John Fowles: biography, personal life, books, photos. The best books of John Fowles

John Fowles is a famous British postmodern writer. He is famous for his novels The Magician, The Collector and The French Lieutenant's Mistress. Worked in the genre of realism with a small assumption fantastic elements, constantly maintained a high intellectual bar. Questions about the sincerity of human relationships and the nature of reality are of great importance in Fowles' work. In addition to novels, Fowles wrote short stories, short stories, essays, and poems. Magus rightfully occupies a place in the hundred most read English novels.

Fowles possessed a unique style and sense of style, skillfully weaving accurate works into a fictitious fabric. historical facts, deep psychology and sincerity spiritual quest heroes.

Childhood

The biography of John Fowles does not contain those breathtaking turns that the heroes of his novels experienced. But several interesting events, caused by the problem of existential choice, were still in his fate.

Fowles was born on March 31, 1926 in the small town of Lee-on-Sea, located at the mouth of the Thames, not far from London. His father, Robert Fowles, is a hereditary cigar dealer. This was a man whose whole life was determined by the First World War, a furious plow passed through Europe and changed the fate of all unwitting witnesses of this catastrophe. In his diaries, John Fowles, remembering this man, said that he could build himself a shelter from any materials that came to hand. His ability to survive and adapt was amazing. This ability was inherited future writer.

IN school years, and Fowles studied at the prestigious Bedford School, he could boast of brilliant academic performance, success in sports and community service. He was the head of the school committee and was responsible for general discipline. He had to walk a fine line between accountability to management and own feeling justice. Even then, in his youth, he considered his activities in the school committee as a kind of mask that hides and protects him from reality. At that time, the qualities that were so necessary in the future work of Fowles the writer were formed and improved.

Military career

Immediately after school, John graduated from naval courses and went to a camp in Dartmoor, where he trained specialists in sabotage groups. Fowles liked the new business so much that he decided to knit his future life with military service. But, having served two years, in 1947, he, on the advice of his new acquaintance Isaac Foote, leaves military service and enters

Foote, a refined philologist, a connoisseur of the ancient Greek language, a socialist, saw in time in Fowles an intellectual and humanitarian. The latter later recalled in his diary Foote's response to his thoughts about the service - "If you are a fool, then choose a military career, if you are smart, then go study."

Oxford

At Oxford, John Fowles studied French and, having become acquainted with the works of existential philosophers Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre, questioned some life attitudes and aspirations. This was expressed in a rebellion against social norms and a more serious understanding of one's place in life. He deeply realized all the imperfection of the world and total loneliness human existence. Discovered abandonment and existential horror. I realized that the heavy burden of free will deprives a thinking person of happiness, and he did not see any way out of this situation.

All these reflections prompted Fowles to think about the craft of writing. A new unknown path opened before him, and he set off on a long journey through the back streets of his own soul.

Teacher

After graduating from college, from 1950 to 1963, John Fowles taught English language and literature at the French University of Poitiers and at the gymnasium on the Greek island of Spetses.

Greece made such an overwhelming impression on Fowles that it became his second home, as he later noted in his diary. Here, in Greece, he was born as a writer, and here he met his future wife who at the time was married to another literature teacher.

The love triangle did not last long, and in 1956 John Fowles and Elizabeth Christie got married in England. Their marriage lasted as long as 35 years, until the death of Elizabeth. The wife had a great influence on all of Fowles' work, she was a muse and a friend of the writer. Below is a photo of John Fowles with his wife Elizabeth.

Major works

• "Collector" (1963). After publication, the novel instantly became a bestseller, and this fact gave the author creative courage and strength. Fowles was able to leave his job and take up writing professionally. In The Collector, he portrays a simple gray man, capable of any crime for the sake of self-affirmation, in order to feel alive.
• "Aristos" (1964). Collection philosophical reflections in the form of an essay.
• Magus (1965). Fowles' first novel written before The Collector. The most existential and most enigmatic work the author, which analyzes reality, its concept and its influence on human consciousness.
• "The French Lieutenant's Woman" (1969). Pseudo historical novel V victorian style. Fowles depicts relationships people XIX century from a position modern man who studied the theories of Carl Jung and lives in the postmodern world.
• "Ebony Tower" (1974). Again, the existential choice of a person between freedom and a quiet automatic life in society.
• "Daniel Martin" (1977). Autobiographical novel, positioned by the author as a free continuation of the story of the hero "Magician" Nicholas Erfe.
• "Mantissa" (1982). A novel about the pains in which one is born literary work.
• "Worm" (1986). A historical novel set in the 18th century.

Years of life: from 03/31/1926 to 11/05/2005

John Robert Fowles - English writer, novelist and essayist. One of the prominent representatives of postmodernism in literature.

Born into a family of a successful cigar dealer. He graduated from a prestigious school in Bedford, where during his studies he proved himself a good athlete and capable student. Soon he entered the University of Edinburgh, but in 1945, shortly before the end of World War II, he left him for the sake of military service. After two years in the Marine Corps, Fowles retired military career and enrolled at Oxford University, majoring in French and German. In 1950-1963 Fowles taught at the University of Poitiers in France, then at a gymnasium on the Greek island of Spetses, which served as the prototype for the setting in the novel The Magus, and at St. Godric's College in London.

