The Glass Cage (1966)
Colin Wilson
With a new introduction by Geoff Ward
Book Description
A series of brutal and bizarre murders has London on edge. Near the dismembered corpse of each victim, the killer has scrawled cryptic quotations from the eighteenth-century mystic poet William Blake. Baffled, the police enlist the aid of Damon Reade, a brilliant but reclusive Blake scholar, who reluctantly agrees to help. Reade’s combination of instinctive deduction and psychic penetration leads him to Gaylord Sundheim, who may be the murderer. But when Reade befriends Sundheim and becomes convinced he is incapable of having committed the crimes, is he right and Sundheim innocent? Or is Reade falling into a clever psychopath’s deadly trap that could make him the next victim?
Colin Wilson (1930-2013) called The Glass Cage (1966) “perhaps my own favourite among my novels”. Both a page-turning serial killer mystery and an exploration of Wilson’s philosophy, The Glass Cage was praised by critics on its original appearance and remains just as gripping and compulsively readable today. This edition, the first since 1978, includes a new introduction by Geoff Ward.
Colin Wilson
With a new introduction by Geoff Ward
Book Description
A series of brutal and bizarre murders has London on edge. Near the dismembered corpse of each victim, the killer has scrawled cryptic quotations from the eighteenth-century mystic poet William Blake. Baffled, the police enlist the aid of Damon Reade, a brilliant but reclusive Blake scholar, who reluctantly agrees to help. Reade’s combination of instinctive deduction and psychic penetration leads him to Gaylord Sundheim, who may be the murderer. But when Reade befriends Sundheim and becomes convinced he is incapable of having committed the crimes, is he right and Sundheim innocent? Or is Reade falling into a clever psychopath’s deadly trap that could make him the next victim?
Colin Wilson (1930-2013) called The Glass Cage (1966) “perhaps my own favourite among my novels”. Both a page-turning serial killer mystery and an exploration of Wilson’s philosophy, The Glass Cage was praised by critics on its original appearance and remains just as gripping and compulsively readable today. This edition, the first since 1978, includes a new introduction by Geoff Ward.
reviews
“Intelligent psycho-thriller . . . the plot is ingenious, well-turned and never facile. A compulsive damp Saturday afternoon read.” – Observer
“Literate and enthralling . . . Far beyond the conventional mystery.” – Hollywood Reporter
“I read with something like fascination this extraordinary book about a multiple murderer who accompanies each corpse with a quotation from Blake.” – Guardian
“[A] splendid story . . . a gripping thriller about lust and perversion.” – Sunday Times (London)
“Literate and enthralling . . . Far beyond the conventional mystery.” – Hollywood Reporter
“I read with something like fascination this extraordinary book about a multiple murderer who accompanies each corpse with a quotation from Blake.” – Guardian
“[A] splendid story . . . a gripping thriller about lust and perversion.” – Sunday Times (London)
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BOOK DETAILS
ISBN: 1941147291 ISBN-13: 978-1941147290 $16.99 US, 304 pp. Trade paper Published 2013 |
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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Colin Wilson was born in Leicester in 1931. He left school at 16 and worked at various jobs while reading and writing in his spare time. His study The Outsider was published by Victor Gollancz in 1956 and became an overnight sensation in England and America, bringing widespread popular and critical attention to its 24 year old author; the book has never been out of print. He followed The Outsider with two further nonfiction works, Religion and the Rebel (1957) and The Age of Defeat (1959), which were not as well received, before turning to fiction in 1960 with Ritual in the Dark, a novel he had worked on since age 17.
He continued to write prolifically in numerous genres, both fiction and nonfiction, including works on the occult, crime, and serial killers. His prolific output of fiction includes two subsequent novels featuring Gerard Sorme, the protagonist of Ritual in the Dark--Man Without a Shadow (1963) and The God of the Labyrinth (1970)—as well as novels in the vein of H. P. Lovecraft, including The Mind Parasites (1967) and The Philosopher's Stone (1969).
Wilson published more than 150 books over a long career and lived for many years in Cornwall. He died in December 2013.
He continued to write prolifically in numerous genres, both fiction and nonfiction, including works on the occult, crime, and serial killers. His prolific output of fiction includes two subsequent novels featuring Gerard Sorme, the protagonist of Ritual in the Dark--Man Without a Shadow (1963) and The God of the Labyrinth (1970)—as well as novels in the vein of H. P. Lovecraft, including The Mind Parasites (1967) and The Philosopher's Stone (1969).
Wilson published more than 150 books over a long career and lived for many years in Cornwall. He died in December 2013.