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.
Taken together, Arthur Koestler's volumes of autobiography constitute an unrivalled study of twentieth-century man and his dilemma. It puts in perspective his experiences in Franco's prisons under sentence of death and in concentration camps in Occupied France and ends with his escape in 1940 to England, where he found stability and a new home.
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
A new edition of Arthur Koestler's gripping tale of arrest, imprisonment, and subsequent escape to London from Nazi-occupied France.
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 author examines the idea that we are at our most creative when rational thought is suspended-for example, in dreams and trancelike states.
The first volume of the remarkable autobiography of Arthur Koestler, author of Darkness at Noon. In 1931, Arthur Koestler joined the Communist Party, an event he felt to be second only in importance to his birth in shaping his destiny.
Drawing from his harrowing experiences as a political prisoner during the Spanish Civil War, the author delivers a powerful critique of capital punishment. Having faced execution by a firing squad, he reflects on the moral implications and human cost of such a system, shaped by the suffering of fellow inmates. Originally published in 1956, this work combines personal narrative with broader societal commentary, making it a poignant exploration of justice and inhumanity.
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.
The book focuses on the scarcity and rising costs of early 20th-century literature. It emphasizes the effort to republish these classic works in accessible, high-quality editions that retain the original text and artwork. This initiative aims to make timeless literature available to a broader audience while preserving its historical significance.
The most adventourous, polymathic - and readable - scientific populariser of the age offers in Janus a summing up of a quarter of a century's study and speculations on the life sciences and their philosophic implications. Koestler has an interesting theme to propose. It is this; the human brain has developed a terrible biological flaw, such that it is working now against the survival of the race. Something has "snapped" inside the brain. It is no longer necessarily a function which will lead us to a better world, but something demonic, possessed, perhaps even evil. The anguished humanity of Koestler's concepts and the lucid energy of his style comman respect. Here is one of the major political "experiencers" an dmost widely informed spirits of the age turning to the crux of human survival on a ravaged planet. The title of the book tells not only of a central allegory of division in the human species. It stands for the rare tension on Koestler's discourses: between desolation and zest, between darkness and noon.