Customer Reviews

Ritual in the Dark (New Portway Reprints)

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Amazing that premise of this book hasn't been discussed. The use of allegories to represent the different types of man...thinking, no feeling or feeling, no thinking, etc. The use of the Jack the Ripper case in a fictional setting. This book is the one that jumped out at me with the somewhat odd cover, though it seems just like a portrait of Wilson as a young man...it's more. I quickly became a huge fan and tried my best (not being in England) to gather the fiction and non-fiction of Colin Wilson...a difficult task...sprawling used book stores. This is the first in a trio of books and the second two books are quite difficult to find...but possible. The second, Gerard Sorme, Sex Diary of a Metaphysician (American title) continues the characters and absorbs us in the bizarre world of sex...perhaps a nice image of the free wheeling 60's. Some strange characters enter his books. It can easily be seen that Wilson is mainly a non-fiction writer as he always puts long conversations of philosophy among his fiction. Bits of sexology, psychology, criminology, religion, and the very nature of the human mind and condition. The third book in the trilogy..The God of the Labyrinth...is completely out of print, but once found makes an interesting companion to the first two in the series. Whew...Wilson opened his mind to all sorts of things and this rather bizarre story blew out. His hero Sorme is almost unrecognizable. If you like this book (Ritual in the Dark) check out Adrift in Soho...a fictional story of the time in England that Wilson was writing Ritual in the Dark and his better known the Outsider. I do wish Wilson would write more fiction, though...as his non-fiction accounts are getting a bit crazy. The later Mind Parasites and the Personality Surgeon have the same thought-provoking bits that Wilson loves to dazzle his readers with...great stuff. I would love for the US to discover Wilson and re-publish his books for mass consumption.

This was Wilson's first novel, written when he was 17 years old, although not pulished until after his initial success with "The Outsider" seven years later. It contains in embryo all of the themes that Wilson was concerned with throughout his long and very productiove career . . . the paranormal, psychology, the "narrowness of consciousness", peak experiences, murder, and so on. The gist of the book is Wilson's casting of three primary characters as different sorts of "outsiders": the physical, represented by the killer (based on Nijinsky), the intellectual (based on himself) amd the emotional (based on Van Gogh). None of the three characters seem to be able to find any sort of place in the world where they really belong. They sense that the world that they have are living in is largely false, but see no clear way to get out of their dilemma. The faults of the book are many. For one thing, the book was a vehicle for Wilson's ideas and so rather than focusing on the plot or the characters, he focuses on the ideas, cramming long philosophical discourses which rather fracture the story up a bit. His philosophy is also a bit juvenile here, although I suppose that is to be expected from a 17 year old. The main character often seems to ba far too intellectual, and as this is only a slightly disguised portrait of Wilson himself, he seems to be so enchanted with his own mental abilities that he seems to mistake his ideas for reality. For example, he has no problems whatsoever attempting to free a murderer from the police, because as Wilson sees it, murder is just a metaphor for the killers dissatisfaction with society. The killer "feels"taken advantage of, thus he shows his resentment by butchering people, and this seems to be condoned. No thought whatsoever is given to the person who lies dead at the hands of a monster who decided to take their life to fulfil his own sense of inferiority. Wilson also seems to have no understanding of the criminal mind whatsoever -- sex murderers generally do not kill their victims as a means of social protest, but because they have a deep sense of hatred towards other people. And in general homosexual sex murderers do not kill females, which gives the story an even more absurd twist. A good read, but a vastly inferior work to Wilson's later philosophical essays.

This book starts out well, but it gets tiring as one reads on. The end of the story is far from satisfactory, and the confusion of philosophy and reality make it obvious that Wilson still had far to go as a writer. But for an 18-year old, it is an impressive first book. The three outsiders are here (emotional, intellectual, and sensual) ... many of Wilson's later ideas are here in embryonic form; the peak experience, the narrowness of consciousness, the outsider, etc. It is a fairly enjoyable read, but it should be considered as Colin Wilson-lite.

Not a great fan of fiction... but enjoy Colin Wilson. He is cleaner with non-fiction. This book is crafted well... a little too much English. But it has staying power and when you finish, you are somewhat stunned ... until you think. Then the book and his philosophy opens up your mind and that is the point .. isn't it.

Although it is a few years since reading this novel, I consider it to be one of the best I have ever read. Colin Wilson has the ability to use fiction to open up you mind so that you can explore your philosophies and understandings. Highly recommended to people who enjoy reading to learn, not to escape in to a mindless paradise.

Enjoyable read however, technically flawed, specifically the ending. It wraps up much too neatly, particulary the bizarre acceptance of the murderer's incorrigible behavior by Sorme, but particularly Gertrude. Her response to Sorme as well as her reaction to the truth is completely out of character.

If you enjoy character development and philosphical discourse in layman's terms, you will appreciate this work. The plot however, is weak and slow moving. I actually like that aspect of it.