''The Outsider'' is a 1956 book by English writer

Colin Wilson Colin Henry Wilson (26 June 1931 – 5 December 2013) was an English existentialist philosopher-novelist. He also wrote widely on true crime, mysticism and the paranormal, eventually writing more than a hundred books. Wilson called his p ...

. Through the works and lives of various artists – including

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, hist ...

('' Mind at the End of Its Tether''),

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of Litera ...

Albert Camus Albert Camus ( ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, journalist, world federalist, and political activist. He was the recipient of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the s ...

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary criticism, literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th ...

T. S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist and playwright.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biography''. New York: Oxford University ...

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Harley Granville-Barker Harley Granville-Barker (25 November 1877 – 31 August 1946) was an English actor, director, playwright, manager, critic, and theorist. After early success as an actor in the plays of George Bernard Shaw, he increasingly turned to directing a ...

(''The Secret Life''),

Hermann Hesse Hermann Karl Hesse (; 2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a Germans, German-Swiss people, Swiss poet and novelist, and the 1946 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His interest in Eastern philosophy, Eastern religious, spiritual, and philosophic ...

, T. E. Lawrence,

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Vaslav Nijinsky Vaslav or Vatslav Nijinsky (12 March 1889/18908 April 1950) was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish ancestry. He is regarded as the greatest male dancer of the early 20th century. Nijinsky was celebrated for his virtuosity and f ...

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 188 ...

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Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philology, classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche bec ...

Fyodor Dostoyevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in both Russian literature, Russian and world literature, and many of his works are consider ...

and

George Gurdjieff George Ivanovich Gurdjieff ( – 29 October 1949) was a philosopher, mystic, spiritual teacher, composer, and movements teacher. Born in the Russian Empire, he briefly became a citizen of the First Republic of Armenia after its formation in 1 ...

– Wilson explores the psyche of the Outsider, his effect on society, and society's effect on him. On Christmas Day 1954, alone in his room, Wilson sat down on his bed and began to write in his journal. He described his feelings as follows: ''The Outsider'' has been translated into over thirty languages (including Russian and Chinese) and never been out of print since publication day of 28 May 1956. Wilson wrote much of it in the Reading Room of the

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, and during this period was, for a time, living in a sleeping bag on

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. He continued to work on it at a furious pace and: Gollancz was the head of publishers

Victor Gollancz Ltd Victor Gollancz Ltd () was a major British book publishing house of the twentieth century and continues to publish science fiction and fantasy titles as an imprint of Orion Publishing Group. Gollancz was founded in 1927 by Victor Gollancz, an ...

. Wilson was inspired to send the book to him after he found a copy of the publisher's own book '' A Year of Grace'' in a second-hand bookshop, which led him to believe that he had found a sympathetic publisher. Gollancz, who was interested in philosophy, agreed to publish Wilson's book. Initially, Wilson intended to call the book ''The Pain Threshold''; however, Gollancz persuaded Wilson to change the title to ''The Outsider'' instead. Gollancz ordered an initial print-run of 5,000 copies for the book. He gave a copy of the manuscript to

Edith Sitwell Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell (7 September 1887 – 9 December 1964) was a British poet and critic and the eldest of the three literary Sitwells. She reacted badly to her eccentric, unloving parents and lived much of her life with her governess ...

, who called the book "astonishing" and claimed that Wilson would be a "truly great writer".

The book is structured in order to mirror the Outsider's experience: a sense of dislocation, or of being at odds with society. These are figures like Dostoyevsky's "Underground-Man" who seem to be lost to despair and non-transcendence with no way out. Characters are then brought to the fore (including the title character from Hermann Hesse's novel '' Steppenwolf''). These are presented as examples of those who have insightful moments of lucidity in which they feel as though things are worthwhile/meaningful amidst their shared, usual, experience of nihilism and gloom. Sartre's ''

Nausea Nausea is a diffuse sensation of unease and discomfort, sometimes perceived as an urge to vomit. It can be a debilitating symptom if prolonged and has been described as placing discomfort on the chest, abdomen, or back of the throat. Over 30 d ...

'' is herein the key text – and the moment when the hero listens to a song in a cafe which momentarily lifts his spirits is the outlook on life to be normalized. Wilson then engages in some detailed case studies of artists who failed in this task and try to understand their weakness – which is either intellectual, of the body or of the emotions. The final chapter is Wilson's attempt at a "great synthesis" in which he justifies his belief that western philosophy is afflicted with a needless pessimistic fallacy.

