---
product_id: 18145435
title: "The Magus: A Novel"
price: "$228"
currency: MXN
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 8
url: https://www.desertcart.mx/products/18145435-the-magus-a-novel
store_origin: MX
region: Mexico
---

# Set on a remote Greek island Classic literary masterpiece Psychological thriller depth The Magus: A Novel

**Price:** $228
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Summary

> 📖 Unlock the enigmatic world where fantasy meets reality — don’t miss the novel that haunts minds.

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- **What is this?** The Magus: A Novel
- **How much does it cost?** $228 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.mx](https://www.desertcart.mx/products/18145435-the-magus-a-novel)

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## Why This Product

- Free international shipping included
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## Key Features

- • **Iconic Setting on a Greek Island:** Escape to an atmospheric backdrop that shapes the novel’s mysterious mood.
- • **Rich, Multi-Layered Storytelling:** Experience a narrative woven with fantasy, moral dilemmas, and surreal twists.
- • **A Mind-Bending Psychological Thriller:** Dive into a novel that challenges reality and perception with every page.
- • **Enduring Influence on Modern Literature:** Join thousands who’ve been transformed by Fowles’ magnum opus.
- • **Award-Winning Author’s Signature Style:** Discover the brilliance of John Fowles, acclaimed for literary depth and complexity.

## Overview

The Magus by John Fowles is a critically acclaimed psychological thriller and literary fiction novel set on a remote Greek island. Blending fantasy, eroticism, and moral exploration, it follows Nicholas Urfe’s surreal journey of self-discovery and mind games. Praised for its complex narrative and lasting impact, this novel remains a must-read for discerning literary enthusiasts.

## Description

The Magus: A Novel [Fowles, John] on desertcart.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Magus: A Novel

Review: A modern master's magnum opus - - It's been about a year since I read this book. It was recommended to me by a stranger - a woman I saw once and never again. How I came across the book, which was strange in and of itself, seems in retrospect fitting. I don't know why I picked it up as quickly as I did, why I even took this woman on her word, but I'm eternally grateful to her for exposing me to this when she did. It has influenced profoundly both my writing and the way I view the world, with magnitude on par two other world-redefining books: On the Road, and Catcher in the Rye. But those are two other books- As Fowles has suggested, you will get more out of this book if you read it at 20 or 25 as opposed to 40 or 45 - not to say people in their 40s can't enjoy it, merely that the 'quarter-life crisis' as it's come to be called is a thing of relativity. If you can relate, all the better, if you're only looking for "A fireworks exhibition of fantasy...sexual love and moral awareness" as the front of the book embarrassingly describes, that's what you're going to get. I don't think a marginally intelligent person can be disappointed with this book - however, there are various levels of satisfaction, and certain people will find this book simply earthshaking. Despite being over-simplistically billed as an "erotic thriller," this book is much much more. It is first a novel of self-discovery, one in which a truly alienated protagonist searching for meaning in the tea leaves takes us along. It is then a novel of love, illustrating the dynamic between love and lust by using characters that are so believable you expect them to knock on your door. It is also billed as a surrealist sojourn - which indeed it as. So much bordering on the bizarre, much plain insanity is readily apparent as you read between the lines of life. Lastly, there is an element of eroticism, oodles of sex, and a fine dosage of unrequited feelings - as there is in life. Do not be misled by the back of the book - if you're like me, the description is off-putting, making the book sound like a campy Danielle Steele novel or some such trash. It's quite the opposite, quite wonderful, and without a doubt, a little treasure of a book that has slowly made its place near the top of my bookshelf.
Review: An Ambitious Novel That Tests Even Fowles's Abilities - The Magus took John Fowles more than two decades to complete. It was the first viable novel he began writing, but was published for the first time in 1966, and then in a revised version in 1977. The latter edition, which is by far the easiest to find these days, was the one I read. As Fowles explains in the preface, some of the details of the story are taken from his own life: for instance, like his protagonist, Nicholas Urfe, Fowles spent some time teaching at a school on a remote Greek island. From such material, Fowles weaves a fantastic story that owes a heavy debt to Shakespeare's final play, The Tempest. The Prospero character, in this instance, is Maurice Conchis, an elderly multi-millionaire who own a house on a section of the island known as Bourani. Nicholas finds himself drawn to Conchis's character, and in the hours they spend together he learns more and more about his host's past, which includes an uncertain relationship with the Nazis. Further characters are introduced, most notably a pair of beautiful twin Englishwomen and a black man, Joe. The story proceeds as a series of disjointed acts in which Nicholas, blessed (or cursed) with a critical mind, undermines and sidesteps the stories of the people he encounters. He increasingly suspects that he is taking part in some kind of masque or drama in which the others are all actors. It is through this device that Fowles causes the story to twist and turn, with new characters abruptly appearing (the German soldiers, for instance) or being dramatically recast (Joe, the twin girls) as Nicholas grapples with the line between fiction and reality. Nicholas's story is framed, in turn, by his affair with an Australian girl, Alison Kelly, whose directness and solidity are repeatedly placed in juxtaposition with the mind-games of the island drama. The story itself hums along nicely enough, but there are points in the middle of the book, especially when Nicholas is drawn into permutation after permutation of different but similar mind games, that it starts to drag a little. Let me be clear: I think Fowles is the greatest English writer of his generation. His genius lies in his incisiveness, both in terms of his storytelling ability and his utter lack of moral prudery. Nonetheless, I found fault with The Magus mostly for the character of Nicholas, whose part in the game I thought became too predictable; truly turning the tables on Conchis and his actors would have been an interesting move that Fowles does not exploit. I also felt as though the flaws Nicholas judges so harshly in his character at the end of the book were merely the markings of inexperience rather than anything fundamentally bad about him. Toward the end, the novel comes dangerously close at certain moments at being morally judgmental in this respect. Still, despite these minor flaws, The Magus is an astounding piece of fiction. Fowles clearly wrote it in a spirit of ambition that would have defeated many a lesser writer. The Magus is thus an important novel that, while it does not measure up to the true greatness of, say, The French Lieutenant's Woman , is still an enjoyable and worthwhile book to read.

