Harper Perennial Modern Classics
The Outsider
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The Outsider
Author(s): Richard Wright
Review(s):
“The Outsider is a prophetic book . . . a book people should ponder.”
“Wright created in this fast-paced, riveting narrative...one of the most complex characters in African-American fiction: a black intellectual, freed of his past, who plays out the Sartrean belief that ‘Existence precedes essence.’ ”
“The novel, which builds steadily to a clamorous denunciation of the rival totalitarianisms of Communism and Fascism, also offers a dire and accurate prediction of a worldwide revival of religious fundamentalism in response to the spiritual gloom spawned by these monoliths.... The Library of America decided to publish the final typescript of the novel as submitted by Wright. It restored all the passages pulled by the copyeditor, as well as his or her other changes.”
“It is in the description of action, especially violent action, that Mr. Wright excels, not merely because he can make the reader see but because he compels him to participate.”
ISBN: 9780061450174
Author(s): Richard Wright
From Richard Wright, one of the most powerful, acclaimed, and essential American authors of the twentieth century, comes a compelling story of one man's attempt to escape his past and start anew in Harlem.
Cross Damon is a man at odds with society and with himself—a man of superior intellect who hungers for peace but who brings terror and destruction wherever he goes. The Outsider is an important work of fiction that depicts American racism and its devastating consequences in raw and unflinching terms. Brilliantly imagined and frighteningly prescient, it is an epic exploration of the tragic roots of criminal behavior.
Review(s):
“The Outsider is a prophetic book . . . a book people should ponder.”
“Wright created in this fast-paced, riveting narrative...one of the most complex characters in African-American fiction: a black intellectual, freed of his past, who plays out the Sartrean belief that ‘Existence precedes essence.’ ”
“The novel, which builds steadily to a clamorous denunciation of the rival totalitarianisms of Communism and Fascism, also offers a dire and accurate prediction of a worldwide revival of religious fundamentalism in response to the spiritual gloom spawned by these monoliths.... The Library of America decided to publish the final typescript of the novel as submitted by Wright. It restored all the passages pulled by the copyeditor, as well as his or her other changes.”
“It is in the description of action, especially violent action, that Mr. Wright excels, not merely because he can make the reader see but because he compels him to participate.”
ISBN: 9780061450174