John Fowles Books

In spare, poetic and very beautiful dialect, old and grumpy Guernsey misanthrope, Ebenezer Le Page, recounts the story of his life; a tale of disillusionment, loss and remarkable resiliance.

Edwards makes Le Page a Guernseyan "Everyman." Le Page represents an embattled folk community: colonized by the French, occupied by the Germans and finally overrun by English tourists.

Like the butler, Stevens, in *The Remains of the Day,* Le Page has an epiphany that transforms him. But while Stevens' epiphany is of the rather subtle dry sherry variety, Le Page's knocks you flat like a good shot of white lightening, poteen or whatever it is that Guernsey people drink when they want to see God.

*The Book of Ebenezer Le Page* is about a small miracle of the human spirit in the face of war, poverty and souless consumerism.

It's been more than twenty-five years since I read The Book of Ebenezer LePage, lured to it by the story of John Fowles's involvement in seeing it published. Having just finished The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, my brother and I were comparing notes on the novel we both enjoyed so much when I commented that, in some strange way, the story reminded me of Ebenezer LePage. Thinking still about that extraordinary book, I checked here at amazon to see if it was still in print.
In reading the long list of capsulized reviews, I found the following and laughed out loud: "The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, by G. B. Edwards, is an oddity and a great literary wonder, written in the beautiful French patios of Guernsey, . . . ." --Archipelago. Of course, the book may have been written on a patio, though I've no idea how the reviewer would know. What I do know, however, is that the subtle language of the Channel Islands--English, with some French added creatively--is known as a "patois," and the use of that patois in the book's dialogue is but a small part of the charm that wafts through the book's pages. I've long considered it to be one of the finest novels I've read.

One of the best books I have read in a long time...The universality of Ebenezer is wonderful. It brings the reader back to another time and place. I highly recommend this book.

What can I add to the almost unanimous chorus of praise and rave reviews? Not much. But this is such an exceptional yet so inexplicably little-known book that I feel obliged to join the chorus.

THE BOOK OF EBENEZER LE PAGE reminds me, as unlikely as this particular combination may sound, of both Thomas Hardy and Mark Twain. Indeed, for a rough approximation of the narrator Ebenezer Le Page and his personality and humor, imagine that Sam Clemens had been born in 1890 on the Channel Island of Guernsey, lived there his entire life, and then nearing 90 set down the story of his life and his world. Although not as cosmopolitan as Sam Clemens, Ebenezer Le Page is every bit as independent a free-thinker, as open-minded, as cantankerous, as wise, and as ruthlessly disdainful of cant, self-righteousness, and those who better themselves at the expense of others. And almost as funny.

For all its greatness, THE BOOK OF EBENEZER LE PAGE is not a page-turner that you are likely to devour in one fell swoop. It took me two weeks to read it. But each time I returned to it, I was eager to do so. It is not unlike an idiosyncratically crusty grandfather telling tales from his life after dinner; as much as one loves to listen to him every evening for an hour or two, one is not prepared to listen to him day in and day out, to the exclusion of everything else.

This novel is sui generis. It also is, in my experience, the greatest novel by a "single-work author." (It far surpasses John Kennedy Toole's "A Confederacy of Dunces.") But it should not be regarded solely as some sort of curiosity. It is a great work of literature, and it merits far wider recognition and a far wider readership.

This is a book for good readers only. And for good readers who enter the book at the right time when they are willing to invest the effort to get far enough into the story to care about it. There is much to complain about. It is a first person narrative written by a person who is not always likeable about other people who are not always likeable and who are often two dimensional. It is written in an idiosyncratic style that reflects both the education level and patois of the narrator. The setting is limited, obscure and unfamiliar to most readers. Somehow those very complaints gradually reverse themselves to become the strengths of the book. The author asks a lot from the reader because you have to plow through a lot of words and page after page until you become aware of the reversal. You become very interested in the narrator's life story, the vast cast of characters continues to increase with every page but they seem more human and not so irritating, the writing style becomes familiar and essential to the story as the narrator's personality and a reflection of the richness of the setting. This is a long book full of a long life story and many small stories. The small stories are some of the most memorable, particularly during the time of occupation. Some of the little stores are entertaining, like the two pigs and some are tragic, like the story of the young prisoner. I found myself more caught up in the little stories than in the larger tragedy of Raymond and Horace. My recommendation is to skip the introduction by John Fowles which is long and unnecessary and save your endurance to see if you can get far enough into the book to reach the point where you stop having to work at reading and want to pick it up. It is brilliant, even as it is astounding that a publisher read enough of it to make the decision to publish it.

