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Name: The Magus: Fowles, John: 9780316296199: Amazon.com: Books
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John Fowles

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The Magus Paperback – January 4, 2001

by John Fowles (Author)

2,891 ratings

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Widely considered John Fowles's masterpiece, The Magus is "a dynamo of suspense and horror...a dizzying, electrifying chase through the labyrinth of the soul....Read it in one sitting if possible-but read it" (New York Times).
A young Englishman, Nicholas Urfe, accepts a teaching post on a remote Greek island in order to escape an unsatisfactory love affair. There, his friendship with a reclusive millionaire evolves into a mysterious--and deadly--game of violence, seduction, and betrayal. As he is drawn deeper into the trickster's psychological traps, Nicholas finds it increasingly difficult to distinguish past from present, fantasy from reality. He becomes a desperate man fighting for his sanity and his very survival.
John Fowles expertly unfolds a spellbinding exploration of the complexities of the human mind. By turns disturbing, thrilling and seductive, The Magus is a masterwork of contemporary literature.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Brilliant and colossal....Impossible to stop reading."―New York Review of Books

"Sumptuous....An extraordinary literary feat."―J.D. Scott, New York Times Book Review

"Great, good, lavish, eerie, fun....The Magus is a stunner....It is at once a pyrotechnical extravaganza, a wild, hilarious charade, a dynamo of suspense, a profoundly serious probing into the nature of moral consciousness, a dizzying, electrifying chase through the labyrinth of the soul... Read it in one sitting if possible--but read it."―Eliot Fremont-Smith, New York Times

About the Author

John Fowles (1926-2005) was educated at Oxford and subsequently lectured in English at universities in Greece and the UK. The success of his first novel, The Collector, published in 1963, allowed him to devote all his time to writing. His books include the internationally acclaimed and bestselling novels The Magus, The French Lieutenant's Woman, and Daniel Martin. Fowles spent the last decades of his life on the southern coast of England in the small harbor town of Lyme Regis.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Back Bay Books; Revised edition (January 4, 2001)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 656 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0316296198
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0316296199
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.25 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.95 x 8.2 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #67,440 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #623 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
- #2,194 in Classic Literature & Fiction
- #5,401 in Literary Fiction (Books)

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Customers consider this book one of the best novels of the past decade, praising its masterfully conceived mystery with lots of twists and surprises, along with its penetrating psychological insights and philosophical profundity. The writing style receives mixed reactions - while some find the prose lovely, others find it difficult to comprehend on a single reading. The pacing is profoundly well thought out, though customers find the dialogue too convoluted for their liking. Character development is also mixed, with some appreciating the exceptional characters while others find the main character unlikable, and several customers note the book is too long.

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Readability Storyline Insight Pacing Writing style Character development Dialogue quality Length

117 customers mention "Readability"103 positive14 negative

Customers find the book highly readable, describing it as one of the best novels of the past decade, with each chapter leaving them eager to continue.

"...It's quite the opposite, quite wonderful, and without a doubt, a little treasure of a book that has slowly made its place near the top of my..." Read more

"...The story itself hums along nicely enough, but there are points in the middle of the book, especially when Nicholas is drawn into permutation after..." Read more

"...Great book and better." Read more

"...evokes, via its total imaginative scheme, a sense of life's large inherent possibilities--which seem always to be threatened or smothered altogether..." Read more

79 customers mention "Storyline"56 positive23 negative

Customers enjoy the storyline of this book, describing it as a masterfully conceived mystery with a complex plot. One customer notes that the denouement is never boring nor predictable.

"...It is then a novel of love, illustrating the dynamic between love and lust by using characters that are so believable you expect them to knock on..." Read more

"...Still, despite these minor flaws, The Magus is an astounding piece of fiction...." Read more

"...Now I am reading slower and appreciating Fowles language and twists and turns. Great book and better." Read more

"...The book was indeed close to fascinating, but the story makes no sense. After almiost 700 pages,I was very disappointed that it didn't." Read more

33 customers mention "Insight"26 positive7 negative

Customers appreciate the book's psychological insights and philosophical profundity, describing it as a classic mystery that delves into the human condition.

"...there is an element of eroticism, oodles of sex, and a fine dosage of unrequited feelings - as there is in life...." Read more

"...both in terms of his storytelling ability and his utter lack of moral prudery...." Read more

"...It is a yarn, but a clever, sophisticated, mysterious, learned, worthwhile one..." Read more

"...The book simply made no sense. What was the point in reenacting the German invasion for Nicholas that one night?..." Read more

13 customers mention "Pacing"13 positive0 negative

Customers praise the book's pacing, finding it profoundly well thought out, with one customer noting its rich intertextuality.

"...virtue of this text is that it genuinely evokes, via its total imaginative scheme, a sense of life's large inherent possibilities--which seem always..." Read more

"...and written in the language of a bestseller the novel , rich in intertextuality (mostly Prospero, but thickly larded with Greek Myth and much more),..." Read more

"...The Kindle version looks good (i.e., the conversion to electronic was decent)..." Read more

"This is a masterpiece that should outlast time. It is a world that makes us reflect, attempt to understand the human condition, to understand life...." Read more

64 customers mention "Writing style"41 positive23 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the writing style of the book, with some praising its lovely prose while others find it overly wordy and difficult to comprehend on a single reading.

