The Magus

I've read this novel three or four times and it never ceases to fascinate me. Recent films like The Matrix have explored the idea that what we assume to be real may not be. If you really want to delve into this kind of reality questioning in depth, read The Magus. The narrator, Nicholas Urfe, is a young Englishman who has recently graduated from Oxford. He has a rather arrogant and cynical view of the world, seeing himself as a sophisticated intellectual. He is drifting along with no definite plans, having casual affairs with women while doing his utmost to avoid any kind of commitments. This aimlessness leads him to accept a teaching job on Phraxos, a remote Greek island. While he quickly finds this job as tedious as his previous existence in London, he meets a mysterious older man named Maurice Conchis, and his life is forever altered. Conchis invites Nicholas to his estate for weekends, telling him long tales about his life that may or may not be true. Soon people and events begin to occur that mirror those in Conchis' stories. Nicholas falls in love with a beautiful young woman who is involved in these machinations. Her name may be Julie or Lily; she may be only pretending to return Nicholas' affections. Nicholas finds himself immersed in an increasingly complex web of lies and deception where it becomes impossible to tell truth from lies, reality from fiction. Conchis may be a psychiatrist conducting an elaborate experiment; he may be the director of a new kind of theater; or he may be a sadistic madman out to destroy Nicholas' sanity. The Magus can be understood in several ways. It is a very suspenseful tale with powerful literary, romantic and erotic elements. We can see Nicholas a victim who haphazardly falls into the lair of a lunatic. Or we can see Conchis as a true magus --the term is derived from the Magician of the tarot--who initiates a younger apprentice. However you interpret it, the book will keep you wondering until -and beyond-the very end. John Fowles revised the novel in 1978; I've read both versions and can't say I noticed any great difference. In the forward to the revised edition, Fowles makes some rather uncharitable remarks about his own book and those who admire it. He calls the novel one of "adolescence." While it may be true that this book tends to appeal to younger readers, this is probably because in this materialistic and rather mundane culture people tend to "outgrow" intellectual, moral and aesthetic inquisitiveness once they leave college. It's unfortunate that someone as talented as Fowles would succumb to the notion that this is a good thing. However, I like the book enough that I can forgive this bit of churlishness on the author's part. This is one of my all time favorite books and I highly recommend it.

I finished "The Magus" a few days ago and I'm still turning the images over and over in my mind. It refuses to leave my psyche, even while I'm trying to read a new book."The Magus" is about a young English man named Nicholas Urfe who gets a teaching job at a private school on a small Greek island. On a remote part of the island, he discovers a luxurious villa owned by a mysterious wealthy man named Conchis who apparently keeps to himself. The two of them meet and strike up an odd friendship, whereupon Conchis invites Nicholas to visit his villa on weekends. In the course of these visits, Nicholas realizes that Conchis is not as solitary as he had been led to believe. Conchis tells Nicholas the story of his life in gradual installments, but because Conchis's world is so illusory, Nicholas doesn't know how much, if any, of it he can believe. Conchis likes to play mind games, dropping bizarre clues about himself and staging impromptu "scenes" designed to look like hallucinations. He is the consummate magician, pulling ever more unpredictable things out of his hat with which to puzzle and torment Nicholas. Nicholas is not sure why Conchis is doing these things, but he keeps returning to the villa because the bemusing games provide an interesting diversion from his boring life at the school. Also, there is the evasive beautiful young woman who is often found in Conchis's domain and who, Nicholas is sure, holds the key to his fate... The plot unfolds like an elaborate, surrealistic con game, the kind David Mamet makes films about ("The House of Games" and "The Spanish Prisoner"). The difference, and what makes the story so perplexing to me and, I suspect, many other readers, is that Fowles intentionally blurs the definition of "good guy" and "bad guy," so that it's difficult to know what the outcome of the story "should" be. Fowles transforms the reader's ideas of literary convention the same way that Conchis transforms Nicholas's ideas of perception and morality. Nicholas begins the novel as somewhat arrogant and selfish, and by the end of his dealings with Conchis he learns a little humility (one would hope). Combining the epic richness of a Dickens novel with the macabre touches of a Poe, Lovecraft, or Kafka story, and set to an exotic, luxuriant backdrop of a beautiful Greek island, "The Magus" is one of the most enchanting, fun, and lovingly frustrating novels I've ever read, one I'm not likely to forget.

So infrequently does a work of fiction actually change the reader. This book gets under your conscious mind and toys with your perceptions, and in the end, ensures that you no longer take anything quite for granted anymore. The entire book is a wild ride of changing realities, where nothing is certain but constant change. It's a shame they give so much away in the synopsis on the back of the book, because it ruins a crucial plot point in the novel - one that would have been better had I not been expecting it. The novel begins with young Nicholas Urfe as he tries to find a living he can at least take some interest in. He meets a young woman that nearly penetrates his outer shell of dispassionate world-weariness. As a gesture of independence, he lets her get away and he takes a job on an Greek island. There, he gets involved with a strange old man and his associates, and finds himself the victim of manipulative games and masquerades. He resolves to penetrate each and every deceit, and is led on a strange journey beyond his wildest imaginings. After reading this book, I immediately wanted to share it with everyone I knew. It got me thinking about how much of my life I take for granted, how little of my own motivations I truly understand myself. Having read this book, I feel richer for the experience. I hope it can do for others what it's done for me.