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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.
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
a large body of meticulously detailed research.
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.
PROMISE AND FULFILMENT Palestine TO ABRAM AND JASHA WEINSHALL
CITIZENS OF ISRAEL AS A TOKEN OF A QUARTER-CENTURY OF FRIENDSHIP
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS MY sincere thanks are due to R. H. S. Grossman, M.
P., and Messrs. Hamish Hamilton, for permission to use the long
extract pp. 102-7 from Grossmans Palestine Mission to a member of
the Israeli Foreign Office, who wishes to remain anonymous, for per
mission to print his Report from Jerusalem pp. 234-8 to Mr. George
Pape, Librarian of the Public Information Office in Tel Aviv, and
Dr. G. Pollack of the Israeli Ministry of Finance, for valuable
research work and to Miss Daphne Wood ward, for helping with the
proofs. A. K. PREFACE THIS book consists of three parts,
Background, Close-up and Perspective . The first part is a survey
of the develop ments which led to the foundation of the State of
Israel. It lays no claim to historical completeness, and is written
from a specific angle which stresses the part played by irrational
forces and emotive bias in history. I am not sure whether this
emphasis has not occasionally resulted in over-emphasis as is
almost in evitable when one tries to redress a balance by
spot-lighting aspects which are currently neglected. But it was
certainly not my intention, by underlining the psychological
factor, to deny or minimize the importance of the politico-economic
forces. My aim was rather to present, if I may borrow a current
medical term, a psycho-somatic view of one of the most curious
episodes in modern history. The second part, Close-up, is meant to
give the reader a close and coloured, but not I hope
technicoloured, view of the Jewish war and of everyday life in the
new State. It opens and ends with extracts fromthe diary of my last
sojourn as a war correspondent in Israel. The emphasis here is on
life in the towns, with only occasional glimpses of the collective
settlements, since I have given a detailed description of these in
an earlier book. The third part, Perspective, is an attempt to
present to the reader a comprehensive survey of the social and
political structure, the cultural trends and future prospects of
the Jewish State. I have tried to show elsewhere that the creative
processes of the artist and the scientist follow the same mental
pattern, and that the sciences may legitimately be called neutral
arts, separated from the emotive arts not by any distinct barrier
but merely by the quality of our emotive reactions. In this sense
vii Viii PROMISE AND FULFILMENT history, too, is a neutral art with
mythology and bardic folklore as connecting links to the emotive
arts of drama and fiction. But the emotive neutrality which should
characterize the chronicler is not the same thing as indifference,
and his object ivity can only be the result of a subjective passion
for the pursuit of truth. It is a poor sort of impartiality which
stands outside the parties, untouched by their emotions the good
judge, like the playwright and historian, absorbs the subjective
truth con tained in each of the conflicting pleas, and his verdict
is a syn thesis of their part-truths, not their denial. In other
words, r objectivity is a state of balanced emotions, not an
emotive vacuum. This book, then, should be regarded as a subjective
pursuit of the objective truth. I lived in Palestine from my
twentieth to my twenty-third year, as a farmer, tramp, and on
various odd jobs finally as a foreign correspondent. Ihave since
revisited the country at fairly regular intervals, and each of
these visits provided an occasion not only to study developments in
the country, but also my personal attitude to it. The last phase of
this pilgrims progress through a thicket of emotive and ideo
logical entanglements is summed up in the Epilogue. It may also be
read as a prologue, and serve as an indication of the point of view
from which certain controversial problems are treated in this
book...
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Darkness at Noon (Paperback)
Arthur Koestler; Translated by Philip Boehm
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R299
R243
Discovery Miles 2 430
Save R56 (19%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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A brilliant new translation of Koestler's long-lost original
manuscript. A chilling and unforgettable 20th century classic. From
a prison cell in an unnamed country run by a totalitarian
government Rubashov reflects. Once a powerful player in the regime,
mercilessly dispensing with anyone who got in the way of his
party's aims, Rubashov has had the tables turned on him. He has
been arrested and he'll be interrogated, probably tortured and
certainly executed. Darkness at Noon is as gripping as a thriller
and a seminal work of twentieth-century literature. Published in
Great Britain in 1940, it was feted by George Orwell, went on to be
translated into thirty languages and is considered the finest work
of pre-eminent European master, Arthur Koestler. And yet the
novel's worldwide reputation has, for over seventy years, been
based on the first incomplete and inexpert English translation -
Koestler's original manuscript was lost when he fled the German
occupation of Paris in 1940. In 2016, a student discovered that
long-lost manuscript in a Zurich archive. At last, with the
publication of this new translation of the rediscovered original,
Koestler's masterpiece can be experienced afresh and in its
entirety for the first time. THE NEW TRANSLATION BY PHILIP BOEHM
Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of
rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for
everyone!
