. Il suo compito è quello di scoprire e interrogare gli avversari del regime. Un giorno però Rubasciov cade in disgrazia a sarà lui a subire tutti gli aberranti trattamenti a cui sottoponeva le sue vittime. In occasione del suo centenario la Mondadori ripropone in tiratura limitata una scelta di opere che hanno segnato la storia della collana "Medusa", riprendendone l'originale veste grafica ed editoriale.
This book traces the history of the ancient Khazar Empire, a major but almost
forgotten power in Eastern Europe, which in the Dark Ages became converted to
Judaism. Khazaria was finally wiped out by the forces of Genghis Khan, but
evidence indicates that the Khazars themselves migrated to Poland and formed
the cradle of Western Jewry. To the general reader the Khazars, who flourished
from the 7th to 11th century, may seem infinitely remote today. Yet they have
a close and unexpected bearing on our world, which emerges as Koestler
recounts the fascinating history of the ancient Khazar Empire. At about the
time that Charlemagne was Emperor in the West. The Khazars' sway extended from
the Black Sea to the Caspian, from the Caucasus to the Volga, and they were
instrumental in stopping the Muslim onslaught against Byzantium, the eastern
jaw of the gigantic pincer movement that in the West swept across northern
Africa and into Spain. Thereafter the Khazars found themselves in a precarious
position between the two major world powers: the Eastern Roman Empire in
Byzantium and the triumphant followers of Mohammed. As Koestler points out,
the Khazars were the Third World of their day. They chose a surprising method
of resisting both the Western pressure to become Christian and the Eastern to
adopt Islam. Rejecting both, they converted to Judaism. Mr. Koestler
speculates about the ultimate faith of the Khazars and their impact on the
racial composition and social heritage of modern Jewry. He produces detailed
research to support a theory which could make the term 'anti-Semitism' become
void of meaning
In this penetrating selection of essays and reviews, Arthur Koestler roves from Indian politics to the paranormal, from materialism to mysticism. Whether he is addressing a learned society on education or psychiatry, discussing ESP, reporting the Fischer-Spassky chess championship or taking a step into the 1980s, Koestler is always controversial, forthright and stimulating — above all, compulsively readable. [Taken from the back cover]
The book explores the historical foundations of the State of Israel through a unique lens, emphasizing the influence of irrational forces and emotional biases alongside traditional politico-economic factors. It is divided into three parts: "Background," which surveys key developments; "Close-up," focusing on specific events; and "Perspective," offering broader insights. The author aims to provide a balanced view by highlighting psychological elements in history, presenting a "psycho-somatic" understanding of this significant modern episode.
In The Sleepwalkers and The Act of Creation Arthur Koestler provided pioneering studies of scientific discovery and artistic inspiration, the twin pinnacles of human achievement. The Ghost in the Machine looks at the dark side of the coin: our terrible urge to self-destruction... Could the human species be a gigantic evolutionary mistake? To answer that startling question Koestler examines how experts on evolution and psychology all too often write about people with an 'antiquated slot-machine model based on the naively mechanistic world-view of the nineteenth century. His brilliant polemic helped to instigate a major revolution in the life sciences, yet its 'glimpses of an alternative world-view' form only the background to an even more challenging analysis of the human predicament. Perhaps, he suggests, we are a species in which ancient and recent brain structures - or reason and emotion - are not fully co-ordinated. Such in-built deficiencies may explain the paranoia, violence and insanity that are central strands of human history. And however disturbing we find such issues, Koestler contends, it is only when we face our limitations head-on that we can hope to find a remedy.
Fictional portrayal of the nightmare politics of our time. Its hero is an aging revolutionary, imprisoned and psychologically tortured by the Party to which he has dedicated his life. As the pressure to confess preposterous crimes increases, he re-lives a career that embodies the terrible ironies and human betrayals of a totalitarian movement masking itself as an instrument of deliverance
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.
