The Magus by John Fowles Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Magus
Book Review: A truly great work of fiction
Summary: 5 Stars
The phrase 'this is the best book I have ever read' seems a little over-used.. Without being too contradictory I have to say that no other book has made me feel like uttering those words as much as The Magus. The reasons for this are quite simple. This is unlike any book I have read and quite possibly will ever read in future. The plot revolves around a young man - Nicholas Urfe, virtually alone on a beautiful Greek island, with little much to do. He meets the man behind the title of the novel and becomes emroiled in his complicated yet beguiling world. Urfe is torn between the reality of his situation and the one which is being conjured around him. He is being tricked, abused and manipulated in ways he did not think possible due to his own arrogance and inflated self-intellect.In effect the reader is left feeling much the same, I have never felt so uncomfortable (almost squirming at the positions Nicholas finds himself in) or engrossed reading something as I did reaching the climax of this book. It is almost a watershed, as if reading was new to me all over again, it left me wondering what to read next and the relevance of much I had read previously.
Fowles has truly created a wonderful examination here into the human condition, our relationships with each other and in essence the world we live in. He has achieved this through the clever scrutiny of one man and the use of more plot twists than seem feasibly possible! It is engaging from start to finish, I envy all people about to read this or reading now on the experiences they are yet to have - they are elect.
Book Review: Twisting The Life
Summary: 5 Stars
As I have a deeper understanding of Greece and a better knowledge of Greek than I did 20 years ago I decided to re-read The Magus thinking it would enhance my enjoyment.What I was not prepared for was to be completely stunned by it all over again. I fell in to the same traps, relived the same sense of magic and once again could not trust any situation not to be revealed as part of the masque.
John Fowles has written in more twists and turns than a plate of spaghetti has.
Anyone who has a little Greek, Latin or French may gain a small advantage. Anyone who has ever lived will be bowled over by this book.
Bring on the film with Anthony Hopkins as Conchis!!!
Book Review: Less like the Tempest, more like a Comedy of Errors
Summary: 3 Stars
First of all I'd like to start with a positive: The Magus is an exceptionally well-written novel. That said, I do not think that the literary community would have suffered by its absence. I approached The Magus after re-reading the Collector - and was struck by the parallels in theme and, more annoyingly, the references to The Tempest - chiefly the repetition of the Miranda and Caliban character associations that I found especially annoying. The key difficulty that I experienced with The Magus is that it is near impossible to empathise with a single character. The chief protagonist, the narrator Nicholas Urfe is an emotionally and morally bankrupt prig. Conchis, aka the Magus, is so un-likeable that it defies belief that anyone other than a consummate fool would continue to engage in the flagrantly incredible 'plotlines' that are thrown at him. Couple this with the farcical love-triangle between Nicholas, Alison and Lily/Julie/Dr Maxwell that descends rapidly into drivel and you have a highly unsatisfactory novel based entirely on psycho babble and mysticism. Basically this is a novel that is all content and little substance. The 'experiment' that Nicholas finds himself an integral part is, frankly, ludicrous - and is presented to the reader as an all singing, all dancing package of pseudo-mystical claptrap - is the final nail in the novel's coffin. The premise at the heart of the novel is an interesting one - but it is so badly executed - littered as it is with nonsense psychological mindgames that the basic promising concept that the principle behind the so-called 'experiment' is null and void. The novel has undoubted appeal to a great number of people - - I just find it hard to pinpoint what that may be. Bookworms everywhere would do well to give this one a miss - it takes a lot of effort and offers little reward.Book Review: The Fool and The Magus
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a piece which, if you are lucky, may change your life. Having said that, it will only challenge you to change if you really need to and want to. Are you elect? Nicholas Urfe ("Earth", matter, Le Mat = The Fool) is the Fool. Maurice Conchis is the eponymous Magus, magician, the master. (The book mirrors the tarot journey, divided as it is into 78 chapters, like the Tarot deck). Conchis initiates Nicholas into The Mysteries. Other reviewers find Conchis's experiment implausible, but this book should be read in the same spirit as that of a poem: life is but a dream. It is a novel to live in, such is the beauty and craft of the author's talent. This is a personal work, and Mr Fowles has created a masterpice precisley because he has dredged up the depths of his life-force and condensed them into words by an act of sheer alchemy. Do not be lulled into dismissing this book as mere fancy, as Fowles has your number, and you may well become a mere Mitford. Those who privilege a rational understanding of the world, and who can not endure the delicious ambiguity of the divine and unseen, may well flounder within this tale, and may well opt for narrow understandings. Fowles is offering us the chance to savour the beautiful freedom of casting off our limited minds, and experiencing the infinite possibilities of magic. The choice is ours, and Fowles will always offer a mundane escape route for those of proud dispositions. As a young and naive man, I read this novel, falling into the myriad traps. Upon the second reading, a year or so later, the book became a mirror of my soul, a benchmark by which I measured my progress as a human and spiritual being. This book initiated me into The Mysteries, and those of you who have the good fortune to be touched in the same way will forever envy those who carelessly wander for the first time into its cruel yet loving embrace.
Book Review: a familiar old place, often revisited, never quite the same
Summary: 5 Stars
Like a lot of reviwers here, I've been re-reading the Magus at odd points throughout my life, probably about once every 10 years on average. I've always admired and enjoyed it, though not entirely uncritically, and have been fascinated at my own various reactions to it over the years, reflecting my own life experiences at given times.I think it is essentially a novel best read for the first time in curious, impressionable, early adulthood. it definately helps to have a strong imaginative streak and your head more than a little in the clouds - I've recommended it to diehard pragmatists over the years who just don't get it at all.
Like most young people who liked the book it has turned into something of a landmark in my life - the first book which I genuinely felt opened up key areas of myself and got me thinking along more abstract lines. It let me fly, basically.
The last time I read it I had just turned 40 and realised for the first time that I could no longer really identify with Nicholas as a peer-group figure, which slightly saddened me, despite the fact that I have never particularly liked him.
It also drove home to me that it really is a book aimed directly at young people, about the whole process of growing up and realising that the world, and everything in it, is a limitless but mysterious place, beyond control and all the more intoxicating for it.
I also found myself, for the first time, being a bit annoyed by Fowles's rather irritating assumption of his readers background in classical mythology, French and Shakesperian tragedy; but I try to tell myself this only reflects the cultural and educational time in which it was written.
The Magus is, quite appropriately, many things: a coming of age story; an adventure; a mystery; a romance; an historical kalidiscope; an enlightenment; an enigma; a Pandora's Box. It is, most of all, a marvellous entertainment and an affirmation of the wonder and thrill of being young with everything to look forward to and everything to discover.
The next time I read it I will probably be middle-aged and identifying more with Conchis than with the bright young things. And maybe, like the old wizard, I too will start to take pleasure in watching youth in action, and how it can dance and take flight from the strings of others.