2009, ISBN: 080f8ce8e4bc2bbe42e8ef96026f3ef7

[SC: 21.94], [PU: Random House Inc., New York NY,], LITERATURE::10 LITERARY BIOGRAPHY, REMAINDERS - // BIOGRAPHY 93598, Octavo; hardcover, quarter-bound in papered boards, with gilt spine… More...

[SC: 21.94], [PU: Random House Inc., New York NY,], LITERATURE::10 LITERARY BIOGRAPHY, REMAINDERS - // BIOGRAPHY 93598, Octavo; hardcover, quarter-bound in papered boards, with gilt spine-titling; 673pp., with 16pp. of monochrome plates. Dustwrapper. Remainder. New. Postage quoted is for a standard format octavo book. Final charges may vary depending on size and weight. "There is no argument about Koestler's importance. His novel Darkness at Noon, with its insights into the Stalinist trials and executions of Old Bolsheviks, is an extraordinarily powerful work. It is not the kind of classic you ever want to re-read, but at the time and long afterwards it did Soviet Communism more damage than any other work of fiction. In alerting intellectuals to the dangers of Marxism, Koestler may have been less influential than Orwell in the English-speaking world, but on the Continent he was unrivalled. Moreover he followed it up with constant lectures, speeches and writings and by taking a leading role in the Congress for Cultural Freedom, and ensuring the West won the Cold War intellectually, before Reagan, Thatcher and John Paul II won it politically and economically after his death. It matters not that Koestler never again reached the heights of Darkness at Noon. The next 40 years were filled with literary activity on a huge variety of subjects, parapsychology, telepathy, abolishing capital punishment, the roots of creation, the way the mind works and other scientific and pseudo-scientific matters. None of his books quite hit the jackpot again, and some were failures. If in the earlier part of his life he ran in tandem with Orwell, in the second half he was a doppelganger of Aldous Huxley. Still, it is not given to many writers to produce one book of first-class importance. In 1998 a panel of writers and intellectuals from all over the world voted Darkness at Noon as the eighth best and most significant novel of the 20th century. The question, then, is not Koestler's status, but his character. Was he a brute, especially in his relations with women? All his adult life he was a tireless seducer of women, and on the whole a very successful one. .Koestler undoubtedly could be physically brutal to women. He once admitted, 'I felt it would be worthwhile to hang or do 20 years in gaol for killing a woman'. Janetta Jackson said his relationship with her was 'an odd mixture of consideration, thoughtfulness and extraordinary brutality'. She added: 'He was not the sort of man who was systematically violent to women or got pleasure out of it. It was just that he sometimes lost his temper and slapped you.' Her conclusion was that 'at heart he hated women'. .The truth was that Koestler was a man of many transient beliefs, and none. He had no religion. He was a Zionist, then a Communist, then a searcher for para-psychological mysteries. But he had no moral code by which to live, other than what he invented for himself at any one time. That made him, as someone of strong will and great brainpower, a dangerous fellow. " - Paul Johnson 9780394576305<

2009, ISBN: 080f8ce8e4bc2bbe42e8ef96026f3ef7

[PU: Random House Inc., New York NY,], LITERARY BIOGRAPHY REMAINDERS 93598, Octavo; hardcover, quarter-bound in papered boards, with gilt spine-titling; 673pp., with 16pp. of monochrome p… More...

[PU: Random House Inc., New York NY,], LITERARY BIOGRAPHY REMAINDERS 93598, Octavo; hardcover, quarter-bound in papered boards, with gilt spine-titling; 673pp., with 16pp. of monochrome plates. Dustwrapper. Remainder. New. Postage quoted is for a standard format octavo book. Final charges may vary depending on size and weight. "There is no argument about Koestler's importance. His novel Darkness at Noon, with its insights into the Stalinist trials and executions of Old Bolsheviks, is an extraordinarily powerful work. It is not the kind of classic you ever want to re-read, but at the time and long afterwards it did Soviet Communism more damage than any other work of fiction. In alerting intellectuals to the dangers of Marxism, Koestler may have been less influential than Orwell in the English-speaking world, but on the Continent he was unrivalled. Moreover he followed it up with constant lectures, speeches and writings and by taking a leading role in the Congress for Cultural Freedom, and ensuring the West won the Cold War intellectually, before Reagan, Thatcher and John Paul II won it politically and economically after his death. It matters not that Koestler never again reached the heights of Darkness at Noon. The next 40 years were filled with literary activity on a huge variety of subjects, parapsychology, telepathy, abolishing capital punishment, the roots of creation, the way the mind works and other scientific and pseudo-scientific matters. None of his books quite hit the jackpot again, and some were failures. If in the earlier part of his life he ran in tandem with Orwell, in the second half he was a doppelganger of Aldous Huxley. Still, it is not given to many writers to produce one book of first-class importance. In 1998 a panel of writers and intellectuals from all over the world voted Darkness at Noon as the eighth best and most significant novel of the 20th century. The question, then, is not Koestler's status, but his character. Was he a brute, especially in his relations with women? All his adult life he was a tireless seducer of women, and on the whole a very successful one. .Koestler undoubtedly could be physically brutal to women. He once admitted, 'I felt it would be worthwhile to hang or do 20 years in gaol for killing a woman'. Janetta Jackson said his relationship with her was 'an odd mixture of consideration, thoughtfulness and extraordinary brutality'. She added: 'He was not the sort of man who was systematically violent to women or got pleasure out of it. It was just that he sometimes lost his temper and slapped you.' Her conclusion was that 'at heart he hated women'. .The truth was that Koestler was a man of many transient beliefs, and none. He had no religion. He was a Zionist, then a Communist, then a searcher for para-psychological mysteries. But he had no moral code by which to live, other than what he invented for himself at any one time. That made him, as someone of strong will and great brainpower, a dangerous fellow. " - Paul Johnson 9780394576305<

2009, ISBN: 080f8ce8e4bc2bbe42e8ef96026f3ef7

[PU: New York: Random House (2009)], LITERATURE, Jacket, 240x160: xxiv,694pp. black and white plates, index. Textured papered boards (Hardback) in dust jacket, Very Good/Very Good, remain… More...

[PU: New York: Random House (2009)], LITERATURE, Jacket, 240x160: xxiv,694pp. black and white plates, index. Textured papered boards (Hardback) in dust jacket, Very Good/Very Good, remainder mark on bottom edge. ISBN: 9780 394 57630 5 , Weight: 1150g. .<