"...It has influenced profoundly both my writing and the way I view the world, with magnitude on par two other world-redefining books: On the Road, and..." Read more

"...Let me be clear: I think Fowles is the greatest English writer of his generation...." Read more

"...But I can’t label this book is brilliant when it really does not make any sense in the most fundamental ways...." Read more

"...Now I am reading slower and appreciating Fowles language and twists and turns. Great book and better." Read more

12 customers mention "Character development"4 positive8 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the character development in the book, with some praising the exceptional characters while others find the main character unlikable and criticize the overemphasis on the hero's skepticism.

"...One thing I found bothersome was the overemphasis on the main character’s skepticism, which is constantly repeated through use of his private..." Read more

"...the plot is solid enough to maintain interest, the characters develop dimensionally and the themes presented merit thought...." Read more

"...reading it, I was shocked by the author’s racist and antisemitic descriptions of the characters...." Read more

"...Second, no character credibly thinks in such literary terms as Urfe is portrayed. (Urfe is not Herman Bloom)...." Read more

18 customers mention "Dialogue quality"3 positive15 negative

Customers find the dialogue in the book too convoluted and not compelling.

"...Weird and nonsensical. I can’t figure out anything that event might symbolize or answer...." Read more

"Overall I liked this novel while finding it overlong and self-indulgent at times...." Read more

"...He is a dilettante, perennially self-deluded, and if he recognizes some of those delusions over the course of the novel he has fallen back into them..." Read more

"...the shortcomings of the narrator and 2) way too much silly and pointless dialogue. Regarding #1: Since this is my first Fowles novel...." Read more

8 customers mention "Length"0 positive8 negative

Customers find the book too long.

"...What was the meaning of all the strange, lengthy, and apparently untrue, stories that Conchis told Nicholas?..." Read more

"Overall I liked this novel while finding it overlong and self-indulgent at times...." Read more

"...it flows and draws you in at the beginning, in the middle it gets lengthy at times and even had me feeling annoyed and wanting to get past certain..." Read more

"...LENGTH: for many it is too long. But, so are many other well written works and this element alone should not affect your decision...." Read more

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Peter H.
A modern master's magnum opus -
Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2004
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It's been about a year since I read this book. It was recommended to me by a stranger - a woman I saw once and never again. How I came across the book, which was strange in and of itself, seems in retrospect fitting. I don't know why I picked it up as quickly as I did, why I even took this woman on her word, but I'm eternally grateful to her for exposing me to this when she did. It has influenced profoundly both my writing and the way I view the world, with magnitude on par two other world-redefining books: On the Road, and Catcher in the Rye. But those are two other books-

As Fowles has suggested, you will get more out of this book if you read it at 20 or 25 as opposed to 40 or 45 - not to say people in their 40s can't enjoy it, merely that the 'quarter-life crisis' as it's come to be called is a thing of relativity. If you can relate, all the better, if you're only looking for "A fireworks exhibition of fantasy...sexual love and moral awareness" as the front of the book embarrassingly describes, that's what you're going to get. I don't think a marginally intelligent person can be disappointed with this book - however, there are various levels of satisfaction, and certain people will find this book simply earthshaking.

Despite being over-simplistically billed as an "erotic thriller," this book is much much more. It is first a novel of self-discovery, one in which a truly alienated protagonist searching for meaning in the tea leaves takes us along. It is then a novel of love, illustrating the dynamic between love and lust by using characters that are so believable you expect them to knock on your door. It is also billed as a surrealist sojourn - which indeed it as. So much bordering on the bizarre, much plain insanity is readily apparent as you read between the lines of life. Lastly, there is an element of eroticism, oodles of sex, and a fine dosage of unrequited feelings - as there is in life.

Do not be misled by the back of the book - if you're like me, the description is off-putting, making the book sound like a campy Danielle Steele novel or some such trash. It's quite the opposite, quite wonderful, and without a doubt, a little treasure of a book that has slowly made its place near the top of my bookshelf.

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Peter D. Mathews
An Ambitious Novel That Tests Even Fowles's Abilities
Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2013
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The Magus took John Fowles more than two decades to complete. It was the first viable novel he began writing, but was published for the first time in 1966, and then in a revised version in 1977. The latter edition, which is by far the easiest to find these days, was the one I read.

As Fowles explains in the preface, some of the details of the story are taken from his own life: for instance, like his protagonist, Nicholas Urfe, Fowles spent some time teaching at a school on a remote Greek island. From such material, Fowles weaves a fantastic story that owes a heavy debt to Shakespeare's final play, The Tempest. The Prospero character, in this instance, is Maurice Conchis, an elderly multi-millionaire who own a house on a section of the island known as Bourani. Nicholas finds himself drawn to Conchis's character, and in the hours they spend together he learns more and more about his host's past, which includes an uncertain relationship with the Nazis. Further characters are introduced, most notably a pair of beautiful twin Englishwomen and a black man, Joe.

