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 English
novelist and essayist, master of self-conscious story telling and
purposefully ambiguous endings, known for the textual density of
his work. Fowles's novels reflect influence by French and Greek
cultures. Among his best-known novels are THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S
WOMAN (1969), an imaginative hybrid of a 20th-century reading of
an antique story, and THE MAGUS (1965), which have gained a cult
status. Central themes in Fowles's work are freedom and self-determination.
Often his main characters are on a quest for an ideal, struggling
to come to terms with the reality of existence.
"'I must know the real truth, the truth beyond magic.'
'There is no truth beyond magic,' said the king. "
(from The Magus, 1965)
John Fowles was born in Leigh-on-Sea, in the Southeast of England,
as the son of Robert and Gladys Richards Fowles. His childhood was
typical of the suburban middle classes in Britain between the wars,
but he also lived a strong imaginative life under the influence
of books. He educated at Alleyn Court School and Bedford School.
During World War II Fowles lived in the Devon countryside. In 1944
he entered the University of Edinburgh. Between the years 1945 and
1946 Fowles served in the Royal Marines. He studied at New College,
Oxford, French and German languages and literature. While at Oxford,
Fowles was much influenced by French Existentialism, the most fashionable
philosophical movement at that time.
After receiving his B.A. in 1950, Fowles worked as a teacher at
the University of Poitiers in France, and at a boys' school at Anargyrios
College on the Greek island Spetsai. There he met his future wife,
Elisabeth Whitton. In England Fowles continued his career as a teacher
at Ashridge College (1953-54) and at St. Godric's College (1954-63).
He also worked on many writing projects, including a novel, The
Magus, which he continued to revise for 13 years.
 In
1963 Fowles made his debut as a novelist with THE COLLECTOR, a brilliant
tale of suspense and an allegory of class conflict. It gained a
huge success and since its publication Fowles devoted himself entirely
to writing. The narrator, Clegg, is a collector of butterflies,
who kidnaps and imprisons a young woman, Miranda Grey, a lively
art student. The strong-willed Miranda keep a diary, records their
conversations, and plans her escape, while Clegg treats her like
one of his specimens. She gains small intellectual victories from
her not particularly bright captor, echoing in the stagnation the
British society. At the finale the collector plays with the idea
of repeating his performance.
Fowles's second novel, The Magus, used elements from William
Shakespeare's play The Tempest (1623). It is a story about
Nicholas Urfe, who escapes his latest love affair on the Greek island
of Phraxos. There he meets the demonic millionaire Conchis, the
Prospero of the tale, and falls in love with a Miranda figure. Conchis
overwhelms Nicholas with mysteries; he is the Picasso of magic and
hallucinations in the 'Godgame', which lead Urfe to deeper self-knowledge.
Fowles interweaves in the story mythical and literary allusions,
madness and delusion, and shifting explanations of events. Finally
Urfe breaks free from Conchis's power. However, when Fowles published
the revised version twelve years later, this point is left more
ambiguous. Fowles's draft title for the book was originally "The
Godgame." In the novel he acknowledged the influence of psychologist
Carl Jung, and such literary models as Henry James's The Turn
of the Screw and Charles Dickens's Great Expectations.
 The
French Lieutenant's Woman was set largely in Lyme Regis in the
1860s and re-created the Victorian romance and the world of Thomas
Hardy and George Eliot. In the story a wealthy amateur palaeontologist
Charles Smithson falls in love with Sarah Woodruff, a passionate
and imaginative governess who is believed to have been deserted
by a French naval lieutenant. This affair has ostracized her from
society. The author moves between past and present, adds footnotes,
quotations from Darwin, Marx, and the greats Victorian poets, and
comments Victorian politics and customs. This experimental novel
had three different endings.
DANIEL MARTIN (1977) was the story of an English screenwriter's
search for himself in his past. In the murder mystery A MAGGOT (1985)
Fowles returned to the layered structure of The Magus. A
group of five people travels in Devon in 1736. After a night's lodging
they continue their journey - and disappear. An investigation starts,
three members of the group are found, but their testimonies lead
to a miracle and a disturbing vision of a contact with travellers
from the future. Although Fowles's atheistic view is undiluted,
he also gives room for religious interpretation of the mystical
events.
In 1966 Fowles moved with his wife Elisabeth to Dorset. They lived
first at Underhill Farm and then settled to a cliff-top house by
the sea in Lyme Regis. Fowles was appointed in 1978 joint honorary
curator of the Lyme Regis Museum, and from 1979 to 1988 he was the
sole honorary curator. Fowles also has published several non-fiction
books about Lyme Regis. His other works include poems, short stories,
and essays. THE TREE (1992) contains recollections of Fowler's childhood
and explores the impact of nature on his life and work. The author's
philosophical basis for much of his work can be discerned in his
early collection of notes and aphorisms, THE ARIOSTO (1964).
"One of the great fallacies of our time is that the Nazis
rose to power because they imposed order on chaos. Precisely the
opposite is true - they were successful because they imposed chaos
on order. They tore up the commandments; they denied the super-ego,
what you will. They said, "You may persecute the minority, you
may kill, you may torture, you may couple and breed without love."
They offered humanity all its great temptations. Nothing is true,
everything is permitted."
(from The Magus)
For further reading: The Fiction of John Fowles by William
J. Palmer (1974); John Fowles: Magus and Moralist by Peter Wolfe
(1976); John Fowles by Barry N. Olshen (1978); John Fowles by
Robert Huffaker (1980); The Fiction of John Fowles by Carol M.
Barnum (1988); John Fowles: A Reference Companion by James R.
Aubrey (1991); Understanding John Fowles by T.C. Foster (1994);
Conversations with John Fowles, ed. by Dianne L. Vipond (1999)
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