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The Magus

4.0 of 5 stars 4.00 · rating details · 18,605 ratings · 1,100 reviews

The Magus is the story of Nicholas Urfe, a young Englishman who accepts a teaching assignment on a remote Greek island. There his friendship with a local millionaire evolves into a deadly game, one in which reality and fantasy are deliberately manipulated, and Nicholas must fight for his sanity and his very survival.

Paperback, 656 pages

Published January 4th 2001 by Back Bay Books (first published 1965)

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Sep 03, 2007 MacK rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, brit-lit

My students like to use the made up word, "unputdownable." I always laugh at this. I can always put down a book, I can even put down this one. The problem is, I can't seem to stop picking it up again.

We are thrown, whether we like it or not into the addled frantic mind of Nicholas Urfe, a man in the middle of a suspenseful psychological experiment. The only problem is, without telling us, Fowles turns it into a suspenseful philosophical experiment as well. We are left never fully knowing what is...more

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Jun 23, 2008 Kelly rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: did-not-finish, 20th-century-postwar-to-late

Its like if you took that Most Dangerous Game story and RUINED IT FOREVER.

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Sep 12, 2007 Jessica Baxter rated it 5 of 5 stars

this book fucked me up. i suppose it could be defined as a "psychological thriller" but its very jungian, steeped in metaphor and symbolism and eroticisim and mythology and shakespeare. its also an intense love story of sorts, the main character is a completely fleshed out, real, flawed person who you relate to and fear for and empathize with. the premise is that this british guy gets a teaching job on a small island in greece soon after WWII ends and becomes intwined in the lives/mind games of...more

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Apr 19, 2012 Megan Baxter rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm not exactly sure how to rate this book. But I have a sneaking suspicion that I might read it again at some point, which is generally my personal line for four stars.

I picked this up as one of the books on the BBC's Big Read list, which I am slowly making my way through. I am not sure what to make of it.

The Magus is the story of a young English teacher in Greece, who is ensnared in the machinations of a local millionaire with an unfathomable plan.

For the first half of the book, I was strugg...more

15 likes · like · see review

view all 4 comments

Juanita Rice To deconstruct a cultural icon (phrase, belief, genre, etc.) is to try to reveal how artificial (not in a bad sense, just meaning that human "artifice...more
Apr 22, 2012 12:15pm

Megan Baxter Just wanted to make sure I knew to what you were referring before I spouted anything off! I have a very passing knowledge of deconstructionism, but in...more
Apr 23, 2012 04:37pm

Oct 27, 2012 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Those Who Don't Mind Being Messed With...

Recommended to Lisa (Harmonybites) by: 1001 Books to Read Before You Die

Shelves: 2012-around-the-world, classics, fiction, literary-fiction, novels, contemporary, mystery, romance, suspense

I find myself caught between rant and rave. More rave, which is why I rated it so high, but enough wish to rant to withhold that fifth star. This is a strange book. In the Foreword to the 1978 Revised edition, Fowles said one title he considered was "The Godgame." A young Englishman, Nicholas Urfe, comes in 1953 to the isolated Greek island of Phraxos (modeled on the real island of Spetsai) to teach at an elite boarding school. He's our narrator, our focus through 656 pages, and he's callow, a c...more I find myself caught between rant and rave. More rave, which is why I rated it so high, but enough wish to rant to withhold that fifth star. This is a strange book. In the Foreword to the 1978 Revised edition, Fowles said one title he considered was "The Godgame." A young Englishman, Nicholas Urfe, comes in 1953 to the isolated Greek island of Phraxos (modeled on the real island of Spetsai) to teach at an elite boarding school. He's our narrator, our focus through 656 pages, and he's callow, a cad, and more than a bit of a snob. He encounters a mysterious man calling himself Maurice Conchis living in a villa who takes on God-like qualities. Not the God of Christians or Jews or Muslims mind you. More of the Pagan kind that enjoys playing with mortals like toys. Half-way through the novel I was completely enraptured by the plot's twists and turns. By two-thirds in though, not unlike Nicholas himself, I was more than a bit exasperated by the intricacies, reversals and cruelties of the game, with the sense that not only Nicholas but I the reader was being toyed with. Fowles in the Foreward admitted reviews of the book had "justified criticisms of excess, over-complexity, artificiality" and I agree the novel is guilty on all fronts. I both liked and was repelled by how Fowles played with the connections between life and fiction--how he never let you forget you were reading fiction--in many senses of the word. With this novel the "truth" keeps shifting under your feet, and I wasn't left feeling satisfied at the end--and suspect Fowles didn't want me to be.

