The Magus

By: John Fowles

Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton

John Fowles’ The Magus was a literary landmark of the 1960s. Nicholas Urfe goes to a Greek island to teach at a private school and becomes enmeshed in curious happenings at the home of a mysterious Greek recluse, Maurice Conchis. Are these events, involving attractive young English sisters, just psychological games, or an elaborate joke, or more? Reality shifts as the story unfolds.

The Magus reflected the issues of the 1960s perfectly, but even almost half a century after its first publication, it continues to create tension and concern, remaining the page-turner that it was when it was first released.

Download the accompanying reference guide.©1977 J. R. Fowles Ltd (P)2012 Naxos AudioBooks

Long, deep prose keeps you invested in outcome.

Phenomenal writing style mixed with great narration leaves you intertwined into a complex story about love, loss, and psychological doubts about the meaning of events. Great read with a thrilling subtlety that leaves you confounded over the importance of relationships, egotism, and self worth.

This is now my favorite book of all time.

Very rarely does a story have you continuously revisiting the plot and events trying to dissect new meaning. This book had my mind going in a thousand different directions and then the path of the narrative found direction 1001. Great book and stellar performance by Nicholas Boulton.

Ugh I couldn’t get into this book

I don’t know what my problem was but Nicholas was such a egocentric and self-deprecating character I could not get into the story. I’m sure it gets better but I can’t get past the beginning.

Great story telling

Interesting story. Irritating protagonist. This guy needs to get on with his life. Endless dwelling on a pointless situation.

Amazing performance ending let me down

The performance alone is worth the read. Hard to stop listening to. Ending was a little dissipating.

Great book

A great book that will keep you guessing. You may even re-read it after you are done (:

Excellent performance of a very influential book

Nicholas Boulton's performance was one of the best I've listened to yet, so so good! I'm not a huge fan of the overall story though, even though John Fowles is an amazing writer. I found the story to be painful to finish, and unrealistic, but mostly painful. Some aspects are really great, some are not so great. What is so interesting about The Magus is how influential it has been on modern literature. You can see traces of it in Stephen King's work, George RR Martin's, even Pretty Little Liars. I'm sure there are dozens and dozens more that were inspired by The Magus.

The Magus revisited

I had read The Magus when I was on the island of Mykonos in 1972. Yes, in those wanderlust years the magic of this book was just right for the adventure I was on. I would say now, like many things from our youth, I wonder how much of it I could truly grasp at that time. A lifetime of reading and thinking greatly expanded what I could glean from it now. As much as I enjoyed it, I found the first half much more focused than the second. The philosophy, myth, and life insights in the book are one of its strengths, but it seems to suffer from a writer who struggled to know how to end his story. It dragged in the end almost making it unlistenable, and lost its profound implications as the drama becomes more convoluted and unbelievable. But don’t let that deter you. I still enjoyed it, and reflected on the many years that passed since I too was stranded on a Greek island.

To finish the book, or not to finish the book???

I struggled to finish this book. I found it was much too slow moving for me to stay interested in. The endless mind games irritated me.
The talented narrator was the only reason why I did eventually complete the book.

Outstanding. Highly recommended

Outstanding narrative, narration, and literature at its best. Any further descriptions may compromise the quality of the subject in review