PROMISE AND FULFILMENT Palestine TO ABRAM AND JASHA WEINSHALL
CITIZENS OF ISRAEL AS A TOKEN OF A QUARTER-CENTURY OF FRIENDSHIP
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS MY sincere thanks are due to R. H. S. Grossman, M.
P., and Messrs. Hamish Hamilton, for permission to use the long
extract pp. 102-7 from Grossmans Palestine Mission to a member of
the Israeli Foreign Office, who wishes to remain anonymous, for per
mission to print his Report from Jerusalem pp. 234-8 to Mr. George
Pape, Librarian of the Public Information Office in Tel Aviv, and
Dr. G. Pollack of the Israeli Ministry of Finance, for valuable
research work and to Miss Daphne Wood ward, for helping with the
proofs. A. K. PREFACE THIS book consists of three parts,
Background, Close-up and Perspective . The first part is a survey
of the develop ments which led to the foundation of the State of
Israel. It lays no claim to historical completeness, and is written
from a specific angle which stresses the part played by irrational
forces and emotive bias in history. I am not sure whether this
emphasis has not occasionally resulted in over-emphasis as is
almost in evitable when one tries to redress a balance by
spot-lighting aspects which are currently neglected. But it was
certainly not my intention, by underlining the psychological
factor, to deny or minimize the importance of the politico-economic
forces. My aim was rather to present, if I may borrow a current
medical term, a psycho-somatic view of one of the most curious
episodes in modern history. The second part, Close-up, is meant to
give the reader a close and coloured, but not I hope
technicoloured, view of the Jewish war and of everyday life in the
new State. It opens and ends with extracts fromthe diary of my last
sojourn as a war correspondent in Israel. The emphasis here is on
life in the towns, with only occasional glimpses of the collective
settlements, since I have given a detailed description of these in
an earlier book. The third part, Perspective, is an attempt to
present to the reader a comprehensive survey of the social and
political structure, the cultural trends and future prospects of
the Jewish State. I have tried to show elsewhere that the creative
processes of the artist and the scientist follow the same mental
pattern, and that the sciences may legitimately be called neutral
arts, separated from the emotive arts not by any distinct barrier
but merely by the quality of our emotive reactions. In this sense
vii Viii PROMISE AND FULFILMENT history, too, is a neutral art with
mythology and bardic folklore as connecting links to the emotive
arts of drama and fiction. But the emotive neutrality which should
characterize the chronicler is not the same thing as indifference,
and his object ivity can only be the result of a subjective passion
for the pursuit of truth. It is a poor sort of impartiality which
stands outside the parties, untouched by their emotions the good
judge, like the playwright and historian, absorbs the subjective
truth con tained in each of the conflicting pleas, and his verdict
is a syn thesis of their part-truths, not their denial. In other
words, r objectivity is a state of balanced emotions, not an
emotive vacuum. This book, then, should be regarded as a subjective
pursuit of the objective truth. I lived in Palestine from my
twentieth to my twenty-third year, as a farmer, tramp, and on
various odd jobs finally as a foreign correspondent. Ihave since
revisited the country at fairly regular intervals, and each of
these visits provided an occasion not only to study developments in
the country, but also my personal attitude to it. The last phase of
this pilgrims progress through a thicket of emotive and ideo
logical entanglements is summed up in the Epilogue. It may also be
read as a prologue, and serve as an indication of the point of view
from which certain controversial problems are treated in this
book...
This was the third novel of Arthur Koestler's trilogy on ends and means - the other two are THE GLADIATORS and DARKNESS AT NOON - and the first he wrote in English. The central theme is the conflict between morality and expediency, and in this novel Koestler worked it out in terms of individual psychology. Peter Slavek starts out as a brave young revolutionary, but suffers a breakdown. On the analyst's couch he is made to discover, in Koestler's own words, 'that his crusading zeal was derived from unconcious guilt'.