Yet I was never tempted to bail--and this read incredibly fast. The book is beautifully, compellingly written. I couldn't put it down with the mystery of Conchis and what he was up to unresolved. In a BBC interview included in the back of my edition, Fowles said he loved "pure narrative" and he felt very few writers can make up for a lack of storytelling ability in other ways--that he valued "readability." And you can see that in the novel--it's shamelessly plot-filled--in good and bad ways. Engrossing, eventful, but sometimes stagey--yet despite its literary sensibility definitely accessible. About the only thing I could complain about is Fowles' habit of sprinkling bits of Latin, Greek and French untranslated. The Magus is both on the "1001 Books to Read Before You Die" list and Playboy's list of "The 25 Sexiest Novels Ever Written." This isn't pornography, there's not much sexual content in terms of number of pages--but it's not only present, it's well-written (rather than, as is almost always the case even in so-called literature, embarrassingly awful.) So many lines were quotable and resonant and there's enough that's twisty in it I could see it repaying more readings. So, interesting writer, interesting book--but rather unsettling.(less)

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Nov 23, 2012 Maureen rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009, novels

well, the magus. it started off in a very familiar and comfortable place for me: england, and people who fancy themselves poets, and love affairs. the spelling seemed affected: "affaire" was used throughout-- i have promised myself to look into usage here but ultimately i felt there was a lot of pretentious flourishes in this book -- and the one that bothered me most was naming a character "conchis" who then speaks out from the book making sure you get the bad pun by asking that an anglicized pr...more well, the magus. it started off in a very familiar and comfortable place for me: england, and people who fancy themselves poets, and love affairs. the spelling seemed affected: "affaire" was used throughout-- i have promised myself to look into usage here but ultimately i felt there was a lot of pretentious flourishes in this book -- and the one that bothered me most was naming a character "conchis" who then speaks out from the book making sure you get the bad pun by asking that an anglicized pronunciation be used. after that, i just kept stopping every twenty pages and snickering. i have read that this was fowles' first novel so it may be that this is a forgivable and hopefully unrepeated failing in his other works.

there are some very fine descriptions of the landscapes of phraxos and parnassus and i really did enjoy the story that is spun out by maurice conchis as he beguiles the young english wannabe poet/teacher urfe. i will have fond memories of that tale of young love, and the battlefield, and especially his time in norway, studying birds and men, for some time. and i know that the book wants you to identify with conchis, and not urfe, but i couldn't help of think of the film the wicker man as i read this book, and how much i don't like it (spoilers for the film and a slight one for the novel in the next few sentences -- you are forewarned!) i don't like it because the same methodology is employed: people need a victim so they set up a mystery, and ensnare a rigid and unlikeable, and above all, orphaned young man who is (view spoiler). and as i thought during that film, so i thought during this book: "this person might have been rigid and unlikeable but what was that to you? is his life less valuable than yours because you feel he has spent it unprofitably?" and the answer to that question for me is: no. basically fowles gave me an unlikeable character, and guess what? i didn't like him. but that doesn't mean the conclusion of the novel gives me any more satisfaction that seeing a man burn inside an effigy. urfe says he has learned but i don't think he's changed, and the story did not satisfy me.

the book taught me some new words i didn't know before, like "enislement". for this, the life story of maurice (let us ignore his last name), the tempest-like atmosphere that was present in the first third of the novel, and the quality of the writing, i am disposed to give it three stars though i don't know how long that will last. i actually think i would have liked this book much more if it had just been a modern version of the tempest. ;P

***

changed rating to two stars. i can no longer really recall the story of maurice's youth (i am not saying his last name again because it pains me. :P)(less)

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Jan 15, 2008 Beth rated it 1 of 5 stars

I had no idea what this book was about. The prose style was nice, but the plot was completely unfathomable. I decided about a third of the way through the book that it was one of the worst things I had ever read. But, due to some strange self-flagellatory compulsion, I told myself there was no way I was going to let it beat me, so I slogged through, teeth clenched, until the end. I found out later that they actually made a movie out of it. About the film, Woody Allen is to have said, "If I could...more

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Sep 12, 2011 selena rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, thebest

from what i understand, there are chunks of untranslated greek and latin in the novel. i think this is the first time outside of reading for school that i've gotten to read latin in modern literature. (why did i study latin in school? i'm a glutton for punishment and portuguese wasn't available).

