The best books by John Fowles. John Fowles: biography, personal life, books, photos John Fowles stories

John Fowles is a famous British postmodernist writer. He is famous for his novels “The Magus”, “The Collector” and “The French Lieutenant’s Mistress”. He worked in the genre of realism with a small allowance of fantastic elements, and constantly maintained a high intellectual standard. In Fowles's work, questions about the sincerity of human relationships and the nature of reality are of great importance. In addition to novels, Fowles wrote short stories, novellas, essays and poems. "The Magus" rightfully takes its place in the hundred most widely read English novels.

Fowles had a unique style and sense of style, skillfully weaving accurate historical facts, deep psychologism and the sincerity of the characters’ spiritual quests into the fictional fabric of the work.

Childhood

The biography of John Fowles does not contain the mind-blowing turns that the heroes of his novels experienced. But there were still some interesting events caused by the problem of existential choice in his fate.

Fowles was born on March 31, 1926 in the small town of Leigh-on-Sea, located at the mouth of the Thames, near London. His father, Robert Fowles, is a hereditary cigar dealer. This was a man whose entire life was determined by the First World War, which swept across Europe like a furious plow and changed the fates of all the unwitting witnesses to this catastrophe. In his diaries, John Fowles, remembering this man, said that he could build himself a shelter from any materials that came to hand. His ability to survive and adapt was amazing. The future writer also inherited this ability.

During his school years, and Fowles studied at the prestigious Bedford School, he could boast of excellent academic performance, success in sports and social work. He was the head of the school committee and was responsible for general discipline. He had to walk a fine line between responsibility to management and his own sense of justice. Even then, in his youth, he considered his activities on the school committee as a kind of mask hiding and protecting him from reality. At that time, the qualities that were so necessary in the upcoming work of Fowles the writer were formed and improved.

Military career

Immediately after school, John completed a naval course and went to a camp on Dartmoor, where he trained specialists in sabotage groups. Fowles liked the new business so much that he decided to connect his future life with military service. But, after serving for two years, in 1947, he, on the advice of his new acquaintance Isaac Foote, left military service and entered the

Foote, a sophisticated philologist, expert in ancient Greek, and a socialist, recognized in Fowles an intellectual and humanitarian at the right time. The latter later recalled in his diary Foote’s answer to his thoughts about the service - “If you are a fool, then choose a military career, if you are smart, then go study.”

Oxford

At Oxford, John Fowles studied French and, having become acquainted with the works of existentialist philosophers Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre, questioned some of his life attitudes and aspirations. This was expressed in a rebellion against social norms and a more serious understanding of one’s place in life. He deeply realized all the imperfections of the world and the total loneliness of human existence. I discovered abandonment and existential horror. He realized that the heavy burden of free will deprives a thinking person of happiness, and he did not see any way out of this situation.

All these thoughts prompted Fowles to think about writing. A new unknown path opened up before him, and he set off on a long journey through the recesses of his own soul.

Teacher

After graduating from college, from 1950 to 1963, John Fowles taught English language and literature at the French university of Poitiers and at a gymnasium on the Greek island of Spetses.

Greece made such a stunning impression on Fowles that it became his second home, as he later noted in his diary. Here, in Greece, his birth as a writer took place, and here he met his future wife, who at that time was married to another literature teacher.

The love triangle did not last long, and in 1956 John Fowles and Elizabeth Christie got married in England. Their marriage lasted for 35 years, until Elizabeth's death. His wife had a great influence on all of Fowles’s work; she was the writer’s muse and friend. Below is a photo of John Fowles with his wife Elizabeth.

