Colin Wilson, The World of Violence

Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error
The World of Violence

(1963), Colin Wilson’s third novel, is a fascinating

Bildungsroman

, a novel of personal development and education, in which the first-person narrator and main protagonist, Hugh Greene, now aged about thirty-two, recounts his intellectual and existential progress from infancy to young manhood. His narrative moves between a vivid evocation of specific events and a more detached analysis of their meanings. The first part of the novel, called “The Outer Dark”, relates key incidents of his life between the ages of two and sixteen. Born in the early 1930s, Hugh is the first child of respectable middle-class parents in an unnamed provincial town (a sister, Anne, is born in 1942). His father is a solicitor in the local firm of Cheesman, Greene and Hake, and, in his…

3028 words

Citation: Tredell, Nicolas. "The World of Violence". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 May 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=23920, accessed 28 March 2024.]

23920 The World of Violence 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.