~~

the magus is the anna karenina of john fowles’s career. with the freedom afforded to him after publishing the collector, he could focus on the magus. i couldn’t resist starting the magus first. any boo...more

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Jul 27, 2007 Casey rated it 3 of 5 stars

A month after finishing The Magus, I'm still not quite sure if I loved it or hated it. I suppose that is entirely due to my obsessions with clarity of plot and identification with characters... one moment, you trust and love a character, and think you know exactly where the story is going (or even, is at the moment); the next, the rug is pulled out from under you and all your alliances and expectations have to suddenly change. Frankly, I don't find that sensation particularly pleasant--even as I...more

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Mar 07, 2012 Simon rated it 3 of 5 stars

SPOILERS!

Well, everything one might say about this book could be taken as a spoiler, including this very remark.

The book is a pretty good read, or it would have been if it had weighed in at two hundred or so pages shorter. And, given that the book is entirely a gradual denouement, one has to admire Fowles's skill in controlling it over such a long span, like a musician making a hugely long crescendo.

But I guess in the end, I didn't much like the book. In the 'trial' scene, a report is read out a...more SPOILERS!

Well, everything one might say about this book could be taken as a spoiler, including this very remark.

The book is a pretty good read, or it would have been if it had weighed in at two hundred or so pages shorter. And, given that the book is entirely a gradual denouement, one has to admire Fowles's skill in controlling it over such a long span, like a musician making a hugely long crescendo.

But I guess in the end, I didn't much like the book. In the 'trial' scene, a report is read out about the narrator of which the narrator himself admits a large amount of validity. And I can't help feeling that it indicts (and is supposed to indict) the author himself. The book is narcissistic in the extreme. A narcissistic young man, much more immature than he thinks he is, becomes the object of a psychological experiment? or intervention? conducted by a group of enormously wealthy people who stage manage all sorts of weird situations on a beautiful Greek island. They include a pair of beautiful young female twins (yes, two!, count 'em) of which one (and it's clear it might have been both) does all sorts of nice things to his private parts. They are all so interested in him. Isn't that cool?

Apparently, he's only the latest in a succession of such experiments/interventions all conducted, you guessed it, on narcissistic young men who are much more immature than they think they are! And it seems they've all involved kinky situations in which the bounds of bourgeois morality are swept away in the name of some unnamed and unspecified higher truth. Exactly why these people are doing what they are doing, whether really out of benevolent concern for all these young men, or out of commitment to some liberated science, is never exactly made clear. (Clearly, any answer to this would be too 'little' or parochial to justify all the action that the group generates, so it really cannot be explained without deflating the entire book. But that's never a good thing in a book, when it has to keep silent on something so as not to appear silly.)

And the attitudes to gender throughout the book! OK, granted, it's partly about how the narrator comes to realize he's fucked up about this, but 600 pages of desperate desire for the female muse alternating with enraged desire to whip (literally) and crush (metaphorically) various of the women involved in the narrator's 'education', followed by 50 pages of "oh I must try and do better".... Well, I'm not convinced. The book seems an unpleasant young man's jerk off fantasy (which makes his control of the book's crescendo over such a long span all the more impressive, I suppose).

There's also a whole epistemological theme to the book. How, it asks, do we know what's real? How tell what's true? But I'm damned if I see what the book is supposed to say about that. No-one who stumbles into the perfectly executed plans of rich eccentrics with unlimited resources to control is going to be able to separate reality from illusion. I mean, come on. Descartes's evil genius has nothing on Maurice Conchis.

So, final verdict: the book is callow and jejune. And not in a nice way.(less)

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Feb 18, 2011 Jake rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novel, travel

John Fowles started writing the Magus in the mid-1950s, and struggled with it off and on for the next twelve years. After his first novel, The Collector, became a best-seller, he finally finished the book and published it in 1966. But then, eleven years later, he issued a revised edition, reworking a number of critical scenes. All books reflect the times in which they were written, and this one is no exception. The early scenes are very much a meditation on breaking away from 1950s conformity an...more John Fowles started writing the Magus in the mid-1950s, and struggled with it off and on for the next twelve years. After his first novel, The Collector, became a best-seller, he finally finished the book and published it in 1966. But then, eleven years later, he issued a revised edition, reworking a number of critical scenes. All books reflect the times in which they were written, and this one is no exception. The early scenes are very much a meditation on breaking away from 1950s conformity and the stultifying regime of the post-war British upper class. The long middle passage, set on a mysterious island in Greece, tackles those big 1960s questions- personal identity, sexual freedom, and higher consciousness. And the end of the book, which peaks with a freakout frenzy and ends on a distinctly melancholy and uncertain note- it's not a stretch to see that as a mirror of the burned out decade that was the 1970s.

