Wormholes: Essays and Occasional Writings - Softcover

Fowles, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 080506172X ISBN 13: 9780805061727

Publisher: Owl Books: Henry Holt, 1999

Synopsis

John fowles's popularity and his place in the English literary canon have been assured for several decades. His novels The Magus and The French Lieutenant's Woman became instant classics upon publication. Here, with Wormholes, for the first time is a representative gathering of Fowles's fugitive and intensely personal nonfiction writings: essays, literary criticism, commentaries, autobiographical statements, memoirs, and musings. It is a delicious sampling of the various matters that have plagued, preoccupied, or delighted Fowles throughout his life.

About this title

About the Author

John Fowles's many books include The Collector, The Magus, The French Lieutenant's Woman, The Ebony Tower, Daniel Martin, Mantissa, and A Maggot. He lives in Lyme Regis, England.

From Kirkus Reviews

The celebrated English novelist gathers his essays of four decades in one volume. Best known for his novels, which include classic works such as The Magus and The French Lieutenant's Woman, Fowles now offers a collection of essays and ``occasional pieces'' written between 1963 and 1997. The book comprises 30 disparate pieces, divided into four categories: ``Autobiographical,'' ``Culture and Society,'' ``Literature and Literary Criticism,'' and ``Nature and the Nature of Nature.'' Fowles enthusiasts will be grateful for the book. The master's ruminations will deepen their understanding of his fictional world, perhaps especially the section on nature. However, those not already in thrall to Fowles's imagination are not likely to be persuaded or even attracted by this omnium-gatherum of odds and ends. Curiously, Fowles seems uneasy as an essayist. It is, for example, a leitmotif of this volume for him to declare that he does not care what ``the academics'' think. He claims this so often that it becomes clear that ``the academics''whoever they may bebother him a great deal and that he in fact does care what they think. This unnecessary combat with phantoms makes him appear defensive and unsure of himself. Consequently it undermines his reader's confidence in the surefootedness of his critical stance. He is at his best when completely unapologetic, as in comments of this sort: ``Above all I loathe the drift (a kind of fascism of the majority) that would so homogenize, suburbanize, and `democratize' life as to make it lose all it varieties and roughnessesmake it, like margarine, `easy to spread. '' Take that to Starbucks and sip it. In the end, though shot through with veins of gold, this collection also contains its share of slag and dross. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Owl Books: Henry Holt
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 080506172X
• ISBN 13: 9780805061727
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 432