Rating: 
Summary: Welcome to Fantastic Island...
Review: How could anyone not like this book, a literary precursor to Aaron Spelling's "Fantasy Island?" The plot is relatively simple to summarize: Nick Urfe, a world weary, brutally honest young Brit, comes to teach English on a sleepy Greek isle whereupon he is targeted by Conchis, a mysterious millionaire for a serious of blasts from the past. The "masque" that Conchis creates is almost impossible to summarize: a series of scenes, hallucinations, narratives and sensations that somehow form a coherent whole that also somehow morphs into something completely different every chapter. Maybe the point of the masque, and that of the novel, is to demonstrate why Nicholas is a bad poet, despite being intelligent and very well read. Conchis is an artist after Fowles' own heart: he is out to distill the historical moment out of his "characters." The by-product, he believes, is where you will find the artist. As a result, nearly four decades after it was written "The Magus¡± is a trip well worth taking for anyone who is not convinced our prototypical modern men and women have all the answers.
Rating:
Summary: enthralling...
Review: Fowles's writing style is impeccable and captivating. He presents the story in a way so that we all can relate to it in one way or another. The characters are so flawed, so human... I don't think it is possible to read this book without pausing and pondering over Fowles's life lessons at least once. He speaks to all of us. And in the end, we can't help but wonder: What drives us, humans, for more and more, regardless of what it takes, regardless of the pain and suffering and fear and reason and emotions? Why are we so frighteningly disposable? And do we ever learn or change?
Rating: 
Summary: Stilted, affected, puerile: a counterfeit novel.
Review: Beware of the modern novel containing untranslated quotations. John Fowles' pretentious tone in "The Magus" is matched only by his fondness for longwinded pseudo-intellectual gobbledygook. What starts out as an intriguing story eventually becomes pedantic and somewhat silly. By the end, I had become just plain bored with it all- the preaching, the slight-of-hand games, the wooden female characters- and I didn't really care how the story ended. I was just relieved that the whole disappointing dreadful mess was finished. This is one of those rare books that I have tossed in the trash rather than passed on to another. One of the main characters, Conchis, wanted to rid the world of the novel as an art form. Perhaps "The Magus" is John Fowles' small contribution to that campaign.
It is of note that Fowles has some truly fine passages describing the Greek pine-forest, the coastline, and the "azure" sea. If only he had written a travelog instead!
Rating:
Summary: mind blowing...couldnt put it down
Review: After reading some other reviews, I thought I should add my two cents in as well. This book was required reading for my first year english class that I took when I was a senior. The Magus was a novel that I could not put down. The characters were complex and relating to certain aspects of each one was very easy. The character of Nicholas is very much like many men that I have met at university, young, brash and very full of themselves. The game that was played involving Nicholas was something I envision as a gift for him. It allowed him to get over himself and realise that his actions do have concequences and there are more important things than the self. The novel as a whole is very open ended, which i found disapointing at first, but as I thought about it, suited the novel. The Magus is very open to interpretation with no set conclusions about anything, be it sexuality, love, war, emotion and it is fitting that the ending be the same. Conchis was a very enigmatic character, who was everyone and no one at the same time. At times his stories and actions were so conviluded that it seemed that the reader was never meant to know him and he merely served as a guide for Nicholas in his learning experience. Allison was my favorite character as I really felt that I understood her. She represents goodness and all women in a way and her fragile yet intimidating state was something that was easy to identify with as a woman. One of the questions that was bothering me during part of the book was why would nicholas be so willing to give up something that was a sure bet (Allison) for something that he really knew nothing about (Julie).
My male teacher laughed and said well thats pretty typical male behavior....I hadnt even stopped to think of it like that...That was another part of this novel that I liked. It clearly displayed the conrol that women have over men. Every female character was able to manipulate Nicholas, a man that felt that he had control over every situation. He wasnt even aware that he was being manipulated. An overall excellent read and one that was very hard to put down.
Rating:
Summary: This book is CRAP!
Review: Alright, I had to read this for class, and at first I was excited, because all of the other books we read in the class were amazing. This being the last book we read, I thought it would be the best. WRONG!!! It makes no sense! It is total crap, especially the last chapter. If it had ended with chapter 61, I would have been fine with it. I think Nicolas would have turned out alright then. But no, it didn't, and now he's messed up. I am telling all of my friends to NOT read this book because it is a waste of time!
Rating:
Summary: Puppetry of the [vital organ]. Manipulitive. Like an Orgasm
Review: Oh where to begin. First a synopsis.
After breaking up with a rather attractive young girl an Englishmen; Nicholas travels to Greece to teach English and there meets and old man named Conchis who repeatedly invites him to his villa where he among other things tells him his life story and introduces him to a beautiful young woman, whom he promptly falls in love with.
The Englishman eventually realizes that he is the sole audience member and willing but soon unwilling participant in a twisted erotic game orchestrated by Conchis. There are wheels within wheels within wheels and Nicholas never really knows weather the people around him are still actors in Conchis' employ and still lying to him, or not. He's emotionally raped by people he thought he could trust and at one point even forced to watch the woman he loves having intercourse with a large black man. All this we are lead to believe is to teach him a life lesson and to chide him for being a selfish egotistical Brit.