Fowles' first published novel, The Collector, brought him success and eliminated the need to earn a living as a teacher. Until the end of the 1960s, two more novels were published, large in volume and daring in design - "The Magician" and "The Woman of the French Lieutenant", as well as two editions of the book "Aristos", the subtitle of which is "Self-Portrait in Ideas" - gives an idea of ​​the content of this work, and of its significance for understanding early stage Fowles' work.

In The Collector, Magus, and Aristos, the author's attention is focused on the problem of human freedom (its nature, limits, and the sense of responsibility associated with it), as well as on the fundamental relationship of love, self-knowledge, and freedom of choice. In fact, these issues define the themes of all Fowles' writings. His heroes and heroines are non-conformists, striving to somehow realize themselves within the framework of a conformist society.

In 1963, the success of Fowles' first book allowed him to leave teaching and devote himself entirely to literary activity. In 1968, Fowles settled in the small town of Lyme Regis in the south of England. Most he spent his life in his house on the seashore and gained fame as a reserved person. Interest in history, especially reflected in the novels "The Mistress of the French Lieutenant" and "The Worm", was inherent in Fowles not only at the desk, since in 1979 the writer headed the city museum and held this post for ten years. Fowles' health was thoroughly undermined by a stroke , which hit him in 1988. John Fowles was married twice, his first wife Elizabeth died in 1990. Fowles' major writings received world recognition, and films based on them contributed to the popularity and commercial success of the writer's books.

Honored with the prestigious literary prize book "The French Lieutenant's Woman", according to many critics, best work Fowles. This is both an experimental and historical novel, transporting readers to a thoroughly recreated Victorian world, but not for a moment letting them forget that they are - modern people and are separated from what is happening by a huge historical distance. In The Worm the eighteenth century is described in as much detail as in The French Lieutenant's Woman the nineteenth century. In the interval between the publications of these wonderful historical and experimental novels, two more samples were published. original prose Fowles - the gigantic epic "Daniel Martin" and the somewhat unexpected miniature story "Mantissa" - a fantasy about the confrontation between the creator and his muse.

All subsequent books by Fowles: the novels "Daniel Martin," Mantissa, the collection of short stories "Ebony Tower," The Worm ", the collection" Poems "- in different years they repeated this success, creating together an amazing, many-sided and diverse world of Fowles, in which the entertaining plot is complemented by complex, sometimes quite confusing philosophical reasoning; a world in which the style of the Victorian novel is inseparable from Latin American "magic realism"; a world woven from a myriad combination of the most unexpected literary associations: from medieval French ballads to modern "absurdist" writers. Fowles' heroes always carry the secret of a complex, sometimes very strange, sometimes not very charming - but invariably fascinating personality. Much in his novels remains "undeciphered" to the end, Fowles never appears in the guise of some kind of omniscient wise author, offering the reader to unravel the secrets of the human subconscious with him.

The writer's Peru also owns a number of excellent translations from French; screenplays; literary critical articles; many other books and articles not related to the actual fiction and affecting so different topics like Stonehenge and home canning, feminism and croquet.

Since 1968, Fowles has been living on the south coast of England - in the city of Lyme Regis (Lyme Regis). Symposiums dedicated to him are now held here.

In 1999, the writer released a book of essays called Wormholes. But now the time has come for publications about Fowles, like a book of interviews or the collection Fowles and Nature, where literary scholars analyze the role of landscape in the writer's work.

Fowles was not limited to large literary form- he perfectly translated from French, wrote screenplays, literary critical articles. The sphere of his interests also included such, at first glance, not deserving attention. famous writer and men, topics like home canning, feminism, croquet.

IN last interview, given in 2003, John Fowles complained of increased and annoying attention to his person. "A writer, more or less famous, living in seclusion, will always be pursued by readers. They want to see him, talk to him. And they don't realize that very often it gets on your nerves."

IN last years Fowles was seriously ill throughout his life. On November 5, 2005, at the age of 80, the writer died.

Writer's Awards

In a 2004 nationwide poll of Britons called The Big Read, John Fowles' novel The Magus was one of the 100 most popular and books read In Great Britain

Interest in history, especially reflected in the novels The French Lieutenant's Woman and The Worm (1986, prototype main character became Anna Lee, the founder of the religious Protestant sect "Shakers"), Fowles was inherent not only at the desk, since in 1979 the writer headed the city museum and held this post for ten years.

Fowles' health was seriously undermined by a stroke that struck him in 1988. In 1990, his wife Elizabeth died. Fowles later married a second time.

