Ritual in the Dark

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.

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.