## Features

- John Fowles is also author of The French Lieutenant's Woman
- The Collector and Daniel Martin. Novels award winning and great.
- This is a novel that will haunt you long after you have finished reading
- Exhibition of fantasy, sexual love and moral awareness.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #179,456 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #886 in Psychological Thrillers (Books) #1,172 in Literary Fiction (Books) #1,943 in Psychological Fiction (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.2 out of 5 stars 3,009 Reviews |

## Images

![The Magus: A Novel - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/815ETXkqE1L.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A modern master's magnum opus -
*by P***. on October 18, 2004*

It's been about a year since I read this book. It was recommended to me by a stranger - a woman I saw once and never again. How I came across the book, which was strange in and of itself, seems in retrospect fitting. I don't know why I picked it up as quickly as I did, why I even took this woman on her word, but I'm eternally grateful to her for exposing me to this when she did. It has influenced profoundly both my writing and the way I view the world, with magnitude on par two other world-redefining books: On the Road, and Catcher in the Rye. But those are two other books- As Fowles has suggested, you will get more out of this book if you read it at 20 or 25 as opposed to 40 or 45 - not to say people in their 40s can't enjoy it, merely that the 'quarter-life crisis' as it's come to be called is a thing of relativity. If you can relate, all the better, if you're only looking for "A fireworks exhibition of fantasy...sexual love and moral awareness" as the front of the book embarrassingly describes, that's what you're going to get. I don't think a marginally intelligent person can be disappointed with this book - however, there are various levels of satisfaction, and certain people will find this book simply earthshaking. Despite being over-simplistically billed as an "erotic thriller," this book is much much more. It is first a novel of self-discovery, one in which a truly alienated protagonist searching for meaning in the tea leaves takes us along. It is then a novel of love, illustrating the dynamic between love and lust by using characters that are so believable you expect them to knock on your door. It is also billed as a surrealist sojourn - which indeed it as. So much bordering on the bizarre, much plain insanity is readily apparent as you read between the lines of life. Lastly, there is an element of eroticism, oodles of sex, and a fine dosage of unrequited feelings - as there is in life. Do not be misled by the back of the book - if you're like me, the description is off-putting, making the book sound like a campy Danielle Steele novel or some such trash. It's quite the opposite, quite wonderful, and without a doubt, a little treasure of a book that has slowly made its place near the top of my bookshelf.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ An Ambitious Novel That Tests Even Fowles's Abilities
*by P***S on January 18, 2013*