When classifying Fowles, a lot of critics place him on the line between modernism and post-modernism. Certainly there is ample evidence of both schools of writing in The Magus. Much of the book is a bildungsroman with shades of early 20th century novels (like DH Lawrence's Sons and Lovers, and Joyce's Portrait of the Artist- both featuring smart but emotionally unstable young men, groping towards maturity.) But as the mysterious events on the island gear up, and the narrator finds himself falling head-over-heels through a series of bizarre scenes of sex and violence and lies and half-truths, The Magus comes to resemble a later generation of novels.

The closest parallel might be Eco's Foucault's Pendulum. Both books are paced as erudite literary mysteries with frequent references to other authors- Shakespeare, Dickens, etc. Both have settings that span Europe- Fowles moves the action from London to Greece to France, with stops in Norway, Rome, and Germany. And like Eco, Fowles has a playful way of letting the reader in on the fun- allowing the narrator to express disbelief about the events he's witnessing, just as we, the readers, might feel disbelief at times about the plot of the book:

'Is this how they teach you at Oxford now? One reads the last chapters first?" And I had to smile and look down. If his answer had not quenched my curiosity at all it had at least jumped another pretense, and moved us on. In some obscure way, one I was to become very familiar with, it flattered me: I was too intelligent not to be already grasping the rules of the game we played. It was no good my knowing that old men have conned young ones like that ever since time began. I still fell for it, and one still falls for the oldest literary devices in the right hands and contexts.

'This experience. It's like being halfway through a book. I can't just throw it in the dustbin.'

Where The Magus fails, it fails because Fowles allows the narrator to descend into a kind of post-college mawkishness, where everything is so serious and life is never a joke. Even though the situation, as presented, is often cosmically funny, the narrator never seems to joke or smile about it- and in that he seems to miss some of the point. But that's a small complaint and one that doesn't really mar this compulsively readable novel.

PS: if you liked TV's Lost, you'll doubly enjoy this book. Much of the plot of that show seems to be ripped from Fowles- including the mysterious island setting and the idea that the whole place might be a grand psychology experiment or be possessed of a kind of black magic. It also features a Jacob-like master-manipulator, several characters that shed identities like snake-skin, and even a Hatch! There's more, but I'll let you discover it for yourself. (less)

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Jan 10, 2012 Sean rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is an interesting mindf*ck of a book. Docked a star because the novel is one of those things that probably seemed terribly sophisticated with respect to sex several decades ago when it first appeared, but now shows its datedness in a number of places. The protagonist is also the classic case of an intelligent, educated man who dresses up his patronizing, demeaning attitudes toward women with tiresome pseudointellectual rubbish (based on dimestore psychoanalysis and anthropology and his own...more

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Apr 23, 2011 Emma Crook rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mind-changing

Most reviewers have stated about 'The Magus' that you either 'get it' or you don't, I'm not sure which category I fall in.
I enjoyed the book, however towards the end I was feeling quite frustrated and had to force myself to read the last 150 pages. One of the reasons I found it irritating was the fact Fowles assumed the reader would be able to follow all the shakespearean metaphors.There were lots of greek mythology references too, and even though I would rate myself more than average in my know...more Most reviewers have stated about 'The Magus' that you either 'get it' or you don't, I'm not sure which category I fall in.
I enjoyed the book, however towards the end I was feeling quite frustrated and had to force myself to read the last 150 pages. One of the reasons I found it irritating was the fact Fowles assumed the reader would be able to follow all the shakespearean metaphors.There were lots of greek mythology references too, and even though I would rate myself more than average in my knowledge about greek mythology, I found some of them left me feeling dazed.
My favourite parts would have to be all the magnificent stories from Conchis, I found in these chapters I couldn't put the book down, and with some, feeling quite haunted by the conclusions, I would find myself questioning how I would have reacted to certain situations. I think the best part of the questions it poses, it that you can never be sure how you would react and they remain unanswered (just like Conchis would want).
I didn't like Nicholas though, and found I kept having to remind myself it was written over 60 years ago - the amount of times he slapped a woman without the slightest bit of guilt shocked me. I found I related more to Alison, although she was, at times, a train wreck of a woman, I empathised towards her and therefore disliked Nicholas all the more of his treatment of her (especially the last time they met). I hated the way he didn't try and save Jojo from the future Kemp believed would occur. Morally I don't believed he learned all he could from his experiences in Bourani, and although it was a coming of age story, and throughout the novel I felt his same frustrations with trying to understand the truth, his last meeting with Alison saw him reacting like he would have done from the start of the book, blackmail, hurt, violence.
Regardless of that, I know it will be a book I shall read again, maybe ten or so years from now, and I will probably find myself reacting differently again. I enjoyed it an would recommend (depending on the reader).(less)

