num_pages: 656
description: The Magus is British author John Fowles' 1st novel &amp; 2nd to be published following The Collector's success in '63. He started it in the '50s as the "God Game", partly basing it on his experiences as an English teacher on the Greek isle of Spetses. He rewrote it for twelve years before its '65 publication, &amp; despite critical &amp; commercial success, continued to rework it until its revised version of '77. The Magus was a bestseller, partly because it tapped into the 60's popular interest in psychoanalysis &amp; mystical philosophy. The story concerns the intelligent Oxford graduate Nicholas Urfe, who takes up with Alison Kelly, an Australian girl he meets at a party in London. In order to get away from an increasingly serious relationship, Nicholas accepts a post teaching English at the Lord Byron School on the Greek isle of Phraxos. This provides a convenient escape as the affair with Alison gets more serious than he'd hoped for. Bored, depressed, disillusioned &amp; overwhelmed by the Mediterranean island, he contemplates suicide, taking to long solitary walks. On one of these he stumbles upon the wealthy Greek recluse Maurice Conchis, who may or may not have collaborated with the Nazis &amp; apparently lives alone on his island estate. Nicholas is gradually drawn into Conchis's psychological games, his paradoxical views on life, his mysterious persona &amp; his eccentric masques. At 1st these various aspects of what the novel terms the "godgame" seem to be a joke, but as they grow more elaborately intense, his ability to determine what's real &amp; what's not vanishes. Against his will &amp; knowledge he becomes a performer in the godgame, realizing that the enactments of Nazi occupation, the absurd playlets after de Sade &amp; the obscene parodies of Greek myths aren't about Conchis' life, but his own. The novel presents an extraordinary series of descriptions of both places &amp; events, painting a vivid picture of the surroundings in which it takes place.
language: English
title: The Magus
titlecomplete: The Magus
characters: John Briggs, John Leverrier, June Holmes, Sandy Mitford, Nicholas Urfe, Maurice Conchis, Joe Harrison, Alison Kelly, Demetriades, Joan Kemp, Lily de Seitas, Julie Holmes
genres: Fiction, Mystery, Greece, British Literature, Literature, Classics, Novels, Contemporary, Fantasy, Literary Fiction
ratings_count: 57304
places: Greece, London, England
publisher: Random House UK