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

by Michael Scammell

Book Overview

From award-winning author Michael Scammell comes a monumental achievement: the first authorized biography of Arthur Koestler, one of the most influential and controversial intellectuals of the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394576306
• ISBN13: 9780394576305
• Release Date: December 2009
• Publisher: Random House (NY)
• Length: 689 Pages
• Weight: 0.18 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.8" x 6.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Koestler

Extremely interesting personlity and life. Well written and somewhat difficult to follow in some cases

The Last of the Twentieth Century Intellectual Renaissance men

Schrammell wrote this book with care, leaving nothing to chance. The result is a monumental work that contextualizes an important twentieth Century intellect, Arthur Koestler. Spread out on display for us to sample (in almost 700 pages) are the many facets of Koestler's life: the inner and outer turmoil, the brilliant and the profane, the deep and the shallow, the cowardly and the brave, the inveterate ladies man (the serial polygamist) and the insecure (mother hating) troll; both his many good and a few of his bad ideas. They are all carefully indexed and calibrated by Koestler's writings, which parallel his intellectual growth and development. They are all here in rich, carefully mined and uncovered, "living prose." The vantage point offered here is a product of Koestler having grown up in the right places at the right time and having the right constellation of experiences. He was literally baptized in Europe's intellectual fast lane. He rose from the lowest rung of the journalism profession, to a threadbare starving novelist, and finally as a man of distinction and of letters. And throughout it all, even though he was often the "youngest and almost always the prickliest man on the block" and often the "odd man out," this "electric eel" of a man, held his own and never once was found intellectually wanting. His intellect range over such a wide range of subjects, that today, being able to do so, would never be though of. He was equally facile in discussing Quantum Physics, Political Science, Psychology or art and Anthropology. It is the depth and breath of his knowledge that makes Koestler seem like the last of the Twentieth Century Intellectual Renaissance men. He migrated to Israel, became a Zionist and lived briefly in a Kibbutz. But later, as he did with Communism (after Stalin's "Show trials"), gave them both up. He was imprisoned by Franco in Spain, the Vichy French in France, barely escaped being caught by the Gestapo there, and served eight months in a British internment camp as a suspected communist agent and alien. He caroused with Albert Camus, Andre Malreaux, Jean Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, and Simone de Bouvier, to name just a few. He interviewed Albert Einstein and published with Sigmund Freud. After Stalin's Show trials punctured his utopian ideas about the Communist revolution, Koestler spent the rest of his life in search of the political and philosophical Holy Grail of a revolutionary political system that would not yield to the morally bankrupt "means-ends" calculus of absolute power. And although he never found it, most of his books, including his magnum opus "Darkness at Noon" were spent in search of a solution to this and similar overarching philosophical problems. Through Schrammell, we get a voyeur's seat at the table of some of the most momentous events and decisions of the 20th Century. Without making extended detours, the author fills in many historical blanks. He does this without allowing his

Superb biography

Arguably, Arthur Koestler was the ultimate emblematic figure of the twentieth century. He was everywhere--Hungary in the last days of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Palestine in the early twenties, Weimar Germany, the USSR in the 1930s, France during the "hollow years" of the 1930s, the Spanish Civil War, and Britain and the US during the Cold War. His books span an extraordinary range of fields. They are written in sparkling English, in fact his fourth language. Apart from his exciting (sometimes all-too-exciting) life, Koestler ranks in my view as a major thinker. Having been a Communist for seven years, he thoroughly unmasked that noxious set of illusions, notably in his "Darkness at Noon," perhaps the greatest political novel ever written. The left, of course, has never forgiven Koestler's "apostasy." In addition, his scientific trilogy, with "The Act of Creation" at the center, has held up remarkably well. Scammel's book, based on an astounding quantity of research, is by far the best account, demolishing many myths. Among these is the extreme charge that Koestler was a rapist. To be sure, he was a womanizer, but ranked far below, say, Warren Beatty in that realm. Some have found Koestler's complex views on Israel and the Jewish role in contemporary society disturbing. Yet they are based on much relevant experience and reflection. His controversial book on the Khazars, "The Thirteenth Tribe," has a new actuality, as DNA research, which he did not know about, trickles in. It's all in this amazing, encyclopedic work, which is truly worthy of its subject.

Koestler

This biography is a compelling read because it is imaginatively written and in an entertaining manner takes the reader through the life of an extremely gifted journalist and political activist who constantly searched for the truth in himself and in the events leading up to and following WW II. I bought this book after first reading a stimulating review appearing in the Wall Street Journal and after reading Koestler's Darkness at Noon. About half way through this biography I was motivated to buy and read Koestler's Dialog with Death.This biography provides interesting insights into the Spanish civil war, the progress of WW II in Europe, the rise and fall of Communism and the birth of Israel.

The best book about Arthur Koestler

I have just read the book about Koestler written by Michael Scammell. This book is a well-written and fascinating biography.This is simply the best book about Arthur Koestler that I have ever read and I have read a lot of books about Kostler. I have in my bookshelves eight other books about Koestler: David Cesaranis book "Arthur Koestler, John Atkins "Arthur Koestler", Mark Levenes "Arthur Koestler", George Mikes'"Arthur Koestler", Christian Buckards "Arthur Koestler - ein extremes leben", David Anderssons "Arthur Koestler", Ian Hamiltons "Koestler" and finally Michel Lavals "L'homme sans concessions". I have read them all and I find Scammels book being number one. Read it!