The Glass Cage

by Colin Wilson

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"Intelligent psycho-thriller . . . the plot is ingenious, well-turned and never facile. A compulsive damp Saturday afternoon read." - "Observer" "Literate and enthralling . . . Far beyond the conventional mystery." - "Hollywood Reporter" "I read with something like fascination this extraordinary book about a multiple murderer who accompanies each corpse with a quotation from Blake." - "Guardian" "[A] splendid story . . . a gripping thriller about lust and perversion." - "Sunday Times" show more (London) A series of brutal and bizarre murders has London on edge. Near the dismembered corpse of each victim, the killer has scrawled cryptic quotations from the eighteenth-century mystic poet William Blake. Baffled, the police enlist the aid of Damon Reade, a brilliant but reclusive Blake scholar, who reluctantly agrees to help. Reade's combination of instinctive deduction and psychic penetration leads him to Gaylord Sundheim, who may be the murderer. But when Reade befriends Sundheim and becomes convinced he is incapable of having committed the crimes, is he right and Sundheim innocent? Or is Reade falling into a clever psychopath's deadly trap that could make him the next victim? Colin Wilson (1931-2013) called "The Glass Cage" (1966) "perhaps my own favourite among my novels." Both a page-turning serial killer mystery and an exploration of Wilson's philosophical ideas, "The Glass Cage" was praised by critics on its original appearance and remains just as gripping and compulsively readable today. This edition, the first since 1978, includes a new introduction by Geoff Ward. show less

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223+ Works 13,615 Members
Colin Wilson was born on June 26, 1931 in Leicester, England. He attended a local technical school, where he did well in physics and chemistry, and left at 16 to work in a wool factory. Before becoming a writer, he worked as a laboratory assistant, tax clerk, laborer and hospital porter. His first book, The Outsider, was published in 1956 when he show more was 24 years old. During his lifetime, he wrote more than 100 works on a wide variety of subjects including philosophy, religion, occult and supernatural phenomenea, music, sex, crime and critical theory. His other works include Religion and the Rebel, The Age of Defeat, Ritual in the Dark, The Strength to Dream, Origins of the Sexual Impulse, The Occult, Alien Dawn, Dreaming to Some Purpose, The Angry Years: The Rise and Fall of the Angry Young Men, and Super Consciousness. His biographies include works on Bernard Shaw, David Lindsay, Herman Hesse, Wilhelm Reich, Jorge Luis Borges, Ken Russell, Rudolph Steiner, Aleister Crowley, and P. D. Ouspensky. Wilson died on December 5, 2013 at the age of 82. (Bowker Author Biography) Colin Wilson, author of such bestsellers as "The Outsider" & "The Occult", also writes on archaeology, astronomy, & cosmology. His recent book, "From Atlantis to the Sphinx", was a London "Times" bestseller. (Publisher Provided) show less

Common Knowledge

Canonical title*
La gabbia di vetro
Original title
The glass cage
Original publication date
1966
Dedication
For Jonathan and Sue Guinness, and to the memory of John Cowper Powys
First words
It had been bright and clear as he left Keswick; but as he crossed the Styhead Pass two hours later, the air smelled of rain.
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.

Classifications

Genres
Fiction and Literature, Mystery
DDC/MDS
823.9Literature & rhetoricEnglish & Old English literaturesEnglish fiction1900-
LCC
PZ4 .W7465Language and LiteratureFiction and juvenile belles lettresFiction and juvenile belles lettresFiction in English
BISAC

Statistics

Members
134
Popularity
242,755
Reviews
1
Rating
½ (3.34)
Languages
English, French, Italian, Spanish
Media
Paper, Ebook
ISBNs
8
ASINs
9