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Gregory Saltfleet #2
The Janus Murder Case
Wilson's second crime novel to feature Gregory Saltfleet.
235 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1984
About the author
Colin Wilson
441 books1,297 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Colin Henry Wilson was born and raised in Leicester, England, U.K. He left school at 16, worked in factories and various occupations, and read in his spare time. When Wilson was 24, Gollancz published The Outsider (1956) which examines the role of the social 'outsider' in seminal works of various key literary and cultural figures. These include Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway, Hermann Hesse, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, William James, T. E. Lawrence, Vaslav Nijinsky and Vincent Van Gogh and Wilson discusses his perception of Social alienation in their work. The book was a best seller and helped popularize existentialism in Britain. Critical praise though, was short-lived and Wilson was soon widely criticized.
Wilson's works after The Outsider focused on positive aspects of human psychology, such as peak experiences and the narrowness of consciousness. He admired the humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow and corresponded with him. Wilson wrote The War Against Sleep: The Philosophy of Gurdjieff on the life, work and philosophy of G. I. Gurdjieff and an accessible introduction to the Greek-Armenian mystic in 1980. He argues throughout his work that the existentialist focus on defeat or nausea is only a partial representation of reality and that there is no particular reason for accepting it. Wilson views normal, everyday consciousness buffeted by the moment, as "blinkered" and argues that it should not be accepted as showing us the truth about reality. This blinkering has some evolutionary advantages in that it stops us from being completely immersed in wonder, or in the huge stream of events, and hence unable to act. However, to live properly we need to access more than this everyday consciousness. Wilson believes that our peak experiences of joy and meaningfulness are as real as our experiences of angst and, since we are more fully alive at these moments, they are more real. These experiences can be cultivated through concentration, paying attention, relaxation and certain types of work.
Colin Henry Wilson was born and raised in Leicester, England, U.K. He left school at 16, worked in factories and various occupations, and read in his spare time. When Wilson was 24, Gollancz published The Outsider (1956) which examines the role of the social 'outsider' in seminal works of various key literary and cultural figures. These include Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway, Hermann Hesse, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, William James, T. E. Lawrence, Vaslav Nijinsky and Vincent Van Gogh and Wilson discusses his perception of Social alienation in their work. The book was a best seller and helped popularize existentialism in Britain. Critical praise though, was short-lived and Wilson was soon widely criticized.
Wilson's works after The Outsider focused on positive aspects of human psychology, such as peak experiences and the narrowness of consciousness. He admired the humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow and corresponded with him. Wilson wrote The War Against Sleep: The Philosophy of Gurdjieff on the life, work and philosophy of G. I. Gurdjieff and an accessible introduction to the Greek-Armenian mystic in 1980. He argues throughout his work that the existentialist focus on defeat or nausea is only a partial representation of reality and that there is no particular reason for accepting it. Wilson views normal, everyday consciousness buffeted by the moment, as "blinkered" and argues that it should not be accepted as showing us the truth about reality. This blinkering has some evolutionary advantages in that it stops us from being completely immersed in wonder, or in the huge stream of events, and hence unable to act. However, to live properly we need to access more than this everyday consciousness. Wilson believes that our peak experiences of joy and meaningfulness are as real as our experiences of angst and, since we are more fully alive at these moments, they are more real. These experiences can be cultivated through concentration, paying attention, relaxation and certain types of work.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 31, 2017
