BOOK 119: THE MAGUS – JOHN FOWLES
The Magus (1965) is a postmodern novel by
British author John Fowles,
telling the story of Nicholas Urfe, a young British graduate who is teaching
English on a small Greek island. Urfe becomes embroiled in the psychological
illusions of a master trickster, which become increasingly dark and serious.
Considered a metafiction,
it was the first novel written by Fowles, but the third he published. In 1977
he published a revised edition.
In 1999 The Magus was ranked on
both lists of Modern
Library 100 Best Novels, reaching number 93 on the editors' list,
and 71 on the readers' list. In 2003, the novel was listed at number 67 on the BBC's survey The Big Read.
MY VERDICT: I thoroughly enjoyed
this book, it was long but never boring.
It kept you asking questions and gave so much information and so many
little stories but none of which you could believe. I spent the whole book waiting find out
exactly what it all meant but in fact never quite got there. This would ordinarily annoy or frustrate me
but I came to terms with it in the end, that some things are unknowable and I came
to feel exactly as I thought the character Nicholas Urfe must have felt.
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