These are very intense stories. Each of them gripped me and forced me through them. And yet, I don't know...I don't think he's top-rank. Maybe I'm just prejudiced against short stories? Too much compression? I really like Beware of Pity a LOT.

The Royal Game is a very striking reflection on intelligence and torture, written by an Austrian exile early during Wolrd War II. It is highly original and moving. The other stories are "lighter," being set in everyday life and dealing with self-induced frustrations, and his apparent obsession with adulterous women is odd after a while (unless of course it is an obsession of the editor who selected the stories for this collection). Nevertheless, each story is different and engaging, with depth, respect and loving interest for his characters. It reads a little like a fiction version of Freud's essays (a bit like I believe Camus wrote complementary essays and novels), and the two men were close.

I bought this work mainly for the 'Royal Game' story because chess fiction is dear to my heart and I collect these kinds of books. I must admit that I loved this story, but I figured since the other stories were there I should give them a fair chance at a read as well. I was really stunned to find out how well Zweig wrote! Now mind you these books are translated - I can only imagine how well the original works must be! Zweig can take regular events and suck you right into the reading and it's really amazing how hard it is to put the book down. A pure genius of the 20th century is all I can say. Please do, enjoy this master's work! Zweig's stories are intended for mature audiences. If you like chess fiction - other books you may want to look at are 'The Queen's Gambit' by Tevis, 'The Luneberg Defense' by Maurensig, 'Alekhine's Anguish' by Yaff, or 'The Chess Team' by Sawaski

This collection of short stories includes some of Zweig's best fiction ever! The author writes in a beautiful, alluring way that pulls the reader into the story. The intensity of the subjects provoke suspenseful emotions in the reader while entertaining and educating about human conditions. His descriptions of emotions are realistic while at the same time heavily weighted by difficult situations that few people encounter. His imagination is incredible!
I have read this book numerous times and it's one of the few books that I dislike lending to others because my attachment to the stories.

If you are new to Zweig then this is for you. All the stories are very engaging and represent the style of writing of that era. I wish I could find more writers like Zweig, alas...
Beware of Pity is also very good. He is probably my favorite writer next to Witkiewicz. Do yourself a favor and get this book.

Pension Miramar engages a fellaha (a young peasant woman), who ran away from her village to avoid a forced marriage.
She becomes the centre point of the attention of all the pension's inhabitants, because of her simplicity and natural beauty, but also for her ambition to get out of her traditional role of maid without education. The fellaha's battle to escape her humble fortune is mingled with her emotional love life and the more or less violent advances of some residents.

Like Kurosawa in his magisterial movie 'Rashomon' (based on a short novel by Ryunosuke Akutagawa), the evolving story is told from (here) four different angles (persons), revealing slowly the real motives behind the different clashes.

This novel contains some typical Mahfouz characters, like the career man, the wealthy playboy or the impostor ('employed by one master, serving secretly another').
Some themes are also familiar: 'If you have power, you have everything', or 'Everyone else around us behaves as if they didn't believe in God's existence'.
The novel is also a reflection on the failure of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952: 'But was there an alternative? Only the Communists or the Muslim Brotherhood.'

This is surely a worth-while read, but the book has not quite the finesse of its Japanese example.

I loved the book and its depiction of daily life in Egypt. you can almost feel wanting to visit cairo while reading it. I felt the same reading Arab Voices.

At the center of Mahfouz's "Miramar" is the peasant girl Zohra, who flees to Alexandria in order to escape the traditionalist mores of her family. She finds employment as a servant at a pension, where five boarders have recently rented apartments, and "it is precisely her determination to emancipate herself, that the men about her admire...or resent," John Fowles writes in an introduction to the novel. "She stands for Egypt itself."

The story of the pension--and the killing that propels its plot--is told from four perspectives, each one revealing not only more about the incident but also details about the political ties and the backgrounds of the inhabitants of the Pension Miramar. At the opening of the novel, Mariana, the landlady and a widow twice over, lets a room to Amir, a retired journalist and lifelong bachelor, "driven into cold and meaningless neutrality" because of party differences by the likes of the "Muslim Brethren, whom I did not like [and] the Communists, whom I did not understand." One by one, the other four lodgers, as well as Zohra, present themselves, until the pension is full and the stage is set.