Major works

• "The Collector" (1963). After publication, the novel instantly became a bestseller, and this fact gave the author creative courage and strength. Fowles was able to leave his job and take up writing professionally. In “The Collector” he portrays a simple, gray man, capable of any crime for the sake of self-affirmation, in order to feel alive.
• "Aristos" (1964). A collection of philosophical reflections in essay form.
• "The Magus" (1965). Fowles's first novel, written before The Collector. The most existential and most mysterious work of the author, which analyzes reality, its concept and its influence on human consciousness.
• "The French Lieutenant's Woman" (1969). A pseudo-historical novel in the Victorian style. Fowles depicts the relationships of people in the 19th century from the perspective of a modern person who has studied the theories of Carl Jung and lives in a postmodern world.
• "Ebony Tower" (1974). Again, a person’s existential choice between freedom and a calm, automatic life in society.
• "Daniel Martin" (1977). An autobiographical novel, positioned by the author as a free continuation of the story of the hero of “The Magus” by Nicholas Erfe.
• "Mantissa" (1982). The novel is about the pains in which a literary work is born.
• "Worm" (1986). Historical novel set in the 18th century.

Interest in history, especially reflected in the novels “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” and “The Worm” (1986, the prototype of the main character was Anna Lee, founder of the religious Protestant sect “Shakers”), was inherent in Fowles not only at the desk, since in 1979 the writer headed the city museum and held this post for ten years.

Fowles' health was seriously undermined by a stroke that struck him in 1988. In 1990, his wife Elizabeth died. Fowles later married a second time.

John Fowles, UK 03/31/1926-11/05/2005 John Fowles was born on March 31, 1926 in Leigh-on-Sea (Essex) near London. In 1939, his parents sent him to the privileged private school Bedford, where the future writer became interested in French and German literature, showed himself to be a capable student and a good athlete. After serving two years in the Marine Corps, he continued his education at Oxford University, where in 1950 he received a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in French literature. After university, he taught English language and literature, first in France at the University of Poitiers (1951), then at a private school on the island of Spetsai in Greece (1951-1952), then until 1964 at London colleges. In the 50s, he wrote poetry and worked on the novel “The Magus.” Fowles’s first published novel, “The Collector” (The Collector, 1963), brought him success and freed him from the need to earn a living as a teacher. Until the end of the 1960s, two more novels were published, large in volume and daring in concept - “The Magus” (The Magus, 1965; revised version 1977) and “The French Lieutenant's Woman”, 1969), as well as two editions of Aristos's book, the subtitle of which - "Self-Portrait in Ideas" - gives an idea of ​​​​the content of this work and its significance for understanding the early stage of Fowles's work. In "The Collector", "The Magus" and "Aristos" The author's attention is focused on the problem of human freedom (its nature, limits and the associated sense of responsibility), as well as on the fundamental relationship between love, self-knowledge and freedom of choice. In fact, these problems determine the themes of all of Fowles's works. His heroes and heroines are nonconformists. seeking to somehow realize themselves within the framework of a conformist society. Awarded a prestigious literary prize, the book “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”, according to many critics, is Fowles’s best work. This is both an experimental and historical novel, taking readers into a thoroughly recreated Victorian world, but neither. for a minute, not allowing them to forget that they are modern people and are separated from what is happening by a huge historical distance. The book “The Worm” (A Maggot, 1986) describes the eighteenth century in as much detail as “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” describes the nineteenth century. In the interval between the publications of these wonderful historical-experimental novels, two more examples of Fowles's original prose were published - the gigantic epic "Daniel Martin" (Daniel Martin, 1977) and the somewhat unexpected in its miniature story "Mantissa" (Mantissa, 1982) - a fantasy on the theme confrontation between the creator and his muse. Fowles did not limit himself to the major literary form - he excellently translated from French, wrote film scripts, and literary critical articles. His sphere of interests also included topics that, at first glance, did not deserve the attention of a famous writer and man, such as home canning, feminism, and playing croquet. At the same time, he was a very reserved person and lived secludedly in his house on the seashore in Lyme Regis . In 1988, Fowles suffered a stroke, and two years later he was widowed. In his last interview, given in 2003, John Fowles complained of increased and annoying attention to his person. A writer, more or less famous, living alone, will always be haunted by readers. They want to see him, talk to him. And they don't realize that very often it gets on their nerves. In the last years of his life, Fowles was seriously ill. On November 5, 2005, at the age of 80, the writer died. S.V., 09.23.2006