The title of my review is important because it's exactly how I felt about the book just after I'd finished it. The reader identity's with the Nicholas character a great deal. The two women he loves are very well written and it's quite easy to fall in a sort of love with them yourself. His anguish is the readers anguish as he is betrayed so often that he nearly no longer knows if up is really up and down is really down. Although the book left me somewhat unsatisfied and I also disagree with its message it's easily earns 5 stars because of the times when I was shaking with rage as I read. Particularly during the Psychiatry Session reveal and also during his conversations with the Twins' mother. I kept yelling "Strangle the bloody Wench and we'll see how smart she is then!" And this was the ironic thing about the book is that it's main theme was the manipulation of the main character and the reader is so very manipulated just in the reading of the story. I can honestly say that the book was for me an emotional roller coaster akin to watching every single episode of Beverly Hills 90210 back to back. Very well done.
On the moral issue, the book reminds alot of a small art house movie called "The Shape of Thing" with Rachel Weisz and Paul Rudd in which Weisz's attractive hip character seduces Rudd's geeky nerdish character and through the course of their relationship changes him from Mr. Geek to Mr. Cool using various methods such as buying him nicer clothes, getting him a haircut, and boosting his confidence by stroking his male ego. At the end of the film it's revealed to him and many other people quite abruptly in a large auditorium that he was the focus of her "Art Project" in which she wanted to document the stages in which, in this case, a woman can manipulate and shape a man as if he were so much clay.
I was very much annoyed that neither Conchis, nor the Twins, nor the Mother ever received their proper and well-deserved comeuppance for doing no more than vindictive and ignorant teenage boys and girls do to each other in relationships every day. I can't imagine why Nicholas wouldn't have wanted to try some sort of payback weather it be creating a scandal for the school, going to the newspapers/cops about the God Game, or telling everything to the man who was about to take his place and presumably have his life scarred by the beastly, and always self-righteous Conchis.
Still this is not to be seen as a negative review. (See again the 5 stars). The Magus is one of the those rare pieces of art that draws you so far into it's world that rather real "enjoyment" your feelings about it pretty much coincide with the story itself and, of course, more specifically the main character. Which in this case are extreme disgust, rage, and a want for vengeance.
Finally, I can't say the book, much like an Orgasm, leaves that much of a lasting impression. I was left almost non-caring in comparison to when I had formerly been shouting for the main character to run around throttling his torturers to at least teach them that they couldn't prepare for everything or ignore them and move on with his life so as to destroy their hidden glee at watching him squirm under the quasi-enlightened microscope. And I think in the end that was one of the biggest annoyances. That the Nicholas character was just one of many emotionally tortured by these people, he knew they would continue this, and resigned himself to do nothing.
Anyway over all an excellent read. A note for the new reader about the original and revised versions. I actually read the original version because I'm generally a purist and then just flipped through the revised version. But I'd say the revised is probably better it, explains the God game slightly more than in the original and the ending is more fleshed out. The difference I'm not sure I agree with is the intercourse between Nicholas and Lily/Julie. I felt that it added insult to injury that she stayed ultimately untouched by him.
Rating:
Summary: A modern master's magnum opus -
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning
Review: There's one scene in this book - you'll know it when you get to it - that frightened me into a state of virtual paranoia, wondering if something similar could possibly happen to me. It seemed so real and so plausible, and so awfully unbearable to consider. Of course it isn't real, and couldn't possibly be real - and that's the point. Fowles creates a world in which his main character, Nicholas, is completely controlled and manipulated by a mysterious, seemingly all-knowing, all-powerful master, Conchis. Is Conchis doing this just for sadistic pleasure? For the advancement of understanding the human psyche? His motives are unclear for much of the book, and his character remains enveloped in a shroud of mystery - a trademark of Fowles' novels. This is a beautiful book on many different levels - aesthetic, philosophical, psychological. It explores some of the deepest and most important questions of human existence. What is freedom? Is human freedom compatible with the notion of God? Are we pawns in an elaborate and complex game whose ultimate meaning we will never understand? This is a true novel of ideas, and one that not only poses questions but also offers convincing answers. As Nicholas begins to solve the mystery that he has lived through, it becomes more and more clear to what great lengths Conchis has gone to pull off his great experiment. And in turn, it becomes clear to what great lengths Fowles has gone to produce a brilliantly conceived novel.
Rating:
Summary: If you like Borges and Marques, you will love the Magus
Review: The Magus is one of the best piece of literature I have read in a long time. In fact, I was sad that I let it sit in my library for such a long while. Through mysterious events that take place in an exotic Greek setting, the book addresses the complexity of human psychology and the mere search for one's identity and meaning. It delves into deepest insecurities and the casual ugliness in human nature. The book still haunts me back when I think about the plot and the events Nicholas Urfe finds himself in. I can not recommend it enough.
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