New Releases by John Fowles

En novellesamling af John Fowles (Den franske løjtnants kvinde). I Ibenholttårnet møder en ung abstrakt maler en gammel, anerkendt naturalistisk maler, der lever et tilbagetrukket liv i Bretagne. Mødet mellem de to kunstnere bliver en skelsættende begivenhed for den unge maler.

Det er en kold og blæsende martsdag i 1867. Yderst på molen i den lille by Lyme Regis på Englands sydkyst står en ung, sortklædt kvinde og stirrer ud over havet. Mødet med hende bliver skæbnesvangert og et vendepunkt i unge Charles Smithsons liv. Den franske løjtnants kvinde er en spændende og velfortalt kærlighedshistorie om to unge menneskers forsøg på at undslippe victoriatidens tyranniske hykleri. Men bogen er mere end det. John Fowles har villet skildre den victorianske tid, som den tager sig ud for vor tids mennesker. Tilsyneladende er bogen skrevet i datidens stil, men samtidig har den fået en fin ironisk drejning og hele tre forskellige slutninger.

Con la precisión y el dominio del lenguaje que caracterizan su narrativa, Fowles nos vuelve a sumergir en un mundo poblado de personajes propios de lo mejor de la mitología clásica. Un joven crítico de arte se replantea su convencional vida tras visitar a un pintor inglés retirado voluntariamente a la campiña francesa en compañía de dos misteriosas muchachas. Un ladrón filosófico despierta a un escritor para someterle a la peor de las torturas. La desaparición de un exitoso miembro del Parlamento pone en jaque a la policía londinense. Un grupo de amigos, cada uno con sus miserias, pasa unos días agridulces en un idílico paraje campestre. Estas cuatro historias, acompañadas de la traducción de un romance amoroso medieval francés, recogen los apasionantes temas de las novelas que convirtieron a este autor en uno de los referentes de la literatura inglesa del XX. Cinco relatos del autor de "La mujer del teniente francés" y "El coleccionista", que constituyen ejemplos perfectos del estilo riquísimo, deslumbrante y magistral de Fowles, y que están a la altura de sus mejores obras.

En esta ambiciosa novela, mezcla de narración gótica, thriller, historia iniciática, relato erótico y filosófico, asistimos a la "educación sentimental" del joven Nicholas, que abandona Londres para establecerse en una remota isla griega. Allí conoce a un excéntrico millonario, "el Mago", que lo introduce en las fronteras movedizas de la realidad y el sueño&

Věhlasnému britskému spisovateli Johnu Fowlesovi se podařilo ve svém nejslavnějším románu (zfilmovaném v neméně slavném zpracování s Meryl Streepovou a Jeremy Ironsem) spojit v jedné novele moderní narativní přístup s milostným dobrodružstvím a vše jemně zastřít literárním půvabem – výsledkem je psychologický román o lásce dvou společenských nerovných milenců, jejich nepřípustné lásky, vroucích vášní, potlačované sexuality a pokrytectví viktoriánské Anglie. Hlavní hrdinka, tajemná, svůdná a poněkud umírněná žena Sarah Woodruffová se zoufale snaží vymanit z dobových pout sociálních a citových předsudků – tím se však stává objektem zájmu bohatého Charlese Smithsona. Charlesovi však nová známost přináší trýznivý vnitřní konflikt a volbu mezi dvěma ženami…

Autorovu románovou prvotinu inspirovala novinová zpráva o únosu dívky a jejím věznění v londýnském protileteckém krytu. Věznitel Frederick Clegg je psychopatický sexuální deviant, který si díky výhře v loterii může dovolit přestat pracovat a „starat se“ jen o svou zajatkyni. Takto realizuje svou touhu po vztahu s krásnou ženou a po manželství, které by mu otevřelo dveře do bohatšího a kultivovanějšího světa. Clegg je v podstatě mírný, nenásilný člověk, který ale nechápe, že plnohodnotný lidský vztah může vzniknout a rozvíjet se jen ze svobodného rozhodnutí. Miranda, studentka výtvarných umění a nadaná kreslířka, Clegga intelektuálně i osobnostně výrazně převyšuje. Je si toho vědoma a dokáže jím obratně manipulovat. Tragické vyústění své situace však odvrátit nedokáže.

The renowned author delivers a "hypnotic" tale of obsession, truth and lies in this "immensely rich and readable novel...a remarkable achievement" ( Time ). In the spring of 1736, four men and one woman, all traveling under assumed names, are crossing the Devonshire countryside en route to a mysterious rendezvous. Before their journey ends, one of them will be hanged, one will vanish, and the others will face a murder trial. Out of the truths and lies that envelop these events, John Fowles has created a novel that is at once a tale of erotic obsession, an exploration of the conflict between reason and superstition, an astonishing act of literary legerdemain, and the story of the birth of a new faith.

"Novella, four seductively readable short stories, conservative in style but exciting in their modernity of outlook." — The New York Times The Ebony Tower, comprising a novella, three stories, and a translation of a medieval French tale, echoes themes from John Fowles''s internationally celebrated novels as it probes the fitful relations between love and hate, pleasure and pain, fantasy and reality.

