Colin Wilson, The Outsider Review

Overall Rating

Wilson was young and "green" in many ways when he wrote this. There is an occasionally annoying repetitiveness in the use of analogies and the title term. Some of the terminology is slightly dated and naively applied, ie. "mystic" and "christian" have had a change of connotation in recent years. Some of his points are blunted by these flaws.

Asks questions that need to be asked, but only rarely are asked. Gives powerful sketches towards answers to those questions. Although often described as an "existentialist" work, "post-" or perhaps "super-existentialist" might be more appropriate. Overall, a brilliant and often disturbing read. Still relevant, perhaps more so, today.