The Magus took John Fowles more than two decades to complete. It was the first viable novel he began writing, but was published for the first time in 1966, and then in a revised version in 1977. The latter edition, which is by far the easiest to find these days, was the one I read. As Fowles explains in the preface, some of the details of the story are taken from his own life: for instance, like his protagonist, Nicholas Urfe, Fowles spent some time teaching at a school on a remote Greek island. From such material, Fowles weaves a fantastic story that owes a heavy debt to Shakespeare's final play, The Tempest. The Prospero character, in this instance, is Maurice Conchis, an elderly multi-millionaire who own a house on a section of the island known as Bourani. Nicholas finds himself drawn to Conchis's character, and in the hours they spend together he learns more and more about his host's past, which includes an uncertain relationship with the Nazis. Further characters are introduced, most notably a pair of beautiful twin Englishwomen and a black man, Joe. The story proceeds as a series of disjointed acts in which Nicholas, blessed (or cursed) with a critical mind, undermines and sidesteps the stories of the people he encounters. He increasingly suspects that he is taking part in some kind of masque or drama in which the others are all actors. It is through this device that Fowles causes the story to twist and turn, with new characters abruptly appearing (the German soldiers, for instance) or being dramatically recast (Joe, the twin girls) as Nicholas grapples with the line between fiction and reality. Nicholas's story is framed, in turn, by his affair with an Australian girl, Alison Kelly, whose directness and solidity are repeatedly placed in juxtaposition with the mind-games of the island drama. The story itself hums along nicely enough, but there are points in the middle of the book, especially when Nicholas is drawn into permutation after permutation of different but similar mind games, that it starts to drag a little. Let me be clear: I think Fowles is the greatest English writer of his generation. His genius lies in his incisiveness, both in terms of his storytelling ability and his utter lack of moral prudery. Nonetheless, I found fault with The Magus mostly for the character of Nicholas, whose part in the game I thought became too predictable; truly turning the tables on Conchis and his actors would have been an interesting move that Fowles does not exploit. I also felt as though the flaws Nicholas judges so harshly in his character at the end of the book were merely the markings of inexperience rather than anything fundamentally bad about him. Toward the end, the novel comes dangerously close at certain moments at being morally judgmental in this respect. Still, despite these minor flaws, The Magus is an astounding piece of fiction. Fowles clearly wrote it in a spirit of ambition that would have defeated many a lesser writer. The Magus is thus an important novel that, while it does not measure up to the true greatness of, say, The French Lieutenant's Woman , is still an enjoyable and worthwhile book to read.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A brilliant comic allegory of Man V. Grad School
*by A***H on January 3, 2014*

Although I finished The Magus only yesterday, I wanted to jump in and tell anyone considering it just how wonderful it is. As some people have said, it is often complex and labyrinthian, but I found every page riveting. You will not put it down lightly, or long. And another, still more subversive twist appears in Fowles' introduction to the new edition. He mentions almost in passing that, if the action were not set on the island, the novel would have been comic. And I got this impression of an allegory unlike the others often mentioned of Man v. Nature, God, or Society, and so on. This one is of Man v. Grad School. Not to reduce this brilliant novel, but the comic structure is visible like a palimpsest if you first imagine Nick as a Ph.D. candidate. Conchis becomes his maddening and cagey dissertation advisor. Lily is the flirty undergrad in Nick's poetry class, toying with him for an "A" during office hours, but remaining true to her frat boy--Joe. Maria is the dour but devoted department secretary who never knows where the chairman, Conchis, is hiding. Phraxos is the enchanting world of the mind found in high academia; Bourani is the department; the Nazis are the other faculty; and the S&M trial is Nick's dissertation defense. Kemp and Jojo are Mum and sis back home in the damp grey depression of home. Allison his exasperated live-in girlfriend, and Mrs. Seitas is his advisor's sophisticated wife, who's seen other bitter grad students show up, wanting to thrash her rotter of a husband, (Conchis), and who advises him to let it go and go to Law School. All of which would be a comic novel akin to a terrific earlier novel, Lucky Jim, if not for the transformations that turned it into the incomparable Magus. It works on many levels, of course, all engaging. I loved it first to last, and recommend it highly to anyone who enjoys intelligence and mystery on every page. Radical Doubt

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