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Mar 31, 2011 James rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

While his novel The Collector was my introduction to the work of John Fowles I was not nearly as impressed with that novel as I was with The Magus. In it I found an intense, engrossing novel that maintained my interest in several ways.

The plot of the novel is a story of a young unhappy man who considers himself a poet and a philosopher. He takes a job at an English boarding school on a Greek island to escape what could become a complicated situation after a young woman with whom he is involved f...more

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Jan 21, 2013 Vanessa rated it 2 of 5 stars

I read this almost twenty years ago because I had it recommended to me by a friend as "the most amzing book I've ever read." Even then, barely out of my teens, this novel read like something a teenaged or fairly immature young man might have written - basically a sexual fantasy/adventure for the twenty-something male protagonist. In brief, bored and bitter English college graduate has fling with Australia stewardess who is crazy about him, dumps her when he goes off to Greece to teach, then beco...more

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Mar 17, 2013 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you, mtbr-challenge-2013, british-literature, greece, read-2013

Another fabulous book written by John Fowles.

This is the story of Nicholas Urfe, an English teacher who accepted a job teaching in a private boy's school in the Greek Island of Phraxos.

By exploring the island during his spare time, he discovers a remote villa owned by Conchis, the magician, the Magus of this story.

His life will change forever after their first meeting. The story has hints of surreal threads with a plenty of psychological game among the main characters.

One you start to read this...more

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Jul 10, 2008 Rob rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Literary fiends

Shelves: literature-fiction

The Magus is a fine literary tale of a young English man who takes a job teaching on a small, isolated Greek island in 1950. There, he's drawn into a web of mystery and danger by the wealthy nomad that summers on a remote corner of the island. I was immediately drawn into the story by the voice of the young protagonist, and continued turning pages as mystery after mystery unfolded. Unfortuantely, somewhere in the middle, the story really bogs down and becomes repetitive. It isn't until the last...more

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Jan 23, 2008 Tyson rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone

This is one of those books that was recommended to me a long time ago, by my Mom, who's opinion I very highly regard. I don't know what I put it off for so long. The book's synopsis captured my imagination. It has a variant of magic realism, a dizzying blurring the real and imagined, a heavy dose of both psychological and pilisophiscal exploration.

The book opens up a labyrinth of a plot where the narrator goes through varying levels of understanding aobut the nture of the labyritnth he's in. He...more

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Dec 15, 2009 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have rarely been so unpleasantly surprised - and bitterly disappointed - by the sudden turn that a novel takes as with the abrupt shift that occurs roughly mid-way through John Fowles The Magus. The first half introduced the ethereal, creepy and gripping experiences of the young Englishman Nicholas Urfe, estranged from his Australian girlfriend Alison and teaching at a boys school on the remote Greek island of Phraxos. Thoroughly disenchanted with the course his life has taken, and gauging wit...more I have rarely been so unpleasantly surprised - and bitterly disappointed - by the sudden turn that a novel takes as with the abrupt shift that occurs roughly mid-way through John Fowles The Magus. The first half introduced the ethereal, creepy and gripping experiences of the young Englishman Nicholas Urfe, estranged from his Australian girlfriend Alison and teaching at a boys school on the remote Greek island of Phraxos. Thoroughly disenchanted with the course his life has taken, and gauging with a contemplative eye the distance between the top of the sheer cliffs on the island's shore and the teal waters far below, he stumbles upon the private villa of the mysterious Greek millionaire Maurice Conchis. Select lines from T. S. Eliot's Little Gidding point beguilingly towards the direction that Conchis' tutoring will lead Nicholas - and this early part, with its spectral hauntings, shadowy tales told in charcoal tongues, and erotic temptations from a nubile maiden, one of the troupe that enacts the masques that Conchis enjoys performing, was very good and left me eager to have the mystery solved, the seeingly supernatural elements either explained or expanded upon.

