Literary Fiction · TenseNicholas Urfe takes a teaching job on a Greek island and is drawn into a wealthy recluse's psychological games
The Magus
by John Fowles
A young teacher on a Greek island is drawn into a recluse's "godgame"
Nicholas Urfe is a young English Oxford graduate who takes a teaching job on a small Greek island, Phraxos in the novel, which is based partly on Spetses. There he becomes isolated and disillusioned. He meets Maurice Conchis, a wealthy Greek recluse and the owner of an estate, and is gradually drawn into the psychological games Conchis calls the "godgame." Jonathan Cape published it in 1965, and Fowles issued a revised edition in 1977.
More about this book
Who
Nicholas Urfe, Maurice Conchis, Alison Kelly and a young woman Nicholas falls in love with.
World
A small Greek island, Phraxos, based partly on Spetses.
What makes it different
It is Fowles's first written novel but his third published. He began it in the 1950s as The Godgame and worked on it for about twelve years.
Feel
Puzzling and suspenseful.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Further reading
- The MagusWikipedia