Rating: 
Summary: Trickster Fiction
Review: John Fowles describes The Magus, published in 1965, as his first novel. The protagonist is Nicholas Urfe, a young, middle-class Englishman, an Oxford graduate. The book begins in England, describing Nicholas' confused affair with Alison. They part and Nicholas takes a job teaching at a private boys' school on a beautiful Greek Island, Phraxos. On one of his island wanderings, he comes across a remote villa, owned by Conchis, the Magus or magician of the story. Conchis, an elderly man with enormous wealth, hypnotic presence, and mysterious background, entices Nicholas into a series of surreal, often fascinating, often bewildering events, the reality and meaning of which continually elude both Nicholas and the reader. Alison reappears in the story along with many new and mysterious characters, most notably a phantom-like young woman with whom Nicholas falls in love.In an illuminating foreword, written in 1976, Fowles acknowledges the "obvious influence of Jung." Jung theorized that human behavior is based on archetypes -- characters or patterns found in humankind's collective unconcious, embodied in its myths. One of the more fundamental archetypes is the character of The Magician - a archetype related to the shaman, or trickster, or even the divine fool -- an entity capable of moving between worlds and manipulating reality. The Magus explores this archetype both through the character of Conchis, but also through the author himself who plays trickster to his readers, with plot twists, misdirection, and ambiguity. The character Nicholas is a curious blend of archetypal patterns -- the emotionally regressed adolescent, the sophisticated intellectual, the callow seducer of women, the "mark" ensnared by his own stupidity and questionable motives. The object of Nicholas' idealized love might easily be viewed as his anima, a term Jung uses to describe the man's interior female. I had some problems with this book. Like many other reviewers, I found that it sometimes seems overwritten. Also,it is filled with obscure and distracting literary allusions and untranslated passages in non-English languages. (More tricks?) Nevertheless, I found the book remarkable in several respects. For me, the most stunning feature of the novel was Fowles' ability to so effectively, vividly, evoke the "soul of place" of Phraxos, and the island's profound impact on the character of Nicholas. The island itself evokes the archetype of the magical wilderness, a place of haunting natural beauty and dark secrets like the psyche itself. Fowles' prose conjurese a sense of profound grief, which I suspect harkens back to the lost enchantment of ancient Greek pagan culture and its mythopoetic richness. It's interesting to note that, while Fowles disavows the notion that this is a biographical work, he reports that he spent a short period teaching at a private boarding school on a similar Greek island, Spetsai. There, by the way, he encountered a villa on which he based "Bourani," the mystical villa of his story. Fowles also notes that this is a book that especially invites readers to project their own meanings and interpretations. Like many Trickster works of art, the reader finds himself both provoked and thrilled. The Magus' manipulation of Nicholas seems at once benevolent and at other times sadistic and unconscionable. One of the variations of the Magus archetypal is the magician as guru-teacher, e.g. the Zen master or Don Juan in the Castaneda works, who ruthlessly manipulate their students in order to bring enlightenment. I am almost certainly like any other reader in projecting my own subjectivity onto this complex and often mesmerizing tale. For me, the point can be found late in the book, when Nicholas stumbles across a fable left behind after Conchis departs - a story of a young prince who lives in a kingdom with "no islands, no princesses and no God." Without depriving the reader of finding and reading the fable for him or herself, I'll simply say that, for me, Fowles could have ended the book with the fable (or even simply told the fable rather than writing the book). The point of the fable: There is no truth beyond magic and, with that realization, we all can become magicians.
Rating: 
Summary: Masterpiece for adolescents
Review: The Magus is a masterpiece of literature for adolescents in the process of coming to grips with their lives. It combines the unlimited fantasy of a child with the real world of an adult. When reading it at 19 years of age (on a Greek island)it knocked me over. When re-reading it at 39 years of age, I was merely charmed and amused by it. John Fowles intro in the revised additions is right. The book has many faults, but they are not relevent to the target adolescent audience.