Unfortunately, the book then takes a complete left-turn, an increasingly silly shift into the psychoanalysis of the confused Nicholas, a vast and complex pantomime that goes from one climax to another, all pointing towards a ridiculous amount of time, money, and effort expended upon the most pedestrian after-school special of a goal. It's almost like Fowles had one book in mind when he began writing, then discovered the works of Jung and Freud and Laing and Lacan during a sabbatical, became consumed with their themes and ideas, and decided to resume the novel in a completely different direction. It is still well-written, and I hung through to the end, but toss me in the fridge and call me Frosty, but was I ever pissed with how this sucker turned out. A truly intriguing and otherwordly tale made clinical and cold in the most frustrating of ways (though I realize that, for others, the novel could be the obverse: a cheesy spook-story having been made into a superb analysis of the faults and deceits of an arrogant young man's life, a mind-fuck of the first order). The Magus presents the lamentable case of a potential five-star hit at the box office going off the rails and exiting the theaters early as an average three-star read.(less)

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Jul 24, 2007 Christine rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels, abandoned

I just couldn't get into this, even after I flipped ahead to figure out what the H was going on. I don't know, except to say that this was written in the style of what I think of as "overblown men's book." Not very articulate, I know. I guess it seemed overinvolved with emotional and landscape details at the expense of the story. In other words, trying too hard to be literature. Blah.

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Aug 03, 2007 Chris rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: bestofthebest, epic

Something of an existentialist manifesto disguised as fiction, I think this is a book that you either get or don't--or that you buy or don't. Both bleak and beautiful, I think it's worth everyone giving a shot, because if it resonates with you, you'll have found something truly outstanding. Or you'll be bored on page 35 and can stop there.

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Jan 09, 2010 Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: classic, read-2010, greece-turkey-theme-setting

Oh boy. Here's the thing: If you read this novel as a citizen of 2010, a member of our hyper-speed, uber-connected modern society that navel-gazes in 140 word bytes with little interest in true introspection, The Magus will seem almost comical in its psycho-thrilling, Jungian dribbling plot and Baroque-meets-mod writing style.

If you, dear reader, consider that The Magus was partially written nearly 60 years ago (begun in the early 50s, published in '65, revised in '76), its risky political and...more Oh boy. Here's the thing: If you read this novel as a citizen of 2010, a member of our hyper-speed, uber-connected modern society that navel-gazes in 140 word bytes with little interest in true introspection, The Magus will seem almost comical in its psycho-thrilling, Jungian dribbling plot and Baroque-meets-mod writing style.

If you, dear reader, consider that The Magus was partially written nearly 60 years ago (begun in the early 50s, published in '65, revised in '76), its risky political and sexual behavior and twisted plot now seems the apex of modernity of post-war culture. This is David Lynch decades before he wrapped Isabella Rossellini in blue velvet, "White Rabbit" when Grace Slick was in pigtails, free love to a generation stripping off their bobby socks, "Schindler's List" for young people who had vivid memories of World War II and their parents of the Great War.

As a read, I found it intoxicating. I was surprised at every turn, and, despite its substantial size, never bored or exhausted. Although I enjoyed it to bits, I couldn't recommend it to any of my GoodReads buddies- I honestly think you'd hate it! That's not a throwing down of the gauntlet, but a genuine Caveat emptor. If you didn't like The French Lieutenant's Women, steer well clear of The Magus.

Fowles, in his foreward to the 1976 revision, acknowledges the many negative critical reviews received upon its initial publication ("justified criticisms of excess, over-complexity and artificiality..."). But as he reflects on his motivation in writing, he realizes that The Magus must "remain a novel of adolescence, written by a retarded adolescent" and that freedom, one of the central themes of the novel, must be grasped by the writer to create whatever worlds he or she damn well pleases.

I celebrate the notion of the latter, as long as the reader is gifted a damn good story. For those of us who suffered through "The Most Dangerous Game" and "The Lottery" in 7th grade English, I offer up the satisfaction of The Magus.

