"THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING WORLD'S GREATEST CONTEMPORARY WRITER": FIRST ENGLISH EDITION OF THE MAGUS

FOWLES, John. The Magus. London: Jonathan Cape, (1966). Octavo, original half purple paper-covered boards, original black-and-white cloth, original dust jacket. $700.

First English edition of Fowles' second, highly acclaimed novel—"one of the most engrossing reading experiences in modern fiction"—in original dust jacket.

"Regarded by many as the English-speaking world's greatest contemporary writer and its first postmodern novelist" (New York Times), John Fowles here tells "a modernized, worldly-wise version of The Tempest… bathed in an atmosphere of mystery, eroticism and paranoia" (Parker, 426-27). The Magus is "one of the most engrossing reading experiences in modern fiction, a psychological mystery which is also a magnificent piece of story-telling" (Pringle 29). Fowles' fascinating tale unfolds on a Greek island where, "in an atmosphere of mystery, fantasy, and obsession," Englishman Nicholas Urfe takes a teaching position and becomes entangled "with an enigmatic Greek millionaire and his entourage; with its mythological dimension it suggests magic realism, and in the agnostic fatalism of its ending point, Greek tragedy" (Stringer, 228). First English edition, preceded by the Boston first, which has a copyright notice dated 1965 but was not released until January 1966.

A fine copy.