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The Outsider is a non-fiction book by Colin Henry Wilson first published in 1956. Image File history File links Wiki_letter_w. ... Colin Henry Wilson (born June 26, 1931) is a British writer. ...

Through the works and lives of various artists - including H. G. Wells (Mind at the End of its Tether), Franz Kafka, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, T. S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, Harley Granville-Barker (The Secret Life), Herman Hesse, T. E. Lawrence, Vincent Van Gogh, Vaslav Nijinsky, George Bernard Shaw, William Blake, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Fyodor Dostoevsky - Wilson explores the psyche of the Outsider, his effect on society, and society's effect on him. Herbert George Wells (September 21, 1866 – August 13, 1946) was an English writer best known for such science fiction novels as The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, and The Island of Doctor Moreau. ... Kafka at the age of five Franz Kafka (IPA: ) (July 3, 1883 – June 3, 1924) was one of the major German-language novelists and short story writers of the 20th century, whose unique body of writing — much of it incomplete, and published posthumously despite his wish that it be destroyed... Albert Camus (pronounced ) (November 7, 1913 – January 4, 1960) was a Algerian-French author and philosopher. ... Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (June 21, 1905 – April 15, 1980), normally known simply as Jean-Paul Sartre (pronounced: ), was a French existentialist philosopher, dramatist and screenwriter, novelist and critic. ... Thomas Stearns Eliot, OM (September 26, 1888 ? January 4, 1965) was a poet, dramatist and literary critic, whose works, such as The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The Waste Land, The Hollow Men, and Four Quartets, are considered defining achievements of twentieth century Modernist poetry. ... Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. ... Harley Granville-Barker (November 25, 1877 – August 31, 1946) was a British actor, director, producer, critic and playwright. ... Hermann Hesse Hermann Hesse (July 2, 1877 – August 9, 1962) was a German author, and the winner of the 1946 Nobel Prize in literature. ... T.E. Lawrence. ... Vincent van Gogh is the current Good Article Collaboration of the week! Please help to improve this article to the highest of standards. ... Vaslav Fomich Nijinsky (Вацлав Фомич Нижинский; transliterated: Vatslav Fomich Nizhinsky; Polish: WacÅ‚aw NiżyÅ„ski) (March 12, 1890 – April 8, 1950) was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish origin. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... William Blake in an 1807 portrait by Thomas Phillips William Blake (November 28, 1757–August 12, 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (Russian: Фёдор Миха́йлович Достое́вский, Fëdor Mihajlovič Dostoevskij, sometimes transliterated Dostoyevsky  ) (November 11, 1821 [O.S. October 30] – February 9, 1881 [O.S. January 28]) is considered one of the greatest Russian writers. ...

The book is still published with enthusiastic comments from the likes of Edith Sitwell and Cyril Connelly adorning its cover. This recpetion - of his first book at the age of 24 - was a high critcal watermark for Wilson, a reputation that sunk as fast as it rocketted. It is still, however, an insightful work of literary and philosophical criticism - a timeless preoccupation which is perhaps more "respectable" then his subsequent dabblings in the Occult and Bumper Books of Mass Murderers. The book is structured in such a way as to mirror the "outsiders" experience - a sense of disclocation, a sense being at odds with society, is the life-experience of some of the hopeless cases he introduces early on. These are figures like Dostoevsky's' Insect-Man' who seem to be lost to despair and "non-transcendence" with no way out.

More successful - or at least hopeful - characters are then brought to the fore. These include Steppenwolf and even the hero of Camus' book of the same name - and 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. Satre's Nausea 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 normalised. Wilson then engages in some detailed case studies of artists who failed in this task and tries to understand thier weakness - which is either intellectual, of the body or of the emotions. The final chapter is Wilson's attempt at a "great syntheis" which he justifies his belief that western philosophy is afflicted with a needless "pessamistic fallacy" - a narrative he contiues throughout his ouvre under various names (St. Neot Margin for example) and illustrated in several metaphors ("everyday is christmas day").