This story could have ended differently, but it ended exactly as the rules of our harsh reality dictate. At the beginning of the book, I felt pity and even sympathy for the Collector, despite who he was and what evil he committed. It seemed to me that there was something human in him, alien to this evil essence. These conflicting emotions are the most important thing for me, because the heroes whom you begin to perceive as living people are not only very scary, but also very cool. They come out of the pages of books, live their own lives in your head, you continue to comprehend what happened and how. Perhaps someday I will decide to re-read The Collector, but this requires certain moral strength.

What will happen if all our desires become reality?

The main character, Frederick Clegg, is a simple man, but not without a sense of beauty. One of his shitty hobbies in life is collecting butterflies. However, in the human world he banned an interesting exhibit - Miranda Gray.
Frederick considers her special and has been watching her for several years, no, not with the goal of killing or kidnapping, he just looks and admires her. He knows that he doesn’t have a chance, so he doesn’t even try to get to know her, because she is “above” him, she studies art, and what does he understand about it.
But, of course, everything changes. At one point he wins a huge amount of money and realizes that now the list of his possibilities is expanding.
In the book, Frederick is compared to Caliban - a dark, rude, ignorant character personifying the wild forces of nature.
Miranda, on the contrary, is reason, part of the civilized world.
Yes, Frederick understands what is beautiful. But he does not know how to appreciate beauty otherwise than to grab it, squeeze it in his hand, not realizing that by doing so he is killing it. He believes that he can just take what he liked and does not see anything wrong with it, because he wants to love, care and nothing more.
This happens with the butterflies that he pins into his collection, and this happens with Miranda, whom he kidnaps.
The peculiarity of the book is the subtly described psychology and motivation of both the “maniac” and the “victim”, because the narration is told in turn, first from the perspective of one, then from the perspective of the other, and you can fully see the world through the eyes of each of the characters.

A book of amazing depth. "The Collector" reveals the idea of ​​the conflict between liberals and conservatives, lovers of life and its haters. This is manifested not only in the plot or dialogue, but also in the syllable itself. I admit, at the beginning it seemed to me that the book was nothing special, but this is all due to the fact that at the beginning of “The Collector” the narration is told from the perspective of an uneducated bourgeois hero. Accordingly, his thoughts are like this: boring and empty.
But from the very first phrase uttered by the main character, it becomes clear that John Fowles can write interestingly. If only there was an interesting character.
To some extent, this novel is about love. Love is so unconventional that for the manifestation of one of them you can get a serious sentence, and for the manifestation of the second - public censure.
The main character, bright, proud and liberal to the tip of her fingers, loves art and life while her captor, it would seem, does not really care about anything, much less anyone. He's apathetic, he's a psychopath. Their constant debates about politics, art and life are really interesting to watch. Not knowing what will happen next, only knowing that it won't be good.
"The Collector" is one of those rare books that makes people get out of bed/sofa/chair and start living.
I advise, I advise and I advise again.

This is one of the most mysterious books I've ever read. A cocktail of mythology, love, secrets, riddles and unanswered questions. Nicholas Erfe is a typical representative of youth. Instead of appreciating his love, he is afraid of it, and runs away from responsibility from London to hot Greece.
And in Greece - as if on purpose - there is one interesting person - Conchis, who will teach our hero wisdom. The book is very ambiguous. When you suddenly naively think that you have understood everything, and everything is obvious to you - know that on the very next page you will understand that the author has fooled you! And this happens ad infinitum. As soon as faith in the hero appears, everything changes.
I think the only drawback of the book is that there are no answers to the questions. And you just have to close the book... and it’s impossible to calm down! I would like to understand what really happened there.

