Colin Wilson, Man Without a Shadow: the diary of an existentialist

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Colin Wilson’s fourth novel, which appeared as

Man Without a Shadow: The Diary of an Existentialist

(1963) in the UK and under the rather more lurid title of

The Sex Diary of Gerard Sorme

in the USA, is a lively exploration of its narrator’s (and Wilson’s) ideas about the potential of the human mind to transform men into godlike creatures who will embody the next stage of human evolution and about sexuality as one means of glimpsing this potential. As its US (and, later, British) title suggests, its protagonist is the same as that in Wilson’s first novel,

Ritual in the Dark

(1960), and it takes the form of an intimate journal rather than that of the third-person narrative used in

Ritual

(Sorme will feature again as the protagonist in Wilson’s ninth novel,

The God of the Labyrinth

3265 words

Citation: Tredell, Nicolas. "Man Without a Shadow: the diary of an existentialist". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 19 May 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=23918, accessed 29 March 2024.]

23918 Man Without a Shadow: the diary of an existentialist 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.

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