''Arrival and Departure'' (1943) is the third novel of

Arthur Koestler Arthur Koestler, (, ; ; hu, Kösztler Artúr; 5 September 1905 – 1 March 1983) was a Hungarian-born author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest and, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria. In 1931, Koestler join ...

's trilogy concerning the conflict between morality and expedience (as described in the postscript to the novel's 1966 Danube Edition). The first volume, '' The Gladiators'', is about the subversion of the Spartacus revolt, and the second, ''

Darkness at Noon ''Darkness at Noon'' (german: link=no, Sonnenfinsternis) is a novel by Hungarian-born novelist Arthur Koestler, first published in 1940. His best known work, it is the tale of Rubashov, an Old Bolshevik who is arrested, imprisoned, and tried f ...

'', is the celebrated novel about the Soviet Show trials. ''Arrival and Departure'' was Koestler's first full-length work in English, ''The Gladiators'' and ''

'' having originally been written in German. It is often considered to be the weakest of the three. Reviewing the novel in December 1943

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitar ...

called it notable "for what must be one of the most shocking descriptions of

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

terrorism that have ever been written."

Plot

Written during the middle of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, ''Arrival and Departure'' reflects Koestler's own plight as a Hungarian refugee. Like Koestler, the main character is a former member of the

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

party. He escapes to "Neutralia," a neutral country based on Portugal, where Koestler himself had gone, and flees from there. ( Harold Rosenberg wrote in a book review in '' Partisan Review'' that "there ought to be a law against such place-names.") Reflecting Koestler's later life relationship with science, and particularly his disagreement with various movements within psychiatry, the main character emerges from treatment psychically neutered, and the critical question of the novel is how much of his later trauma and political activity is due to a small incident in his childhood.

References

1943 British novels Novels by Arthur Koestler Jonathan Cape books {{1940s-novel-stub