‘The Collector’ is about a butterfly collector named Clegg, who carefully pins and catalogues the specimens he catches. Miranda is just like another butterfly for Clegg to add to his collection. The collector lives in a large country house which he could afford because he won the football pools. The country house has a huge basement, and the collector hatches a plan to kidnap Miranda Grey, played by Samantha Eggar. He finally carries out his plan and locks her in the basement of his house. He wants to get to know her a previously he had only admired her from afar. In order to get her to like him, he buys her presents, clothes and books, and in the beginning, she agrees, somewhat foolishly, to stay in the basement for a month.
Miranda tries various methods to make her escape, but they all fail. She even makes an attempt to seduce him as she believed that his motive for kidnapping her was a sexual one. Unfortunately for her, perhaps, this wasn’t his motive. Clegg becomes angry and confused by her behaviour. He refuses to release her, and she concocts plans to kill him, but realises that is she did, she would be stooping to his level.
She dies in the basement after becoming gravely ill. Clegg want to commit suicide when he finds her dead, but then he reads the diary she had been writing. She explains in it that she had never loved him, and this confession leads him to plan to kidnap another young woman.
‘The Magus:’ all three versions of this book (including the screenplay) have different endings. Therefore, if you write about it give the edition you used to write your John Fowles essay.
The book is autobiographical to some extent as its main character is an English teacher on an unspecified Greek island. The teacher, Nicholas Urfe, is employed by a very rich Greek (think Aristotle Onassis) to teach his daughters. Urfe had an ambition to make his living by writing poetry. However, he finds life on the island unbearably lonely, and even contemplates suicide.
Ten as he wanders around the island he comes across Conchis, a very wealthy Greek who may have collaborated with the Nazis in the Second World War. Conchis and Nicolas become friends of a sort, and Nicholas is drawn into his psychological games (godgames). Conchis puts on masques to entertain Nicholas, who is drawn into them against his will. In the beginning Nicholas takes these games with a pinch of salt, but he soon loses his grasp of what is real and what is not. He is sucked into them without his realising it and becomes one of the performers. He finally understands that the games are about his life, not that of Conchis. Nicholas becomes enamoured of the young woman who also participates in the masques.
The book’s ending is ambiguous, leaving readers puzzling over what it all means. This is perhaps why Fowles wrote the second version of the book, which was published in 1977.
‘The French Lieutenant’s Woman’ follows on from the Gothic novels of the 19th century. This is the book that was universally acclaimed. The hero, Charles Smithson is wealthy, an aristocrat who studies palaeontology. He is supposed to marry Ernestina, an heiress whose aunt lives in Lyme.
While there, Charles meets Sarah Woodruff, whom the locals have ostracised because of her relationship with a French lieutenant. Sarah works as a secretary for Mrs.Poulteney, a widow. Sarah is miserable in her employ because the elderly lady is determined that Sarah will repent what she considers to be her evil ways.
Charles becomes obsessed with Sarah despite the fact that local people tell him that she lost her virginity to a French lieutenant whom she had thought would marry her. However, he didn’t and marries someone else after he leaves Lyme. Charles wants to help Sarah, who is dismissed by her employer. She writes a letter to Charles, who meets her and who believes that eventually Sarah will marry him. He gives her money and she goes to Exeter. Charles visits her there and they begin a sexual relationship. It becomes apparent that Sarah is a virgin, so the stories out her and the French lieutenant were false.
Charles uncle decides to marry and so disinherits Charles. He breaks off his engagement to Ernestina and goes to Exeter to find Sarah. He can’t find her and is desolate. He leaves for America, asking his friends to continue looking for her on his behalf. He hears that she has been found living with the Rossettis, so he goes back to England.
Now Fowles gives readers two alternative endings to his story. The first is that Charles and Sarah meet, and by this time she has his daughter. As this is the conventional ending, they marry.
The second ending is more modern. Charles finds Sarah but cannot reconcile her unconventional behaviour. As for Sarah, she doesn’t want to marry. She prefers her freedom. She turns down his marriage proposal and he return to America.
‘Daniel Martin’ is a complex book to read. it follows the life of Daniel Martin, using both 1st and 3rd person narration. Daniel Martin is a British playwright who deserts his craft and country to emigrate to the States. He becomes a screen writer, which is very lucrative. He is experiencing a mid-life crisis and is not totally comfortable with his abandonment of the theatre.
Despite becoming disillusioned with his life and work, he continues to accept screenwriting jobs. He embarks on an affair with a younger British actress who is also disillusioned with her life as an actress in the States. His American sojourn ends when he learns that his ex-brother-in-law, Anthony is dying. Anthony had been a close friend of Daniel’s when they were at college, so when Anthony asked him to return to England, he went, despite the fact that the two had had their differences. Martin had had an affair with Anthony’s wife. Daniel tries to avoid a deathbed meeting with his friend, but he can’t. One of the problems that Daniel must face is that he had lampooned his friend’s family and another is that he had had an affair with his wife. He also has problems with his daughter, who is having an affair with a man old enough to be her father. He has to contend with many problems and Fowles describes these perfectly.
These are considered to be the most important of John Fowles’ novels. Fowles poetry usually takes second place to his novels, rather like that of the British author D.H. Lawrence, which is why it is not discussed here.