A daring novella about the loss of innocence in pre-war Germany.
"Reunion "is the story of intense and innocent devotion between two
young men growing up in "the soft, serene, bluish hills of Swabia,"
and the sinister (but all too mundane) forces that end both their
friendship and their childhood.
The year is 1932. Hans Schwartz is Jewish, the son of a Stuttgart
doctor who asserts that the rise of the Nazis is "a temporary
illness, something like measles which will pass off as soon as the
economic situation improves." The Holocaust would be unthinkable
for these characters, but of course it looms over the story: Hans's
friend, the young Count Konradin von Hohenfels, has a mother who
keeps a portrait of Hitler on her dresser. The two boys share their
most private thoughts and trips to the countryside of southwest
Germany, discuss poetry and the past and present of their country,
and argue the existence of a benevolent God.
The eventual disintegration of this cherished relationship
foreshadows the fate of Europe's Jews-- but Uhlman doesn't end his
story with neat polarities. Years later, exiled in America, Hans
comes upon a revelation about von Hohenfels which provides a
stunning denouement and leaves the reader recalling Uhlman's
haunting, lyrical descriptions of the vineyards, opera houses, and
dark forests of Wurttemberg.
"Hundreds of bulky tomes have now been written about the age when
corpses were melted into soap to keep the master race clean; yet I
sincerely believe that this slim volume will find its lasting place
on the shelves."--Arthur Koestler, from the "Introduction"
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Reflections on Hanging (Paperback)
Arthur Koestler; Preface by Edmond Cahn; Afterword by Sydney Silverman
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R678
R566
Discovery Miles 5 660
Save R112 (17%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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Reflections on Hanging is a searing indictment of capital
punishment, inspired by its author's own time in the shadow of a
firing squad. During the Spanish Civil War, Arthur Koestler was
held by the Franco regime as a political prisoner, and condemned to
death. He was freed, but only after months of witnessing the fates
of less-fortunate inmates. That experience informs every page of
the book, which was first published in England in 1956, and
followed in 1957 by this American edition. As Koestler ranges
across the history of capital punishment in Britain (with a focus
on hanging), he looks at notable cases and rulings, and portrays
politicians, judges, lawyers, scholars, clergymen, doctors, police,
jailers, prisoners, and others involved in the long debate over the
justness and effectiveness of the death penalty. In Britain,
Reflections on Hanging was part of a concerted, ultimately
successful effort to abolish the death penalty. At that time, in
the forty-eight United States, capital punishment was sanctioned in
forty-two of them, with hanging still practiced in five. This
edition includes a preface and afterword written especially for the
1957 American edition. The preface makes the book relevant to
readers in the U.S.; the afterword overviews the modern-day history
of abolitionist legislation in the British Parliament. Reflections
on Hanging is relentless, biting, and unsparing in its details of
botched and unjust executions. It is a classic work of advocacy for
some of society's most defenseless members, a critique of capital
punishment that is still widely cited, and an enduring work that
presaged such contemporary problems as the sensationalism of crime,
the wrongful condemnation of the innocent and mentally ill, the
callousness of penal systems, and the use of fear to control a
citizenry.
This is a new release of the original 1942 edition.
This is a new release of the original 1942 edition.
Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of
rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for
everyone!
The world chess championship between Boris Spassky and Bobby
Fischer at Reykjavik in 1972 was the most widely publicised and
eagerly analysed beforehand of any chess match to date. It seized
the attention of the world's press and media in general in
unprecedented fashion and inspired more books and column inches
than any chess contest before or since. Hardinge Simpole now
commemorate this stellar chess clash by reprinting the eye witness
accounts by Grandmaster Emeritus Harry Golombek OBE and Professor
George Steiner. Grandmaster Golombek analyses the moves while
Professor Steiner searches for the meaning behind the circus. To
top it all, Arthur Koestler, one of the keenest intellects of the
20th century, adds an introduction to complete a remarkable tour de
force of intellectual exegesis of a great turning point in world
chess.
Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of
rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for
everyone!
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.
Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of
rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for
everyone!
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.
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