The Magus

“The most important questions in life can never be answered by anyone except oneself.” - John Fowles, The Magus

The Magus was the first novel John Fowles wrote, but his third to be published after The Collector (1963) and The Aristos (1964). He started writing it in the 1950s, under the original title of The Godgame. He based it partly on his experiences on the Greek island of Spetses, where he taught English for two years at the Anargyrios School. He worked on it for twelve years before its publication in 1965. Despite gaining critical and commercial success, he continued to rework it, publishing a final revision in 1977.

The story reflects the perspective of Nicholas Urfe, a young Oxford graduate and aspiring poet. After graduation, he works as a teacher at a small school, but becomes bored. He decides to leave England. While looking for another job, Nicholas takes up with Alison Kelly, an Australian girl met at a party in London. He still accepts a post teaching English at the Lord Byron School on the Greek island of Phraxos. After beginning his new post, he becomes bored and overwhelmed by the Mediterranean island. Nicholas struggles with loneliness and contemplates suicide. While wandering around the island, he stumbles upon an estate and soon meets its owner, a wealthy Greek recluse Maurice Conchis. They develop a sort of friendship. Conchis reveals that he may have collaborated with the Nazis during World War II.Nicholas is drawn into Conchis's psychological games, his paradoxical views on life, his mysterious persona, and his eccentric masques. At first, Nicholas takes these posturings of Conchis, what the novel terms the "godgame," to be a joke, but they grow more elaborate and intense. Nicholas loses his ability to determine what is real and what is artifice. Against his will and knowledge, he becomes a performer in the godgame. Nicholas realises that the re-enactments of the Nazi occupation, the absurd playlets after de Sade, and the obscene parodies of Greek myths are not about Conchis' life, but his own.​The book ends indeterminately. Fowles received many letters from readers wanting to know which of the two possible outcomes occur; but he refused to answer the question.

So, I managed to get to the end of this metafiction book. Its a strange post modern ramble. An enigma, wrapped in a riddle. If you do want to read it then helps if you have an strong off beat imagination. Think of a blend of the TV show Lost and the movie, The Game. On powerful drugs. And I didn't get it at all.

Perhaps this book is for people who are younger than me? People who are growing up and maturing. People who are wondering what the future holds and how they fit in?

But what do I know? It 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.