The Magus is the first novel by British author John Fowles, but actually the second to be published, following the success of The Collector (1963). Fowles started writing it in the 1950s, partly basing on his experiences as a English teacher on the Greek island of Spetses. He wrote and rewrote it for twelve years before its publication in 1965, and despite critical and commercial success, continued to rework it until its revised version, published in 1977. The Magus was a bestseller, partly because it tapped successfully into - and even arguably helped to promote - the 1960s popular interest in psychoanalysis and mystical philosophy . It has been recently named one of the Modern Library's 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century, #71 and #93 on the Critics' and Reader's list, respectively.

Plot

The story concerns young and intelligent Oxford graduate Nicholas Urfe, who takes up with Alison, an Australian girl he meets at a party in London. The affair gets more serious than Nicholas can stand, so he leaves her to take a position as a English instructor at the Lord Byron School in the Greek island of Phraxos. Bored, depressed, disillusioned and overwhelmed by the Mediterranean island, Nicholas contemplates suicide, then takes to long solitary walks. On one of these walks he meets the wealthy Greek recluse Maurice Conchis, who may or may not have collaborated with the Nazis during the war and lives apparently alone on his island estate.

Nicholas is gradually drawn into Conchis's psychological game - his paradoxical views on life, his mysterious persona and his eccentric masques, which at first seem a kind of joke to Nicholas, but as they grow more elaborate, intense and out of control, his perception of what is real and what is not dims and vanishes. Against his will and knowledge he becomes a performer in them and realizes that the enactments of the Nazi occupation, the absurd playlets after de Sade, and the obscene parodies of Greek myths are not about Conchis's own life, but his own.

The nightmare deepens as he falls in passionate love with the beautiful Lily, who appears in the masques first as Conchis's 1915 dead lover, then Julie, an English actress - or perhaps her twin sister June. Nicholas has a brief repeat with Alison in Athens, but evinces her again and later learns she has killed herself.

Soon everything becomes conspiracy; the fact that it is all so ludicrous in no way relieves his horror. Fired from the school, Nicholas returns angrily to London intent on ferreting out the reasons for his ordeal, Conchis's real background and the purpose of the godgame. But impossible things continue to happen: Alison turns out to be not only alive but somehow in league with Conchis and his cabal. Slowly, excruciatingly, Nicholas unravels the truth, or truths.

Literary precedents

John Fowles has written an article about his experiences in the island of Spetses and their influence on the book[1], and he has also specifically acknowledged some literary works in his foreword to the revised version of The Magus. These include The Wanderer (Le Grand Meaulnes, 1913), by Alain-Fournier, for showing a secret hidden world to be explored, and Jefferies's Bevis (1882), for projecting a very different world. Also, there is the influence of Charles Dickens's Great Expectations (1861), to which Fowles pays homage by referring to Miss Havisham in the revised version.

Media adaptations

A film version was released in 1968, directed by Guy Green, and written by Fowles. It starred Michael Caine as Nicholas Urfe, Anthony Quinn as Maurice Conchis, Anna Karina as Alison, Candice Bergen as Lily/Julie, and Julian Glover as Anton, and was filmed in the island of Majorca. The adaptation, however, was a failure. Michael Caine himself has said that it was the worst film he had been involved in, because no one knew what it was all about. Woody Allen is quoted as saying that if he could live his life all over again, he would live it exactly the same, except having seen the film version of The Magus. It is not currently available commercially either on DVD or VHS, but copies can be bought on the Fowlesbooks.com website.

References

• ENotes Notes on The Magus
• Fowlesbooks.com Summary of The Magus and other novels by Fowles