Colin
Wilson’s Outsider Cycle is the collective label
applied to the seven philosophy books, outlining his New
Existentialism, which were published between the years
1956 and 1966:
- The
Outsider
(1956)
- Religion
and the Rebel
(1957)
- The
Age of Defeat (aka
The Stature of Man) (1959)
- The
Strength to Dream: literature and the imagination
(1962)
- Origins
of the Sexual Impulse (1963)
- Beyond
the Outsider: the philosophy of the future (1965)
- Introduction
to the New Existentialism (aka
The New Existentialism) (1966)
Any
connection between the books went unnoticed by the
(mostly) hostile critics of the day until Wilson
announced in his Preface to book 6 that: “These books
are closely linked—so closely that it is impossible
for any one of them to be understood without the
others”
(Beyond
the Outsider, p.11).
Colin
Stanley examines these titles closely, provides an essay
on each, assesses the critical appraisal and appends
full bibliographical details (extracted from his Colin
Wilson, the first fifty years: an existential
bibliography, 1956-2005) but admits that,
because the books themselves are eminently
readable, attempts
at elucidation can often have the opposite result. For
those requiring further clarification, however, Wilson
himself has written an Afterword, explaining the Outsider
Cycle, nearly 45 years on.
ISSN
0959-180-X
(Colin Wilson Studies #15)
ISBN
9780946650965
March
2, 2009. iv, 158p. £7.95*. Paper.
*Includes
postage to UK addresses. Overseas customers at cost.
Pay
by PayPal or cheque (in UK pounds) payable to Colin
Stanley.
**Pre-publication
offer of £7 for orders received before March 2**
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