"A REMARKABLE ACHIEVEMENT"

FOWLES, John. A Maggot. London: Jonathan Cape, (1985). Octavo, original black paper boards, original dust jacket. $150.

First trade edition of Fowles' sixth and final novel, "a tale of lordly wealth, sexual repression and voyeurism" (New York Times), a fine copy.

Fowles, nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999, was often regarded as "the English-speaking world's greatest contemporary and its first postmodern novelist." In his prologue to A Maggot, his final novel, Fowles recalled that "a small group of travelers, faceless, without apparent motive, went in my mind towards an event… I do not know where it came from, or why it kept obstinately rising from my unconscious." In many ways he wrote the novel to explore that image. To critic Robert Nye, it is "very nearly the best work to date of a highly talented and always interesting writer" (Guardian).The New York Times praised A Maggot, calling it a "strong, fascinating, exciting novel… a tale of lordly wealth, sexual repression and voyeurism," and Time hailed it as "a remarkable achievement." Issued simultaneously in a signed limited edition of 500 copies. Small bookseller ticket to price-clipped front flap of dust jacket.

A fine copy.