Obsession

Favorite book of Fowles and the whole world! Sometimes it’s even gratifying that many people don’t like it, more will get it, as they say, what is publicly available is not always attractive, even when it comes to literature, and in this case there is no need to argue. Now this is already a classic.
The book is divided into a narrative on behalf of the collector - Clagg and the girl he kidnapped - Miranda in the form of her secret diaries.
Which, if you deigned to read, you would not really understand because of the philosophical clutter. Worries about what is already distant and no longer so important, longing for unrequited love for an artist who is twenty years older than her, fabrications about the “primitive” behavior and speech errors of her kidnapper. Seriously?
To tell the truth, the heroine persistently turned me away from herself. No, I felt sorry for her, by that time the sediment had gathered into a decent handful of sand corroding from the inside, and I still got into one side of her nature, but she reasoned rather superficially for a person thirsting for freedom. In other words, if I wanted to, I would get out. Or fate played a cruel joke on her.
Regarding “Caliban,” as she called our collector, my opinion about him was also ambivalent, but I felt more sorry for him than for the innocent hostage of his sick love.
And is it love?
Frankly speaking, no. This is love, adoration, worship of beauty, a temporary infatuation (which turned out to be true), whatever, but it was not his “love” that destroyed the girl, but rather an obsession to own something beautiful, alive, tangible and not pinned on a pin.
About halfway through, you can understand that there will be victims - he, she, or both of them, but when you are a captive, you need to be more cunning and not rush into battle, being pacified by sleeping pills. But let's give it its due, the plot is really cruel, and such an ending broke not a single sensitive heart.
The worst thing is to be held hostage by a person who does not recognize the fact of violence, like a child who wants to play with a toy that does not belong to him.
A simple clerk, raised by an aunt and a student of the Faculty of Arts, what kind of tandem can be destructive when people are of different poles, and the one who is a head taller will always look down on the second? This is Miranda's very first mistake.
Is Clagg a maniac? More like an energy vampire, his slightly sadistic passion for photography... his desire to own and frigidity of sexual thinking baffled him. The man did not want love, but recognition of himself, as part of something important, in a life that did not belong to him.
A man who puts psychological pressure on you and considers you a pet will not give you happiness. In a word, he goes to a medical institution or to the island of unfulfilled dreams, and she goes to the next world, because after this the life of the heroine would be difficult for me to imagine.
You won't find a thriller or tense moments on the pages, but the obvious essence of things and the natural development of events: the first doubts, contempt, indifference, humility - will not make you think long about the ending.
But you will discover the power of fabricated feelings and the threat of the destructive obsession of the last remnants of common sense. This is a story about human madness, and not about love, which, like the second, is driven by loneliness.

I read the book “The Magus” by John Fowles last summer; I must say that before that I started reading it two or three times and gave up around the tenth page. But then the stars aligned well, and I conquered this piece (of which I’m secretly very proud).
In the end, it turned out that the novel was excellent. I liked the narrative style and the many questions that the author left unanswered.
It’s difficult to explain what this book is about, but it’s worth reading on your own. My opinion, a book about a crazy puppeteer and his puppets, about how someone with delusions of grandeur played at God.
The characters are written well. I liked Nicholas until I got involved in the “game” without knowing the rules (too arrogant). He could have turned around and left, but no one was holding him. He began to suspect quite early that he was being played, and decided to play his own game - and, as expected, he lost! They chewed him up and spat him out, no, I understand that in the end he “found himself,” but... this is a madhouse!
What would have happened if the previous teacher had not warned Nicholas "don't go to the waiting room"? Would Nicholas be interested in the villa and Conchis? Would you fall into a trap? Would you take part in a staged show? Maybe not...

I wondered what meaning the author put into the title? Is a sorcerer a “sorcerer”, a “magician”, a “wizard”, or in Fowles’ case is a sorcerer a “witch doctor” and the main character was simply treated in such a non-trivial way? It seemed to me that in this case, the definition of “witch doctor” is more suitable, because Nicholas was drawn into a staged show, very similar to psychological training. The owner of Burani managed not only to look into Nicholas’s soul, but also to spit in it! And if Conchis is a wizard, then he’s definitely evil...

