Synopses & Reviews
In 1963, John Fowles won international recognition with
The Collector, his first published novel. In the years followingwith the publication of
The Magus, The French Lieutenants Woman,
The Ebony Tower, and his other critically acclaimed works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetryFowles took his place among the most innovative and important English novelists of our time. Now, with this first volume of his journals, which covers the years from 1949 to 1965, we see revealed not only the creative development of a great writer but also the deep connection between Fowless autobiographical experience and his literary inspiration.
Commencing in Fowless final year at Oxford, the journals in this volume chronicle the years he spent as a university lecturer in France; his experiences teaching school on the Greek island of Spetsai (which would inspire The Magus) and his love affair there with the married woman who would later become his first wife; and his return to England and his ongoing struggle to achieve literary success. It is an account of a life lived in total engagement with the world; although Fowles the novelist takes center stage, we see as well Fowles the nascent poet and critic, ornithologist and gardener, passionate naturalist and traveler, cinephile and collector of old books.
Soon after he fell in love with his first wife, Elizabeth, Fowles wrote in his journal, “She has asked me not to write about her in here. But I could not not write, loving her as I do. . . . What else I betrayed, I could not betray this diary.” It is that determined, unsparing honesty and forthrightness that imbues these journals with all the emotional power and narrative complexity of his novels. They are a revelation of both the man and the artist.
Synopsis
In 1963, John Fowles won international recognition with his first published novel, The Collector, The Magus and The French Lieutenant's Woman, among other critically acclaimed and best-selling works of fiction, would follow. But his roots as a serious writer can be traced back to the journal he began as a student at Oxford in the late 1940s and continued to keep faithfully over the next half century. Written with unsparing honesty and forthrightness, it reveals the inner thoughts and creative development of one of the 20th century's most innovative and important English novelists. Commencing with his final year at Oxford, this first volume chronicles the time he spent lecturing at a university in France; his experiences as a young schoolteacher on the Greek island of Spetsai--which would inspire The Magus; his love affair there with the married woman who would later become his achieve literary success. It reveals not only his devotion to Greek and French cultures, but also the huge role that a lifelong passion for natural history has played in his life and writing. This firsthand account of the years before Fowles achieved recognition reads with all the emotional power and narrative complexity of his novels. It provides us with invaluable insight into the relationship between Fowles's life and his work.
About the Author
John Fowles was born in 1926. His books include
The Collector, The Aristos, The Magus, The French Lieutenants Woman, The Ebony Tower, Daniel Martin, Mantissa, A Maggot, and
Wormholes. He lives in Lyme Regis, England.
Charles Drazin is an editor and writer whose previous books include In Search of the Third Man and Korda: Britains Only Movie Mogul.