Koestler: The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth-Century Skeptic

Koestler - Finally a biography on an author who exposed Stalinism

An excellent biography on Koestler by a brilliant biographer of Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Scammell exposes Stalinism and Totalitarianism before it became a primary theme of books such as Hannah Arendt's "On Totalitatianism", Brezinski's and Friedrich's "Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy" and Abbot Gleason's "Totalitarianism". Koestler's "Darkness at Noon" is still a standard today in respect to studies of Stalinism and the Yezhovshchina or "Purge Trials" of the 1930's. Scammell takes the reader through the typical political meanderings of many liberals of the 1920's who saw in the communist movement a path to democracy. However, once Stalin came to power, these same intellectuals turned against Stalin and communism and moderated to the center and right in rejecting the communist paradigm. This book is an excellent read in respect to such an intellectual journey.