(less)

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Feb 03, 2013 Krisz rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is a masterpiece. I read it a couple of years ago and I was super excited for it because it was a beautiful birthday gift from a special person. What can I say about this novel? It was mindblowing, I never predicted anything that happened next, when I had hope that I knew something, guess what? I knew NOTHING. Such an amazing story, my mind was on a rollercoaster all the time. I didn't understand quite well the end, so I plan to re-read it this year, and maybe, get my answers, but with...more

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Jul 30, 2012 Steven rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-fiction

Like most Fowles novels, this one is far richer than a cursory reading might suggest. The reader who is looking for a colorfully surreal psycho-sexual odyssey into the occult, which the title and most jacket summaries certainly suggest, will of course be rewarded, with the added benefit of it having been rendered in Fowles' immaculate prose style. But it's so much more. The novel's young narrator, Nicholas Urfe, begins by describing some essential details about himself as a naive post-World War...more

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Dec 09, 2012 Stephen rated it 2 of 5 stars

Here is how to read this book: Determine the halfway point in the book, mark that particular hump-day page, read up to that page, and for God's sake STOP there! The first half will give you some interesting views of life from a not particularly interesting or sympathetic main character(I know that may sound like a contradiction, but there it is). The second half will only give you a headache and serious regret. This book was considered hot stuff in the 1960s, but it's grandma stuff today, so if...more

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Nov 18, 2011 Kendal rated it 1 of 5 stars

A friend of mine gave me this book, because it was his favorite book ever. I read and read and read, and read and read and read some more, waiting for it to become something I could imagine being a person's favorite book. It never happened. Maybe if I were to read it today, it would make more sense to me.

I like the movie Wicker Man quite a bit. The Magus and Wicker Man have some things in common, but I don't remember what. This may be the least intelligent review of the Magus ever. Which could...more

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Jan 25, 2011 Evan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: modern-library-top-100-list, epic, __in-my-collection, philosophy, 2010-reads, favorites, my-faves, fowles

Reading The Magus was like holding a mirror up to my life, not knowing who it is I'm looking at, not fully understanding where I am or where I've been, and even less certain of where I am going -- not certain of what lessons I've learned or am supposed to be learning, adrift and perplexed about issues of morality/immorality/amorality, not wholly certain if the things I seek and desire aren't already right here in front of me.

I think it's safe to say that The Magus was one of the most profoundly...more Reading The Magus was like holding a mirror up to my life, not knowing who it is I'm looking at, not fully understanding where I am or where I've been, and even less certain of where I am going -- not certain of what lessons I've learned or am supposed to be learning, adrift and perplexed about issues of morality/immorality/amorality, not wholly certain if the things I seek and desire aren't already right here in front of me.

I think it's safe to say that The Magus was one of the most profoundly amazing reading experiences of my life.

And I say this in total agreement with all its naysaysers who say that the story is preposterous, not credible, frustrating, ever-changing, too self-satisfied in how it pulls and yanks the reader around and leads him/her into blind alleys, traps, promises never intending to be kept. Maurice Conchis, the enigmatic puppetmaster of the tale, is the alter ego of Fowles; leading the bewildered protagonist, Nicholas Urfe, in the same epochal, mind-fucking game that Fowles the author does with the reader. The mind-meld one has with Urfe, and just as surely, the disconnect one has with him, is a process one has throughout the book, mirroring one's own self examination and self-loathing.

I'm no intellectual literary critic, plus I'm a little lazy, so there won't be any pondering of the various philosophical, mythological, psychological, political, sociological questions raised in The Magus, of which there are innumerable examples. The question of what freedom is, and how we choose to use it, looms large over the book, as do notions of life as a kind of theater. References and parallels to ancient myth, drama and to Shakespeare are interwoven liberally. Perception and reality, the nature of time and memory, science vs. metaphysics and much more are tackled herein.

As I read it, I thought of the many other books and media products that influenced it, and in turn, it influenced. The Englishman abroad motifs reminded me a bit of Graham Greene. I detected similarities with other books, The Castle of Communion, The Most Dangerous Game, Zorba the Greek, Alice Through the Looking Glass, The Tempest, The Sporting Club, the Saragossa Manuscript, Lord of the Flies, Dream Story (and its movie version, Eyes Wide Shut), and TV shows such as The Prisoner, Lost, and even The Wild Wild West,and movies such as The Game.

The book is a fascinating, one-of-a-kind tour de force.

There will be no attempt at plot summary here. That is easily enough gotten at Wikipedia or in other reviews. Another aspect of the mirroring between protagonist and reader is the idea of willing submission, of suspension of disbelief. It's Urfe's own curiosity that draws him to the game and his own willingness to stay with it. The question of whether or not we are our own jailer comes to mind.