It seems to me that Nicholas needed a psychological shake-up, and he got it. During his stay in the villa, when communicating with Conchis, most of Nicholas's actions were dictated by the idea of ​​"by contradiction." He did the exact opposite of what he thought Conchis expected of him - and no wonder Nicholas ended up becoming paranoid! In this novel, everyone seems to lie.
I don’t understand Conches’s idea to draw a parallel with ancient Greek heroes; it seems that the image of Orpheus does not fit here at all. Love is secondary in this story and “finding love” is not the goal. It can be assumed that the goal is a change in character and life attitudes. It is clear that Nicholas has broken down and changed, but the problem is that these changes are not an internal need. These changes are the influence of an external factor. Question: why? it remains open...

The characters are not perfect, but this makes them more credible and humane. They have definitely changed. Changes can be seen, not only in the fact that they now “see love”, but also in the fact that thoughts of suicide have stopped visiting them. Nicholas and Alison are both young, categorical, and have not yet learned to forgive. At first he was happy about freedom, but after a while he realized that the girl occupied an important place in his life.
An interesting work, one of those that catches you.
The design of the book in the “Intellectual Bestseller” series is good. The format is convenient, the font is readable, and the pages are thick enough. The picture on the cover is nice.

John Robert Fowles was born into the family of a successful cigar merchant. After graduating from a prestigious school in Bedford, he entered the University of Edinburgh, but in 1945, shortly before the end of the Second World War, he left it for military service. After two years in the Marine Corps, Fowles abandoned his military career and entered Oxford University, majoring in French and German. In 1950-1963 Fowles taught at the University of Poitiers in France, then at a grammar school on the Greek island of Spetses, which served as the prototype for the setting in the novel “The Magus,” and at St. Godric’s College in London.

Fowles's first published novel, The Collector (1963), brought him success and freed him from the need to earn a living as a teacher. Until the end of the 1960s, two more novels were published, large in volume and daring in concept - “The Magus” (The Magus, 1965; revised version 1977) and “The French Lieutenant's Woman”, 1969), as well as two editions of the book "Aristos", the subtitle of which - "Self-Portrait in Ideas" - gives an idea of ​​​​the content of this work and its significance for understanding the early stage of Fowles's work.

In The Collector, The Magus and Aristos, the author's attention is focused on the problem of human freedom (its nature, limits and the associated sense of responsibility), as well as on the fundamental relationship between love, self-knowledge and freedom of choice. In fact, these problems determine the themes of all of Fowles's works. His heroes and heroines are nonconformists, striving to somehow realize themselves within the framework of a conformist society.

The book "The French Lieutenant's Woman", awarded a prestigious literary prize, is, according to many critics, Fowles's best work. This is both an experimental and historical novel, taking readers into a thoroughly recreated Victorian world, but not for a minute allowing them to forget that they are modern people and are separated from what is happening by a huge historical distance. The book “The Worm” (A Maggot, 1986) describes the eighteenth century in as much detail as “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” describes the nineteenth century. In the interval between the publications of these wonderful historical-experimental novels, two more examples of Fowles's original prose were published - the gigantic epic "Daniel Martin" (Daniel Martin, 1977) and the somewhat unexpected in its miniature story "Mantissa" (Mantissa, 1982) - a fantasy on the theme confrontation between the creator and his muse.

Many of Fowles' books have been filmed. In 1965, the film “The Collector” was released. And in 1981, the film based on the writer’s novel “The French Lieutenant’s Woman,” starring Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons, was nominated for an Oscar.

In 1988, Fowles suffered a stroke and subsequently suffered from cardiac problems. Living in seclusion, the writer rarely appeared in public in recent years.

According to the results of a nationwide survey of British people called "The Big Read", conducted in 2004, John Fowles' novel "The Magus" was included in the hundred most popular and read books in the UK.