Reception

On the 27th May 1956, (a day before publication)

Cyril Connolly Cyril Vernon Connolly CBE (10 September 1903 – 26 November 1974) was an English literary critic and writer. He was the editor of the influential literary magazine ''Horizon (British magazine), Horizon'' (1940–49) and wrote ''Enemies of Pro ...

in ''

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'' and Philip Toynbee in ''

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'' both praised ''The Outsider''. Connolly called The Outsider "one of the most remarkable first books I have read for a long time", and Toynbee called it "luminously intelligent".

Elizabeth Bowen Elizabeth Dorothea Cole Bowen ( ; 7 June 1899 – 22 February 1973) was an Anglo-Irish people, Anglo-Irish novelist and short story writer notable for her books about "The Big House in Ireland, the Big House" of Irish Landed gentry, landed ...

in the ''

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'' called Wilson's book "brilliant". However, in June,

Kingsley Amis Sir Kingsley William Amis (16 April 1922 – 22 October 1995) was an English novelist, poet, critic and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, short stories, radio and television scripts, and works of social crit ...

in ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...

'' and Burns Singer in '' Time and Tide'' both gave negative reviews to ''The Outsider''. In the same month, J. B. Priestley in the ''

New Statesman ''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...

'' lauded the writing style of ''The Outsider'', but expressed doubts about the lasting value of Wilson's ideas. On the 13th July,

Daniel Farson Daniel James Negley Farson (8 January 1927 – 27 November 1997) was a British writer and broadcaster, strongly identified with the early days of commercial television in the UK, when his sharp, investigative style contrasted with the BBC's mor ...

wrote a sympathetic account of Wilson and his book for the ''

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''. Farson stated that ''The Outsider'' had received "the most rapturous reception of any book since the war." As a result of this largely positive coverage, ''The Outsider'' became a bestseller. Harry Ritchie has stated about the initial reception of the book: "the acclaim was so spectacular that Wilson became a national celebrity overnight." Later reviews of ''The Outsider'' were more sceptical. Philosopher A. J. Ayer, writing in '' Encounter'' magazine in September 1956, argued that Wilson's book failed to define the essential characteristics of "the Outsider", stating that "he gives us various indications which do not make an entirely coherent picture."

Raymond Williams Raymond Henry Williams (31 August 1921 – 26 January 1988) was a Welsh socialist writer, academic, novelist and critic influential within the New Left and in wider culture. His writings on politics, culture, the media and literature contribu ...

in ''Essays In Criticism'' in January 1957, claimed that in ''The Outsider'' Wilson treated "his own feelings as if they were self-evident truths." The book has never been out of print since publication in May 1956 and has been translated into at least thirty languages. Wilson helped to keep the work fresh by adding to it over the years: the 1967 paperback edition included a fifteen-page postscript; a ten-page essay ''The Outsider, twenty years on'' was added to the 1978 edition; and in 2001 an index appeared for the first time alongside fifteen pages of postscripts originally written for a Chinese translation. It is still published with enthusiastic comments from the likes of

and

adorning its cover. This reception – of his first book at the age of 24 – was a high critical watermark for Wilson which he did not achieve again until the publication of ''The Occult'' in 1971, after which he enjoyed a long and fruitful career as a writer, philosopher, novelist, lecturer and broadcaster until his death in 2013.

Sequels

Wilson followed ''The Outsider'' with six philosophical titles, which have become known as ''The Outsider Cycle'': '' Religion and the Rebel'' (1957), ''The Age of Defeat'' (''The Stature of Man'' in the U.S., 1959), ''The Strength to Dream'' (1962), ''Origins of the Sexual Impulse'' (1963), ''Beyond the Outsider'' (1965) and the summary volume ''Introduction to the New Existentialism'' (1966). These were accompanied by a string of novels aimed at putting his philosophical ideas into action.

Cultural References

In 1957,

Angus Wilson Sir Angus Frank Johnstone-Wilson (11 August 191331 May 1991) was an English novelist and short story writer. He was one of England's first openly gay authors. He was awarded the 1958 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for '' The Middle Age of Mrs ...

wrote a short story, "A bit off the map", where he satirized Colin Wilson and the ideas that Wilson had put forth in ''The Outsider''.

References

External links

''Life'' magazine article Oct. 1, 1956

List of works discussed in ''The Outsider'', with links to online versions, where available
{{DEFAULTSORT:Outsider, The 1956 non-fiction books Books by Colin Wilson English-language non-fiction books Sociology books Victor Gollancz Ltd books Works about existentialism

Contents

Reception

Sequels

Cultural References

References

External links