The story proceeds as a series of disjointed acts in which Nicholas, blessed (or cursed) with a critical mind, undermines and sidesteps the stories of the people he encounters. He increasingly suspects that he is taking part in some kind of masque or drama in which the others are all actors. It is through this device that Fowles causes the story to twist and turn, with new characters abruptly appearing (the German soldiers, for instance) or being dramatically recast (Joe, the twin girls) as Nicholas grapples with the line between fiction and reality. Nicholas's story is framed, in turn, by his affair with an Australian girl, Alison Kelly, whose directness and solidity are repeatedly placed in juxtaposition with the mind-games of the island drama.

The story itself hums along nicely enough, but there are points in the middle of the book, especially when Nicholas is drawn into permutation after permutation of different but similar mind games, that it starts to drag a little. Let me be clear: I think Fowles is the greatest English writer of his generation. His genius lies in his incisiveness, both in terms of his storytelling ability and his utter lack of moral prudery. Nonetheless, I found fault with The Magus mostly for the character of Nicholas, whose part in the game I thought became too predictable; truly turning the tables on Conchis and his actors would have been an interesting move that Fowles does not exploit. I also felt as though the flaws Nicholas judges so harshly in his character at the end of the book were merely the markings of inexperience rather than anything fundamentally bad about him. Toward the end, the novel comes dangerously close at certain moments at being morally judgmental in this respect.

Still, despite these minor flaws, The Magus is an astounding piece of fiction. Fowles clearly wrote it in a spirit of ambition that would have defeated many a lesser writer. The Magus is thus an important novel that, while it does not measure up to the true greatness of, say, The French Lieutenant's Woman, is still an enjoyable and worthwhile book to read.

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Christopher Adams
3rd read best read!
Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2024
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I read the first edition in 1970 and again a few years later. Then I learned of this Magus rewrite from Goldberg's Long Quiet Highway. I learned we can recognize we have missed the mark in what we wanted to communicate, and we can rewrite. Now I am reading slower and appreciating Fowles language and twists and turns. Great book and better.

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Christopher Adams

3rd read best read!

Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2024
I read the first edition in 1970 and again a few years later. Then I learned of this Magus rewrite from Goldberg's Long Quiet Highway. I learned we can recognize we have missed the mark in what we wanted to communicate, and we can rewrite. Now I am reading slower and appreciating Fowles language and twists and turns. Great book and better.

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Le Mayencien
Great novel!
Reviewed in Germany on July 30, 2013
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One of the best books I have ever read.
Exiting, strange, indescribable - read it yourself.
You think it is fantasy - it isn't.

I don't want to reveal any content as it would destroy the magic of this book.

I got it as a present, never heard of John Fowles but will buy all his other books now.

The end is a little unsettling but leaves you all chances to spin the story further for yourself in your mind - as it sais on the back - you will keep this book, the story on you mind quite a while after reading!

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Joe 2020
One of the Best Novels of the 20th Century.
Reviewed in Canada on February 26, 2021
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With respect to the binding and print, it's a fine fine book. The paper is just right, flexible yet sturdy. The type is not too small so you can read it easily. The spine also looks great on your bookshelf. As for the content.. just WOW.. the finest use of 20th century English language I've every experienced. The writer is gifted in diction, and your vocabulary will improved just reading this book. The story is just, WTF, followed by OMG.. all done with exemplary use of the English language. It starts off normal, an English kid takes a job teaching English on a Greek Island.. then he meets a mysterious rich guy... and then all sorts of crazy stuff happens.. you'll love it.

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John Fawles
Reviewed in Spain on January 25, 2021
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Uno de los clasicos. Magnifico!

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MacDuffe
le chef d'oeuvre de John Fowles
Reviewed in France on April 13, 2013
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Ce livre est une "expérience" de lecture unique, je n'ai jamais rien lu de comparable. Comme tous les livres de John Fowles, il est extrêmement bien écrit et bourré de références culturelles. Mais c'est aussi un roman très passionnant (ce qui n'est pas toujours le cas avec John Fowles) sans être un thriller policier. Un livre qui nous rappelle que la seule réalité constante est notre liberté et la responsabilité qui en découle.

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憂い顔の騎士
新品同様
Reviewed in Japan on December 4, 2016
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発売年は結構前ですが、新品で、廉くてよかった。倉庫で眠っていたようです。

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5.0 out of 5 stars A modern master's magnum opus -

4.0 out of 5 stars An Ambitious Novel That Tests Even Fowles's Abilities

5.0 out of 5 stars 3rd read best read!

3rd read best read!

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5.0 out of 5 stars Great novel!

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best Novels of the 20th Century.

5.0 out of 5 stars John Fawles

5.0 out of 5 stars le chef d'oeuvre de John Fowles

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A modern master's magnum opus -

An Ambitious Novel That Tests Even Fowles's Abilities

3rd read best read!

Great novel!

One of the Best Novels of the 20th Century.

John Fawles

le chef d'oeuvre de John Fowles

新品同様