Book description
The first volume of John Fowles's Journals ended with him achieving
international literary renown after the publication of The
Collector and The Magus, and leaving London behind to live
in a remote house near Lyme Regis. This final volume charts the
rewards and struggles of his continuing literary career, but at the
same time reveals the often reluctant celebrity behind the outward
success.
Enjoying a reputation as one of the world's leading novelists,
Fowles wins enormous wealth, kudos and attention, has the satisfaction
of seeing The French Lieutenant's Woman turned into a highly
acclaimed Hollywood film, but none the less comes to regard his fame
with deep ambivalence.
It cannot repair the growing strains between himself and his wife
Elizabeth, who does not share his taste for rural isolation, nor can
it cure the disenchantment he feels for an increasingly materialist
society.
This concluding volume of the Journals marks a writer's continuing
quest for wisdom and self-understanding.
John Fowles was born in England in 1926 and educated at Bedford
School and Oxford University. John Fowles won international recognition
with his first published title,
The Collector
(1963). He was immediately acclaimed as an outstandingly innovative
writer of exceptional imaginative power and this reputation was
confirmed with the appearance of his subsequent works. John Fowles died
in 2005.