For Zohra, the Miramar becomes a safe house and a trap. Her family members attempt to flush her out of the building, but Mariana and the lodgers protect her from their rash, desperate attempts. But among her protectors she also becomes a source of jealousy. The two older residents regard the young woman as they would the past--what was or what might have been: youth, beauty, lost opportunities. The three younger men see her as representing the future: liberation, openness, confidence.

They all--old and young--vie for Zohra's attentions, and one of them dies, leaving everyone a suspect. "Everyone fought with him," Amir says of the victim. Indeed, like the various factions of Egypt, they all fought with each other, making and breaking alliances according to their shifting internecine struggles--both cultural and political. While the novel is a concise page-turner and a masterful character study, the whodunit aspect is not even the point; instead, "Miramar" is a window looking back on the post-Revolution Egyptian psyche and the disillusionment of its partisan elements.

No one, but Naguib Mahfouz can depict internal pain and human struggles with such elegance.

It was a fascinating read. The place,the time and the characters-- only mahfouz can write a book this way

This is the book that woke me up from my walking slumber 34 years ago.
I found the thinking radical and challenging plus I admired the fact that Fowles friends advised him not to write it.
As it predates the Magus and the French Lieutenant's woman they were obviously wrong.
It is a great beginning if you are searching for answers.Aristos

John Fowles "The Aristos" doesn't deserve the fate it received - being completely ignored by the reading public - after his best-selling first novel, "The Collector." Some people grudgingly admit Fowles second book - a work of philosophy, not literature - is at least useful in how it sheds light on the author's previous ficition book and subsequent cannon. However, "The Aristos" does much more than that.

This book is really quite a good codefication of many philosophical ideas floating around the fields of humanism, socialism and existentialism. Basically, Fowles ties together the thought of the Pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus with these modern ideas to form a unique and thought-provoking world view. However, his intent isn't to convince us to agree with him, but to get us thinking about our own philosophies. It used to be that every thinking person would come up with his own world view, but now most people just accept other people's ideas wholesale. Fowles wants us to reject this intellectual consumerism and think for ourselves - radical ideas, really!

Beyond serving as an intellectual enema, Fowles ideas are really quite good. Though I certainly don't agree with everything he has to say, I found myself tacitly agreeing with so much of it. The only criticism I have is that he writes in a style very influenced by Nietzche, which though brilliant for Friedrich seems a bit derivative on Fowles lips. Moreover, sometimes Fowles is intentionally mysterious in stating his ideas - a tendency he could have avoided except it might leave some phrases sounding less artful. Finally, though Fowles tries to say he isn't advacating that we, as readers, follow his advice to change the status quo, it seems at many points that this is exactly what he wants us to do. If the Aristos gains only in doing good, then how can the results be irrelevant?

Still, this is a superb bit of modern continental philosophy that deserves attention from more people than just those interested in what light it sheds on Fowles fiction.

Fowles analyses and gives his very educated opinion on all aspects of life, from religion to sex, from education, to philosophy and politics.

It is a must for all who want to know how the author of "The French Lieutenant's Woman" sees the world.

When I read this at 19 years of age I was thoroughly moved by it. It opened my thinking from teenager to grown-up. Now, 20 years later, I will probably find it naive or pretentious, but the 5 start stars are well deserved it you read this at the right moment in life.

Ourika, by Claire De Duras, is a unique depiction of an African American during the French Revolution. Previous portrayals of Africans in French Tradition are reportedly vague and are not frequently described as individuals. The story of Ourika is a true story about an African woman who is rescued from slavery at a young age by the governor of Boufflers and is raised in a wealthy aristocratic white family.

Claire De Duras was born in France in 1777 and was forced to flee her homeland shortly after the execution of her father. She doesn't return until 1808 with her French husband, the Duke of Duras. De Duras doesn't have the desire to publish the story of Ourika until she sees what an interest is provoked by telling it orally to the customers in her salon. When De Duras does publish it in 1823, she does so gradually because female authors were not given much, if any, credibility at this point in time. The first edition had no author or date printed on it and consisted of only 25 private copies. The book did not remain a secret for long and several thousand copies were printed over the next few years. De Duras wrote four other novels the same year as Orika, but only two others were published before she passed away in 1828.

