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Dec 17, 2009

MacK rated it:

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 More...

1 comment like (30 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Jessica rated it:

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/min More...

1 comment like (22 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Beth rated it:

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 More...

6 comments like (10 people liked it)

Feb 06, 2012

selena rated it:

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).

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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 More...

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 27, 2007

Casey rated it:

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...

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

Feb 18, 2011

Jake rated it:

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 conformit More...

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

Jan 15, 2012

Emma rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 10, 2008

Rob rated it:

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 l More...

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 23, 2008

Tyson rated it:

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 labyri More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jun 23, 2008

Kelly rated it:

NO. I can't. I can't do it. Its like if you took that Most Dangerous Game Bradbury story and RUINED IT FOREVER. At first I thought it was going to be an amazing, longer psychological version of that book, right? NO. It's an unbearably pretentious attempt for Fowles to show off his education for 400 pages of heavy, slowgoing, super emo emotion and dialogue all while congratulating himself on how erudite he is. It's really hard to get into something that's supposed to be a thriller, if an intellec More...

11 comments like (10 people liked it)

Dec 15, 2009

Chris rated it:

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...

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Christine rated it:

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.

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Chris rated it:

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.

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Mar 27, 2009

Maureen rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

6 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 09, 2010

Julie rated it:

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 po More...

1 comment like (13 people liked it)

Nov 18, 2011

Kendal rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 25, 2011

Evan rated it:

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 More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Mar 31, 2009

Stephen rated it:

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 call More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 23, 2010

Lavinia rated it:

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.
More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Nov 09, 2007

Carrie rated it:

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 More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Mar 19, 2009

Roger rated it:

This book is incredible. It is a mind fuck in the extreme. Once you've read it, the book will haunt you forever.

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Nov 14, 2010

Fanny rated it:

Questo libro gioca brutti scherzi. Alla pagina 497 trovo una nota credo sbagliata: un riferimento del testo a un certo «dottor Crowley», citato per commentare l’apparizione di un personaggio abbigliato con panni demonico-stregoneschi, viene riferito dalla traduttrice al riformatore religioso del XVI secolo Robert Crowley e non all’esoterista e ciarlatano novecentesco Aleister Crowley.
Come dire che Il mago prende in contropiede la nostra rispettabilità, la nostra cultura ben gerarchizzata, perfin More...

0 comments like

Mar 22, 2009

Vegantrav rated it:

This book is on the list of the Modern Library of the World's Best Books. I must disagree with this assessment. Although the plot is initially quite intriguing, none of the characters--not the protagonist Nicholas Urfe, not his two love interests (Alison and Lily), and not the antagonist (Maurice Conchis)--is even likable or really even psychologically interesting, and the plot becomes simply unbelievable as the novel advances. Fowles never really gives any reason for the trials and tribulati More...

2 comments like (5 people liked it)

Mar 18, 2009

Marigold rated it:

This is one of Those Books! Those Books that you love & hate at the same time, that make you think, that make you angry, that you can’t stop reading, that you will remember more deeply. The Magus takes you on a journey through Jungian psychological theory; through countries (England & Greece), through time & love, through alternate realities; through a maelstrom of imagery from the tarot deck to Shakespeare to The Bible to Dickens. Whatever you think of it, it’s a colossal achievement in story-t More...

0 comments like

Jan 19, 2009

Markus rated it:

This was the second book I read by John Fowles, after The Collector. I enjoyed both, and am very impressed by Fowles' style. This is a dangerous book as it can make a reader feel more intelligent that they really are (guilty here) or I could imagine not intelligent at all. Fowles uses so many great allusions, and if you get half of them, you probably will feel like a smart reader. If you get none of them... then this is probably not the best book. If you want to expand your vocabulary with More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 06, 2012

Shovelmonkey1 rated it:

Here on Goodreads, rather than judging a book by its cover, it is always handier to judge a book based on what your friends and people you are following had to say about it after it had passed under their beady eyes.

I have 91 friends here on Goodreads and follow 6 people and of the 12 friends and three people I'm following, only one (Kingfan30) wrote a review. Even the more loquacious members of the group have chosen to remain silent - Karen, Mike and PetraX - not a jot or a scribbl More...

17 comments like (21 people liked it)

Feb 01, 2012

Peter rated it:

It's a little difficult to add to nearly 13,000 reviews, but what the hell, even if my chances of saying something new or different are minimal.

I started with the first edition, read it twice over years, and nabbed the revision immediately and have just re-read it for the second time after many years. It's one of those books that for better or worse has always stuck in my "favorite books" memory bank, even now at age 65 when I perhaps ought to know better!

My initia More...

0 comments like

Jan 10, 2012

Sean rated it:

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...

0 comments like

Dec 01, 2011

Janet rated it:

While wandering through the wonderful Powell's Bookstore in Portland Oregon, I came across a used copy of this book. As I held the book I had a memory flash of taking the same book off a library shelf when I was maybe 13 or 14 - about the same time it was published in 1966. I checked the book out, brought it home and started reading. Even though the book must have been pretty mature subject matter for my age, I could not put it down. I immediately fell in love with John Fowles and I eagerly More...

0 comments like

Oct 20, 2011

Mattie rated it:

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 m More...

0 comments like