"A masterpiece of symbolically charged realism . . . [by] the only writer in English who has the power, range, knowledge, and wisdom of a Tolstoy or James." —John Gardner, Saturday Review The eponymous hero of John Fowles''s largest and richest novel is an English playwright turned Hollywood screenwriter who has begun to question his own values. Summoned home to England to visit an ailing friend, Daniel Martin finds himself back in the company of people who once knew him well, forced to confront his buried past, and propelled toward a journey of self-discovery through which he ultimately creates for himself a more satisfying existence. A brilliantly imagined novel infused with a profound understanding of human nature, Daniel Martin is John Fowles at the height of his literary powers. "We''re never unaware that Mr. Fowles is up to something that is extremely important to him, and this alone is a source of considerable tension and excitement . . . an old-fashioned novel in the sense that one can enter and live in it." —Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times "Absorbing, intellectually challenging . . . A startlingly provocative novel . . . Like Henry James before him, Fowles has created rarified creatures free enough to take on the toughest question that life offers: How to live?"—Paul Gray, Time

"A superb novel...Evil has seldom been so sinister." --Time Hailed as the first modern psychological thriller, The Collector is the internationally bestselling novel that catapulted John Fowles into the front rank of contemporary novelists. This tale of obsessive love--the story of a lonely clerk who collects butterflies and of the beautiful young art student who is his ultimate quarry--remains unparalleled in its power to startle and mesmerize. "A bravura first novel...As a horror story, this book is a remarkable tour de force." --New Yorker

Perhaps the most beloved of John Fowles''s internationally bestselling works, The French Lieutenant''s Woman is a feat of seductive storytelling that effectively invents anew the Victorian novel. "Filled with enchanting mysteries and magically erotic possibilities" ( New York Times), the novel inspired the hugely successful 1981 film starring Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons and is today universally regarded as a modern classic.

John Fowles gained international recognition in 1963 with his first published novel, The Collector, but his labor on what may be his greatest literary undertaking, his journals, commenced over a decade earlier. Fowles, whose works include The Maggot, The French Lieutenant''s Woman, and The Ebony Tower, is among the most inventive and influential English novelists of the twentieth century. The first volume begins in 1949 with Fowles'' final year at Oxford. It reveals his intellectual maturation, chronicling his experiences as a university lecturer in France and as a schoolteacher on the Greek island of Spetsai. Simultaneously candid and eloquent, Fowles'' journals also expose the deep connection between his personal and scholarly lives as Fowles struggled to win literary acclaim. From his affair with Elizabeth, the married woman who would become his first wife, to his passion for film, ornithology, travel, and book collecting, the journals present a portrait of a man eager to experience life. The second and final volume opens in 1966, as Fowles, already an international success, navigates his newfound fame and wealth. With absolute honesty, his journals map his inner turmoil over his growing celebrity and his hesitance to take on the role of a public figure. Fowles recounts his move from London to a secluded house on England''s Dorset coast, where discontented with society''s voracious materialism he led an increasingly isolated life. Great works in their own right, Fowles'' journals elucidate the private thoughts that gave rise to some of the greatest writing of our time.

"Wormholes" presents, for the first time, a representative gathering of Fowles''s fugitive and intensely personal nonfiction writings: essays, literary criticism, commentaries, autobiographical statements, memoirs, and musings.

Mars 1867, Sarah Woodruff, abandonnée par son amant - un lieutenant français - vit plus ou moins repliée sur elle-même, ignorée d''une petite communauté puritaine qui la considère un peu folle. Ce n''est pas l''avis de Charles Smithson, seul homme à oser un jour s''approcher d''elle, et dont la vie est peu à peu bouleversée par cette rencontre. Sarah et le Lieutenant français n''est pas seulement un grand roman d''amour, c''est aussi l''histoire d''une femme en quête de son émancipation et une féroce peinture de mœurs. Avec, pour toile de fond, la cité portuaire de Lyme Regis et les falaises du Dorset, dans cette Angleterre victorienne où, comme le dit John Fowles, " les gens momifiaient leurs sentiments dans d''étranges bandelettes ".

The noted novelist examines the impact of nature on his own life and on that of urban "civilized" man, concentrating in particular on his fascination with trees and their key role in all of his fiction

Unsuitable for family reading.

Reveals the reactions of an independent mind to different life situations.

Inkluderad i The Modern Librarys Topp 100-lista över 1900-talets bästa engelskspråkiga romaner! »Illusionisten är magnifik i sin ambition och lysande i sitt utförande.« | The New York Times Nicholas Urfe, ovanligt välutbildad för sin unga ålder men trött på den akademiska miljön, antar erbjudandet att bli skollärare på en perifer grekisk ö: Phraxos. Här hamnar han i händerna på Maurice Conchis, en mångmiljonär som i sin undanskymda villa genomför sociopsykologiska experiment – ett slags skådespel som återskapar olika historiska händelser och personer. Nazisternas ockupation under andra världskriget dramatiseras; Markis de Sade; grekiska myter. Nicholas blir alltmer absorberad. Tills han inser att han själv är experimentens föremål. John Fowles genombrottsroman Illusionisten [The Magus, 1965; reviderad 1977] är en faustisk betraktelse över västerlandets kultur, som alltmer liknar en brittisk klassiker. Fowles reviderade - och med 250 sidor utökade - version är här översatt till svenska av Martin Peterson. JOHN FOWLES [1926-2005] var en brittisk författare. Han debuterade 1963 med romanen Samlaren [The Collector] som blev en omedelbar succé i den engelskspråkiga världen, och som flerfaldigt filmatiserats, dramatiserats, samt inspirerat artister som The Jam och Morrissey. Fowles stora internationella genombrott kom med Illusionisten [1965; reviderad 1977] och Den franske löjtnantens kvinna [1969], som - liksom Samlaren - sålt i miljontals exemplar världen över. Illusionisten och Samlaren inleder Modernistas nyutgivning av John Fowles. »Oförglömlig läsning.« | The Independent »Briljant och storslagen. Det är omöjligt att sluta läsa.« | New York Review of Books »Ett storverk.« | Sunday Telegraph