Oh, and the book is also intensely romantic. Filled with regret and longing and anger and despair. The Greek island setting is enigmatic and intoxicating.

If you're someone who wants a tidy ending, The Magus will not be for you. For all of us, the future is mute. The book understands this.(less)

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Mar 31, 2009 Stephen Gallup rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I first read The Magus in 1974, on the recommendation of a friend. He was probably attracted to the way it questions our assumptions of reality and to the similarity between Conchis, the sorceror of the title, and the mystical shaman Don Juan in the Carlos Castenada books. I found it a pretty wild ride.

I read it again in about 1980, after thoroughly enjoying another Fowles title. The haunting stories Conchis tells -- and the surreal illustrations of those stories that he somehow calls into being...more I first read The Magus in 1974, on the recommendation of a friend. He was probably attracted to the way it questions our assumptions of reality and to the similarity between Conchis, the sorceror of the title, and the mystical shaman Don Juan in the Carlos Castenada books. I found it a pretty wild ride.

I read it again in about 1980, after thoroughly enjoying another Fowles title. The haunting stories Conchis tells -- and the surreal illustrations of those stories that he somehow calls into being -- stayed with me through the years. But I knew I was still missing a lot, what with all the references to mythology and Jungian psychology (not to mention the frequent use of other languages). So when looking for something to read during my convalescence from a recent surgery, I thought I'd give it one more shot.

This time my focus was more on Nicholas, the alienated young Briton who escapes from a relationship by taking a teaching job on a Greek island, where he then meets Conchis. Nicholas is not a very agreeable character, presumably because he was raised without affection, and it's hard to imagine what Alison, the love interest, sees in him. Worse, I'm not sure he makes much progress in the course of the book.

Had I rated it in 1974 or 1980, I would have given it five stars. And I still admire its vivid sense of place and the moods it evokes. However, this time through I became impatient with the way Nicholas continues trying to see behind the masque. The guy becomes obsessed with Conchis, and much more so with a phantom-like young woman whom Conchis sometimes calls into being for purposes known only to him. He pursues answers doggedly, despite the warning that answers are a form of death, and despite the ominous direction events begin to take. In his shoes, I would have decided early on to give Conchis and all his retinue a wide berth. But maybe that's my age speaking. Nicholas is young.

I should mention that I read the original version. Fowles came along a few years later and rewrote portions of it.(less)

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Jul 23, 2010 Lavinia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2005, fiction

Cu ocazia unei ocazii care n-a mai avut loc. Nov. '05. Gasita la curatenia generala prin computer.

Nu mai tin minte exact cine mi-a recomandat “Magicianul”. Dar tin minte exact parerile unora, pe care i-am intrebat ce impresie le-a facut cartea. Unii mi-au zis ca e ciudata, stufoasa si imbirligata si ca le-a pierit cheful undeva spre jumatate. Altii mi-au spus ca e geniala sau ca nu s-au putut dezlipi de ea si au citit-o in 2 zile intr-o sesiune, in loc sa invete pentru examen.

Mi-am inceput lect...more

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Nov 09, 2007 Carrie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I put off reading this book for two years after receiving it as a gift. I had asked for it, but I had trouble reading The French Lieutenant's Woman in 85 and The Collector in 98, so quite expected it to be a difficult read. Who knows why I accepted Steve's challenge to read it, but I managed to make it through to the end in just a few days. My hands hurt holding 650 pages, but it was a real pageturner. Just when you think you might have it sussed, it takes a different direction. The story kept m...more

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About John Fowles

John Robert Fowles was born in Leigh-on-Sea, a small town located about 40 miles from London in the county of Essex, England. He recalls the English suburban culture of the 1930s as oppressively conformist and his family life as intensely conventional. Of his childhood, Fowles says "I have tried to escape ever since."

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Quotes from The Magus

“The human race is unimportant. It is the self that must not be betrayed."

"I suppose one could say that Hitler didn't betray his self."

"You are right. He did not. But millions of Germans did betray their selves. That was the tragedy. Not that one man had the courage to be evil. But that millions had not the courage to be good.” — 105 people liked it

“If you forget everything else about me, please remember this. I walked down that street and I never looked back and I love you. I love you. I love you so much that I shall hate you for ever for today.” — 48 people liked it

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