Colin Wilson, The Glass Cage

Nicolas Tredell (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1966

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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The Glass Cage

(1966), Colin Wilson’s sixth novel, could be called a metaphysical thriller, like his first novel

Ritual in the Dark

(1960) and his fifth,

Necessary Doubt

(1964). Wilson himself has said that in

Cage

he was “deliberately constructing a plot that parallels that of

Ritual”

(Wilson (1969), 159) and that he was “reworking the basic themes” of his first novel “in an attempt to create a clearer contrast between the psychology of the criminal and the mystic” (Wilson (1975), 236). Where

Ritual

centred on the hunt for a modern Jack the Ripper,

The Glass Cage

is driven by the hunt for a serial killer who bears some resemblance to the real-life figure known as “Jack the Stripper” whose eight female victims were found stripped naked, mostly on the foreshore of the…

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4304 words

Citation: Tredell, Nicolas. "The Glass Cage". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 June 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=23928, accessed 23 April 2024.]

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