 | This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. (March 2021) |
 Dust-jacket of the first edition | |
| Author | Arthur C. Clarke |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Frank Kelly Freas |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Gnome Press |
Publication date | 1953 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 223 |
| Followed by | The City and the Stars |
Against the Fall of Night is a science fiction novel by British writer Arthur C. Clarke. Originally appearing as a novella in the November 1948 issue of the magazine Startling Stories, it was revised and expanded in 1951 and published in book form in 1953 by Gnome Press. It was later expanded and revised again and published in 1956 as The City and the Stars. A later edition includes another of Clarke's early works and is titled The Lion of Comarre and Against the Fall of Night. In 1990, with Clarke's approval, Gregory Benford wrote a sequel titled Beyond the Fall of Night, which continues the story arc of the 1953 novel. It is generally printed with the original novel as a single volume.
The title is from the poem "Smooth Between Sea and Land" by A. E. Housman, published in More Poems. Clarke explains: "I was also to discover the lines of A. E. Housman that not only described the locale perfectly, but also gave me the title of my first novel: 'Here on the level sand, between the sea and land, what shall I build or write against the fall of night?'".[citation needed]