The Journals Volume 1: 1949-1965 by John Fowles and edited by Charles Drazin

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Bibliographic Details

  • Author: John Fowles and edited by Charles Drazin
  • Title: The Journals Volume I: 1949-1965
  • Publisher: ‎ Alfred A. Knopf; First American Edition (May 3, 2005)
  • Language: ‎ English
  • Format: Hardcover ‏w/Deckle Edge – ‎668 pages
  • ISBN-10: ‎ 1400044316
  • ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1400044313
  • Item Weight: ‎ 2.5 pounds
  • Dimensions: ‎ 6.6 x 1.7 x 9.4 inches
  • Book Condition: Very Good
  • Dust Jacket Condition: Good (shows signs of minimal markings, otherwise fully intact and no tears on the cover)
  • Edition: First American Edition

Synopsis:

In 1963, John Fowles won international recognition with The Collector, his first published novel. In the years following–with the publication of The Magus, The French Lieutenant's Woman, The Ebony Tower, and his other critically acclaimed works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry–Fowles took his place among the most innovative and important English novelists of our time.

Now, with this first volume of his journals, which covers the years from 1949 to 1965, we see revealed not only the creative development of a great writer but also the deep connection between Fowles's autobiographical experience and his literary inspiration. Commencing in Fowles's final year at Oxford, the journals in this volume chronicle the years he spent as a university lecturer in France; his experiences teaching school on the Greek island of Spetsai (which would inspire The Magus) and his love affair there with the married woman who would later become his first wife; and his return to England and his ongoing struggle to achieve literary success.

It is an account of a life lived in total engagement with the world; although Fowles the novelist takes center stage, we see as well Fowles the nascent poet and critic, ornithologist and gardener, passionate naturalist and traveler, cinephile and collector of old books. Soon after he fell in love with his first wife, Elizabeth, Fowles wrote in his journal, "She has asked me not to write about her in here. But I could not not write, loving her as I do. . . . What else I betrayed, I could not betray this diary." It is that determined, unsparing honesty and forthrightness that imbues these journals with all the emotional power and narrative complexity of his novels. They are a revelation of both the man and the artist.

About the Author and Editor:

John Fowles, (born March 31, 1926, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, England—died November 5, 2005, Lyme Regis, Dorset), English novelist, whose allusive and descriptive works combine psychological probings—chiefly of sex and love—with an interest in social and philosophical issues.

Fowles graduated from the University of Oxford in 1950 and taught in Greece, France, and Britain. His first novel, The Collector (1963; filmed 1965), about a shy man who kidnaps a girl in a hapless search for love, was an immediate success.

This was followed by The Aristos: A Self-Portrait in Ideas (1964), a collection of essays reflecting Fowles’s views on such subjects as evolution, art, and politics. He returned to fiction with The Magus (1965, rev. ed. 1977; filmed 1968). Set on a Greek island, the book centers on an English schoolteacher who struggles to discern between fantasy and reality after befriending a mysterious local man.

The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1969; filmed 1981), arguably Fowles’s best-known work, is a love story set in 19th-century England that richly documents the social mores of that time. An example of Fowles’s original style, the book combined elements of the Victorian novel with postmodern works and featured alternate endings.

Fowles’s later fictional works include The Ebony Tower (1974), a volume of collected novellas, Daniel Martin (1977), and Mantissa (1982). His last novel, A Maggot (1985), centered on a group of travelers in the 1700s and the mysterious events that occur during their journey. Fowles also wrote verse, adaptations of plays, and the text for several photographic studies. Wormholes, a collection of essays and writings, was published in 1998.

In 1998, he was quoted in the New York Times Book Review as saying, "Being an atheist is a matter not of moral choice, but of human obligation."

In 2008 Fowles was named by The Times newspaper of the UK as one of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945.

In 1990, his first wife Elizabeth died of cancer, only a week after she was diagnosed. Her death affected him severely, and he did not write for a year. In 1998, Fowles married his second wife, Sarah Smith. With Sarah by his side, he died of heart failure on 5 November 2005, aged 79, in Axminster Hospital, 5 miles (8.0 km) from Lyme Regis.

Charles Drazin is a biographer and film historian who lectures on the cinema at Queen Mary, University of London.

His previous books include In Search of The Third Man, Korda: Britain's Only Movie Mogul and The Man Who Outshone the Sun King. He is also the editor of two volumes of journals of the novelist John Fowles.

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