The story of Ourika is quite personable. The story is told by a doctor whom Ourika is one of his patients. At this point, Ourika's depression has taken a severe toll on her health and the doctor (who remains unnamed throughout the text) is determined to cure her despite her poor physical state. The doctor is initially taken by her gentle and eloquent manner, curious as to where an African woman had learned to be so proper. She insists that he can not cure her without knowing what troubles have ailed her health. Ouirka tells him the struggles she has had to face as an outcast throughout the course of her entire life as a black woman raised in a white person's world.

As Ourika gets older, she is reminded daily of how alone she is. She has no family and no white man will marry her. She doesn't understand the culture of her own people since she has never experienced it, so she doesn't fit in anywhere. The only male friend Ourika has ever had marries a beautiful wealthy white woman. Ourika is constantly sneered at by those who do not know her, so she limits her time away from home. The accounts of Ourika's life are told in dramatic detail and give the reader much sympathy for her. Her depression causes frequent fevers and she falls unconscious on numerous occasions. All of Ourika's oppression is eventually relieved as she turns to God and becomes a nun, but at this point her body is too frail to continue much longer.

Ourika is a remarkable story for someone who is interested in nineteenth century Europe or studying inequality between races throughout history. Ourika touches deeply on subjects not commonly written about in the early nineteenth century and paints a vivid picture of how difficult life was for women and minorities during the French Revolution.

Written by a woman in 1823, Ourika is a fascinating short work set during the French Revolution. Ourika is an attractive, intelligent young black woman who was rescued as a child from slavery. She is raised as any wealthy white child would have been. She excels in her pursuits and charms all. By chance, she discovers who she is, and what it means to be black. The truth changes her. This work raises many questions, and provides some haunting insights into human nature. Highly recommended

Lillian Lewis, the reviewer, has not read this book if she can call it "delightful." Nor is Ourika's happiness, actually ever "restored." This is a devastating tale about a young woman who hopes to be part of her mainstream culture, only to find that her black skin and Senegalese heritage will forever bar her from the only culture she's ever been a part of--aristocratic France. Duras writes a compelling novella, full of anguish and the unfairness of her contemporary French society (and one that resonates today worldwide). It is an extraordinary tale, but it is absolutely not "delightful."

I take this almost as a bible for the inquiring mind. It's the aethist's point of view but quite perceptive about the human condition regardless. It's more about that than hammering on that God's just a Dog.Suprising how expensive other editions are, luckily still some cheapies.

I have owned a copy of this book since I was 5. The classic tale of Cinderella but with such fantastic illustrations. Sheilah Becket captures perfectly the wonder of Charles Perrault's fairy tale. A must-own for any Cinderella aficionado if only for the artwork.

Fowles is under-rated. The French Lieutenant's Woman is insightful, thought-provoking, exciting and well-written. Should be read by all.

It is amazing how few people really grasp the meaning of this book. Nicholas Urfe is a typical, modern, young man. He believes in nothing- not family, not country, not duty, not God, not love. He is an egoist that imagines himself an existentialist. In the isolation of Phraxos he is forced to examine this "self" that is all he believes in for the first time. He finds that there is little or nothing there. This realization pushes him to the abyss. Yet he doesn't even have the strength of will to pull the trigger. This is the final blow to his world, his ego.

Enter the magus. This is in accordance with the ancient formula, "When the student is ready, the teacher will come." Nicholas is now fertile ground with all of his preconceptions about himself and his world broken assunder. The magus now proceeds to introduce Nicholas to the Mysteries. Indeed, the greatest lesson that is taught is that the universe is more mysterious, more timeless, more boundless, more terrible and awe-full than the modern materialist mind can grasp.

A clue comes in the early conversation about the novel being "dead as alchemy." This is irony, you see, not only is Conchis a master alchemist when it comes to the transmutation of souls, but all great novels, including this one, are also powerful works of alchemy.

This entry refers to the Spanish language translation of the novel.

Joining others in the 'Reader's Guide' series for supplemental literary study is this focus on THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN, a novel often assigned as a complex modern classic for college-level audiences. College-level collections will find this an excellent starting point for classroom debates and discussions of the novel, offering analysis of key themes, social issues, and critical points of interest.