Colin Wilson, The Outsider

Colin Stanley (University of Nottingham)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of York), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Domains

Philosophy (any)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1956

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Commentary / criticism

Resources

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A most unlikely bestseller,

The Outsider

, billed as “An enquiry into the sickness of mankind in the twentieth century”, and in later editions as “The definitive study of alienation, creativity and the modern mind”, nevertheless ran to ten impressions between late May and early October 1956. In 1985, when the book was in its eighteenth impression, the U.K. publishers, Victor Gollancz, announced that 46,000 copies had been sold in hardback alone. It has now been translated into nearly thirty languages and never been out-of-print in English or Japanese.

An “Outsider” is simply defined as “he who cannot accept life as it is” (82)†. So, in a sense, most of us are Outsiders—after all, who has not, at some point, felt that there is more to life than meets the eye? Wilson,

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2746 words

Citation: Stanley, Colin. "The Outsider". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 March 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7317, accessed 26 November 2024.]