"A MAGNIFICENT PIECE OF STORY-TELLING": FIRST ENGLISH EDITION OF THE MAGUS, SIGNED BY JOHN FOWLES

FOWLES, John. The Magus. London: Jonathan Cape, (1966). Octavo, original half purple cloth, original dust jacket. $3500.

First English edition of Fowles' second, highly acclaimed novel, signed by him on the title page.

"One of the most engrossing reading experiences in modern fiction, a psychological mystery which is also a magnificent piece of story-telling" (Pringle 29). "Regarded by many as the English-speaking world's greatest contemporary writer and its first postmodern novelist" (New York Times), John Fowles tells "a modernized, worldly-wise version of The Tempest…bathed in an atmosphere of mystery, eroticism and paranoia" (Parker, 426-27). Fowles set his story "on a vividly evoked Greek island. In an atmosphere of mystery, fantasy, and obsession, the novel concerns an Englishman, Nicholas Urfe, who obtains a teaching post on the island, and his involvement with an enigmatic Greek millionaire and his entourage; with its mythological dimension the suggests magic realism, and in the agnostic fatalism of its ending point, Greek tragedy" (Stringer, 228). First English edition, preceded by the Boston first, which has a copyright notice dated 1965 but was not released until January 1966. Pringle, Modern Fantasy: The Hundred Best Novels 29.

Only lightest wear to edges of book and dust jacket. An about-fine copy, scarce signed.