Rating:
Summary: Lost or found
Review: Reading all the previous opinions I can sympathize with the negative ones, while agreeing with the most positive reviews. I greatly enjoyed reading "the Magus" and consider it a very good work of fiction. A good indication of the skill of the author is that Fowles is so effective in creating a work that puts (a category of) readers in the same position as the novel's main character, that they come away with a conclusion that is very similar to Nicholas'. I can understand the people that wrote that they considered the conclusion/pay-off at the end to be shallow for the effort of reading through this book. Many of these negative reviewers also cite the foreword by Fowles discussing the books shortcomings. The author's self-criticism, however, is less harsh than cited. Moreover, this book was a product of the young Fowles, and as such the 20/20 hindsight is interesting, but of limited relevance when it comes to the skill and intentions of a younger self. This book can be described as a trip through a labyrinth, with the conclusion that the destination is not so much the way out, but the improved self-awareness of the main character/reader. The book is extremely well written and contains some very powerful scenes. The plot has some imperfections, that have led to a lot of criticism. Yet, I feel that Fowles does differ from Conchis by giving the reader some very clear pointers. The quotes from Auden, and de Sade are some among many- the clearest one about the wave and the water- that point the reader in the right direction at critical junctions in the plot. While I do understand the type of anti-Gaddis response, blaming Fowles inclusion of obscure references, that require an extra effort for the less than classical trained, they are instrumental in giving the reader the feeling of being in Nicholas's shoes. While incorporating elements of Greek tragedy, post-Nietzschian philosophy and Jungian psychology the Magus is a truly modern novel. Although, this work is a protagonist for works like Eco's "name of the rose" and Mamet's "spanish prisoner", it roots itself back to Aristoteles' final cause. A long history since has thought mankind to either believe, or just to stop wondering. The same is true for this book, enjoy riding the wave, even while not always appreciating the taste of the water.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Character Studies
Review: "The Magus" is wonderfully well written, packed with evocative character studies and relationships, and intensely plotted. This is one of those books where you don't know where the deception begins and ends (or even if it does). The main character, Nicholas, accepts a teaching post on the small Greek island of Phraxos. Once there, he succumbs to the allure of a mysterious loner living on a remote corner of the island. Their interactions together are meant to challenge Nicholas's assumptions about himself, his place in the world, and the way he treats those around him. I don't want to give away how this is acheived, but it involves imaginative distortions of history and elaborately staged scenes. Critics of this book tend to point to flat dispassionate characters as its main downfall. Ironically, this is precisely what makes the book the stunning case study that it is. Much of the language, especially with regards to the relationships between the characters, is cold and precise. That's exactly how it's supposed to be considering that you're not meant to know whether each event in the book is staged. If you figure that out early enough, you'll be better off and left free to enjoy the book for what it is - a clinical look at a morose young man and his disfunctional, energy-sapping relationship with the world. This is one of the most rewarding reads I have had in quite some time.
Rating:
Summary: Why I read books
Review: Although chilling, this book is a good answer when people ask me why I am majoring in English Literature. Complex but followable, beautiful and horrific, this book is a semblance of all that I respect in Literature.
Rating: 
Summary: Characters so bad I don't care what happens, if anything
Review: I almost feel like I don't need to write this as "brotherjudd" has a concise, accurate review. However, I felt that the rating was too high so I'm adding my two cents and my two stars. The language is beautiful. The characters are insipid, sadistic (in a bad way), inconsistent, incoherent, and pathetic. Not a single one has learned anything or grown in any way in the first 400 pages of the book, except maybe to appear more infantile and hypocritical. I only made it this far because it came highly recommended by a friend. I have skimmed ahead enough to find out that I don't plan on finishing the book. Aside from the beautifully crafted language (I felt two stars fond of the language), I really hate it. The mind games are pointless to where they cease being mind games and just blend into each other as one freak show act after another. Maybe that is the point he's trying to make about hazard - Life is just one pointless thing after another that happen for no reason but chance. It is also pointless to read this book. Beautiful prose can be had elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing first book
Review: This is the first book Fowles wrote, an amazing achievement considering how ambitious the work actually is, but Fowles pulls it off. I've already written one previous review here when I wasn't yet that far into it, but my suspicions have so far been confirmed. I've read most of the book now and just wanted to make one other small comment. About 1/3 of the way into the book Nicholas finally finds out that Conchis, (the "Magus"), is, or was, a psychiatrist. Conchis no longer practices but at one time wrote a number of papers on schizophrenia, which was his particular specialty. At this point it is obvious that Nicholas is up against a doctor of the mind who is playing some kind of game of the mind, and is completely out-classed. Not only that, but his specialty is basically studying how the mind blurs fantasy and reality, which is what the game they are playing is all about, too. Nicholas suspects he should get out while he still can but he also realizes he is hooked. I still have yet to see how it will end but I'm sure it will be interesting, whatever it is.
Rating:
Summary: Eleutheria.
Review: This is the best book I've ever read. I consider a thing to be perfect when it is aesthetically pleasing, dynamic, and also finds a way to teach us something new. This book does all of these things beautifully. If you can read this book and really understand what it is saying, if you can put yourself in Nicholas's place (which isn't hard to do - we are all like him in some way) and learn as he does, you will be forever changed. It is simply amazing. Fowles is truly a brilliant writer, exploring issues most writers are not brave enough to confront. Maybe most importantly, he is honest. Many people complain about the end of the book, but if you really pay attention to what he is saying, it is apparent that it ends the way it does because it has to, because any other way would be wrong. And because no story really ends, unless the character dies, and sometimes even then. This isn't just the story of Nicholas Urfe's comeuppance. It's about so much more. I can't tell you how much. Read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Fowles' masterpiece
Review: It's convoluted, often ponderous, frequently baffling. And you won't be able to put it down. Buy this book!
Rating: 
Summary: stranger than paradise
Review: I just finished reading the magus for the first team, I must admit it took me quite some time. It was lent to me by an english teachter at a business school. I started reading it and was at first absorbed by the mysterious events and strange things that keep happening from page one. And that is exactly what started annoying me at a certain point - mysterious and strange things kept happening and I got more and more impatient, thinking "where the hell is this writer taking me". I know where he took me because I finished the book but I'm not sure if I understand properly what the writer wants to say. I think that it doesn't really matter whether or not I grasped the meaning in the way the writer intended it because although the book was a little too long-winded for my taste it makes me think of what life is and why we live the life we live. What's staged in nicholas' life, what's real and how much does he spoil by thinking it is a set up? You can apply that to your own life - how much is in your own head - how much is real and what's important in life. Whatever the writer meant by the book, if it makes me have those deep thoughts I think it's a good book.
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