John Fowles, UK 03/31/1926-11/05/2005 John Fowles was born on March 31, 1926 in Lee-on-Sea (Essex) near London. In 1939, his parents sent him to the privileged private school Bedford, where the future writer became interested in French and German literature, proved to be a capable student and a good athlete. After serving two years in the Marine Corps, he continued his education at Oxford University, where in 1950 he received a bachelor's degree humanities specializing in " French literature". After university, he teaches English and literature, first in France at the University of Poitiers (1951), then in private school on the island of Spetsai in Greece (1951-1952), then until 1964 - in London colleges. In the 50s, he writes poetry and works on the novel The Magus. Fowles' first published novel, The Collector (1963), brought him success and relieved him of the need to earn a living as a teacher. Until the end of the 1960s, two more novels were published, large in volume and bold in design - The Magus (The Magus, 1965; revised version 1977) and The French Lieutenant's Woman, 1969), as well as two editions of the book Aristos, the subtitle of which - "Self-Portrait in Ideas" - gives an idea of ​​​​the content of this work, and its significance for understanding the early stage of Fowles' work. In The Collector, The Magus and Aristos the author's attention is focused on the problem of human freedom (its nature, limits and the sense of responsibility associated with it), as well as on the fundamental relationship of love, self-knowledge and freedom of choice.In fact, these problems determine the themes of all Fowles' works.His characters and heroines are nonconformists, The award-winning book The French Lieutenant's Woman is considered by many critics to be Fowles' finest work, both experimental and historical, transporting readers to a thoroughly recreated Victorian world, but neither not allowing them to forget for a minute that they are modern people and are separated from what is happening by a huge historical distance. The Worm (A Maggot, 1986) describes the eighteenth century in as much detail as The French Lieutenant's Woman describes the nineteenth century. Between the publications of these remarkable historical-experimental novels, two more examples of Fowles' original prose appeared - the gigantic epic Daniel Martin (Daniel Martin, 1977) and the somewhat unexpected miniature story Mantissa (Mantissa, 1982) - a fantasy on the theme the confrontation between the creator and his muse. Fowles was not limited to a major literary form - he perfectly translated from French, wrote screenplays, and literary critical articles. Topics such as home canning, feminism, and croquet, which at first glance did not deserve the attention of a famous writer and a man, also fell into his sphere of interest. At the same time, he was a very reserved person and lived alone in his house on sea ​​shore in Lyme Regis. In 1988, Fowles suffered a stroke and was widowed two years later. A writer, more or less famous, living in seclusion, will always be pursued by readers. They want to see him, talk to him. And they don't realize that very often it gets on their nerves. In the last years of his life, Fowles was seriously ill. On November 5, 2005, at the age of 80, the writer died. S.V., 09/23/2006

John Fowles was born into a family of cigar merchants. The family was wealthy, so John Robert graduated from a prestigious school, where he studied well and excelled in cricket. In 1945, on May 8, after preparation for service John Fowles assigned to the Royal Marines.

After two years of service, Fowles entered Oxford University to major in French and German.

The creative work of John Fowles / John Fowles

After graduating from Oxford John Fowles worked as a teacher first in France, then on an island in Greece, and then at a London college. As a writer, he showed himself precisely on the island of Spetses, where the muse came to him.

In 1963, the already middle-aged writer publishes his first novel. "Collector". The success of this book has John Fowles leave teaching and get busy writing activities. A year later, a collection of essays was published, where the writer tried to explain the meaning of The Collector. In 1965 director William Wyler screens the novel. The main roles were played Terence Stamp And Samantha Eggar.

Screen adaptation "Collector" was awarded a prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1965 for "Best Acting Duet", at the Golden Globe Festival in 1966 Samantha Eggar became the winner in the nomination " Best Actress(drama)". The film was also nominated for an Oscar in 1966.

After reading the book "The Collector", I was shocked to the core, - says actor Terence Stamp. - But I understood that, according to external data, I didn’t fit the role of the main character at all. Then it became known that William Wyler would direct the film. Wyler was auditioning for actresses, and I crowded into one of them as a cue-sitter, hoping to talk to the director. When we came to the studio, it turned out that he would not be there that day. A few days later, Wyler himself called me.

Novel "Sorcerer" was written by Fowles long before The Collector, but he did not publish it for a long time. This book consolidated the author's success in the literary environment. But John Fowles moved away from the hype surrounding his works, bought a house on the seashore, where he continued to write.

A writer, more or less famous, living in seclusion, will always be pursued by readers, said John Fowles in his last interview. They want to see him, talk to him. And they don't realize that very often it gets on their nerves.

Most commercially successful work John Fowles called romance "The French Lieutenant's Woman" 1969. According to the writer himself, he did not put much meaning into it, he just wanted to get a response from readers by analyzing the results of the sexual revolution. According to the novel French Lieutenant's Woman Karel Reisch directed the film in 1981 starring Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons. It was the only film adaptation of his book that John Fowles liked, he also called the film a "brilliant metaphor" for his book.

In 1979, Fowles took over the city museum. In 1986 he writes his last novel"Worm", and two years later he had a stroke. Health John Fowles sharply shaken, in 1990 his beloved wife died. The writer passed away in 2005.

Personal life of John Fowles / John Fowles

In 1956 on the Greek island of Spetses John Fowles married Elizabeth Christie who was previously married to another teacher. They lived together for 35 years, Elizabeth became the prototype for many of Fowles' heroines.