النسخة المترجمة للعربية بعنوان " الاستحواذ "
May 19, 2025
خليني اقول بعض الاشياء
مبدايا معتقدش انه حرق لو قلت انً الرواية بتدور عن الشخصيات المتعدده او فكره ان شخص يصاب ب "فصام" ،بتعريف الافلام المصرية :) ' و يبقي عنده اكتر من شخصيه
و يا للمفاجاه دي كانت تحربتي مع الرواية
النص الاول تقريبا كنت بجبر نفسي عشان اكمله
مكنش عندي اي رغبة خالص فيه و كنت فاقد الاهتمام تماما في اني اقراها و كنت شايفها عباره عن رواية بوليسية يعني سطحية شويتين و خلاص
ولكن النص التاني بقا الامور اتحولت تماما
الرواية ابتدت تغوص في دلائل الشخصيات في دوافعهم النفسية في تحليلهم نفسيا في النظر ورا السبب في ليه اي حد من البشر ممكن يتصرف بتصرف مشابهه
في الحقيقة في صفح كتير شخصيه الطبيب النفسي كانت بتقول مونولوج كامل تحلل فيه الشخصيات و تغوص في ليفلات نظريات الطب النفسي عن الحالات دي
رغم ان ده ممكن ميكونش صح ادبيا لرواية و لكن كان جميل جدا جدا ليا في القراية عن الموضوع ده
من المثير بردو للاهتمام الترجمة الي قريت بيها الرواية لاحظت شوية اخطاء في الضمائر في النص الاول حقيقي ضايقوني و كانو هيبقو من الاسباب اني اوقف قراية و لكن النص التاني المترجم ادي توضيحات في الهاشم لكتير من المصطلحات خلتني سعيد بترجمته و اضافت للتجربة
عايز اقول حقيقي اني سعيد جدا اني كملت الرواية (غالبا السبب الاساسي الي خلاني اكمل اني كنت شاري الرواية في المعرض و مكنتش pdf فكان صعبان عليا الفلوس :")
دي اول عمل اقراه لكولن ويلسون و الاكيد اني هقراله اعماله المشهوره حقيقي اعجبت بالراجل و تفكيره
مبدايا معتقدش انه حرق لو قلت انً الرواية بتدور عن الشخصيات المتعدده او فكره ان شخص يصاب ب "فصام" ،بتعريف الافلام المصرية :) ' و يبقي عنده اكتر من شخصيه
و يا للمفاجاه دي كانت تحربتي مع الرواية
النص الاول تقريبا كنت بجبر نفسي عشان اكمله
مكنش عندي اي رغبة خالص فيه و كنت فاقد الاهتمام تماما في اني اقراها و كنت شايفها عباره عن رواية بوليسية يعني سطحية شويتين و خلاص
ولكن النص التاني بقا الامور اتحولت تماما
الرواية ابتدت تغوص في دلائل الشخصيات في دوافعهم النفسية في تحليلهم نفسيا في النظر ورا السبب في ليه اي حد من البشر ممكن يتصرف بتصرف مشابهه
في الحقيقة في صفح كتير شخصيه الطبيب النفسي كانت بتقول مونولوج كامل تحلل فيه الشخصيات و تغوص في ليفلات نظريات الطب النفسي عن الحالات دي
رغم ان ده ممكن ميكونش صح ادبيا لرواية و لكن كان جميل جدا جدا ليا في القراية عن الموضوع ده
من المثير بردو للاهتمام الترجمة الي قريت بيها الرواية لاحظت شوية اخطاء في الضمائر في النص الاول حقيقي ضايقوني و كانو هيبقو من الاسباب اني اوقف قراية و لكن النص التاني المترجم ادي توضيحات في الهاشم لكتير من المصطلحات خلتني سعيد بترجمته و اضافت للتجربة
عايز اقول حقيقي اني سعيد جدا اني كملت الرواية (غالبا السبب الاساسي الي خلاني اكمل اني كنت شاري الرواية في المعرض و مكنتش pdf فكان صعبان عليا الفلوس :")
دي اول عمل اقراه لكولن ويلسون و الاكيد اني هقراله اعماله المشهوره حقيقي اعجبت بالراجل و تفكيره
February 19, 2011
Always a thought provoking read, this novel explores multiple personalities through a fictional murder in London. Colin Wilson never fails to make his characters interesting and his plots addictive. His writing, whether fiction or non-fiction is uniformly enjoyable. He's 80 this year, I'm going to try to read more by him to celebrate.
December 20, 2024
[Granada Publishing Limited] (1984). SB. 235 Pages. Purchased from ‘johnshire’.
The second and final entry in Colin Wilson’s Gregory Saltfleet ‘series’ - a “…new… mystery” - the opener being “The Schoolgirl Murder Case” (1974).
Another sexually saturated tale, with deviant emphasis, from this woefully fixated author.
The narrative is very thin, little more than a vehicle for pondering Split Personality Disorder (hence the titular “Janus” reference).
The second and final entry in Colin Wilson’s Gregory Saltfleet ‘series’ - a “…new… mystery” - the opener being “The Schoolgirl Murder Case” (1974).
Another sexually saturated tale, with deviant emphasis, from this woefully fixated author.
The narrative is very thin, little more than a vehicle for pondering Split Personality Disorder (hence the titular “Janus” reference).
June 6, 2023
Starts off well but half way through it's pretty obvious whodunnit. Some unnecessary gratuitous psychiatric voyeurism is just nasty and the ending is pretty much the worst ending I've ever read.
January 15, 2017
A murder case based around a girl with multiple personalities. Another Colin Wilson classic exploring the theme what make me who I am now? He explores the basis for our individual personality and how it may evolve overtime and at certain times may have two or more individuals "possessing" the same body.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews