The Magus
The Magus (Original title: The Magus ) is a 1965 published novel by the English author John Fowles .
The Magus is the first novel of the English author John Fowles , but he only after the success of his novel The Collector (dt. The collectors ) published. Fowles began the novel in the 1950s and incorporated autobiographical experiences as an English teacher on the Greek island of Spetses . He wrote and revised the novel for over twelve years before it was published in 1966, and although it was enthusiastically received by both critics and readers, he kept revising the novel until a revised version was published in 1977. The Magus was a bestseller, not least because Fowles reflected the 1960s sense of time and addressed contemporary interest in the philosophy of existentialism , psychoanalysis and a philosophical mysticism . The novel is considered to be Fowles' main work. It is one of the most important English novels of the 20th century and played a key role in Fowles being nominated for the 1999 Nobel Prize for Literature . The German translation by Walter Schürenberg was first published in 1969 by Ullstein Verlag , Frankfurt am Main and Berlin . In 1980 the publisher brought out a German adaptation of Fowles' new version from 1977, created by Martin Kluger .
content
The focus of the plot is the young intelligent but inexperienced Oxford graduate Nicholas Urfe, who has started a relationship with the Australian Alison. When the relationship becomes more intense than the immature Nicholas would like, he takes a job as an English teacher on the Greek island of Phraxos. This provides him with a welcome opportunity to escape his bond with Alison. In a state of absolute boredom , depressed, disillusioned as a would-be poet and overwhelmed by the Mediterranean island, he attempts suicide, but then begins to treat himself with long walks. He meets the rich Anglo-Greek cosmopolitan Maurice Conchis, who seems to live alone on his island property and who is said to have a mysterious past as a Nazi collaborator.
Nicholas is initially fascinated by the seemingly paradoxical worldview of Conchis - the Magus -, by his mysterious persona and his eccentric masks. Nicholas is drawn deeper and deeper into Conchis' psychological manipulations and stagings, which he does not see through as such. Unintentionally and without his knowledge, he becomes the protagonist of a parallel world specially created for him, named in the novel “godgame”. The arranged scenarios become so intense that Nicholas can no longer distinguish between what is real and what is not. In the end he is confronted with the real players who initiated the game of God together with Conchis, and understands that the events of the Nazi occupation, the absurd games in the spirit of a Marquis de Sade and the obscene parody of a Greek myth have nothing to do with the Life of the supposed Magus Conchis have to do with his own.
filming
The novel was made into a film by Guy Green in 1968 under the same title (German distribution title Teuflische Spiele ). The leading roles played Michael Caine as Nicholas Urfe, Anthony Quinn as Maurice Conchis, Anna Karina as Alison, Candice Bergen as Lily / Julie, and Julian Glover as Anton. The film was shot in Mallorca . The film adaptation failed despite the star cast due to the complexity of the novel. Michael Caine said this was the worst movie he'd ever acted in because nobody understood what it was about. Conversely, John Fowles as an author criticized this fundamental lack of understanding on the part of the film crew and assessed it as a symptom of the increasing flattening of the Hollywood system and the major companies, as he noted in detail in his diaries and in his later novel Daniel Martin (1977) has processed literarily. The film became notorious because of a quote from Woody Allen : "If I could live my life again, I would do everything the same way again, with the exception that I wouldn't watch 'The Magus' again." "The Magus" appeared despite of these devastating judgments in 2006 on DVD.
literature
- Charles Drazin (ed.), John Fowles - The Journals: Volume I (Diaries 1949-65), 2003.
- the same (ed.), John Fowles - The Journals: Volume II (Diaries 1965–90), 2006. Roula Ikonomakis: Post-war British Fiction as Metaphysical Ethography 'Gods, Godgames and Goodnes' in John Fowles's 'The Magus' and Iris Murdoch's 'The Sea, the Sea'. Peter Lang, Bern 2008.
- Tatjana Petzer: Order and chaos in John Fowles' "The Magus" . A study on metafiction , 1996. (microfiche)
- Barbara Rommerskirchen: Constructing reality: constructivism and narration in John Fowle's 'The Magus'. Peter Lang, Frankfurt 1999.
Web links
- fowles-gesellschaft.de Website of the German John Fowles Society with detailed information on the life and all works of John Fowles including the novel The Magus
- Fowlesbooks.com Full English summary
Individual evidence
- ↑ The highs and lows of being John Fowles . (No longer available online.) Guardian.co.uk, archived from the original on March 6, 2010 ; Retrieved March 6, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
