The Late Great John Fowles

I was relieved to read that it wasn't you, Sir John:

John Fowles, the British writer whose teasing, multilayered fiction explored the tensions between free will and the constraints of society, even as it played with traditional novelistic conventions and challenged readers to find their own interpretations, died on Saturday at his home in Lyme Regis, England. He was 79

Mr. Fowles's originality, versatility and skill were nowhere more evident than in his most celebrated novels, among them "The Collector," "The Magus" and "The French Lieutenant's Woman." In "The French Lieutenant's Woman," for example, he combined the melodrama of a 19th-century Victorian novel with the sensibility of a 20th-century postmodern narrator, offering his readers two alternative endings from which to choose and at one point boldly inserting himself into the book as a character who accompanies the hero on a train to London.

In "The Collector," Mr. Fowles painted an eerily plausible portrait of a psychopath who kidnaps a young woman out of what he imagines is love, telling the story from the two characters' opposing points of view until, at the end, the narratives converge with a shocking immediacy. And in "The Magus," the story of a young Englishman who gets caught up in the frightening dramatic fantasies of a strangely powerful man on an Aegean island, he again wrote an ending of self-conscious ambiguity, leaving the hero's future an open puzzle that readers are challenged to solve for themselves. (PARTIAL)

I was relieved to read that it wasn't you, Sir John:

John Fowles, the British writer whose teasing, multilayered fiction explored the tensions between free will and the constraints of society, even as it played with traditional novelistic conventions and challenged readers to find their own interpretations, died on Saturday at his home in Lyme Regis, England. He was 79

Mr. Fowles's originality, versatility and skill were nowhere more evident than in his most celebrated novels, among them "The Collector," "The Magus" and "The French Lieutenant's Woman." In "The French Lieutenant's Woman," for example, he combined the melodrama of a 19th-century Victorian novel with the sensibility of a 20th-century postmodern narrator, offering his readers two alternative endings from which to choose and at one point boldly inserting himself into the book as a character who accompanies the hero on a train to London.

In "The Collector," Mr. Fowles painted an eerily plausible portrait of a psychopath who kidnaps a young woman out of what he imagines is love, telling the story from the two characters' opposing points of view until, at the end, the narratives converge with a shocking immediacy. And in "The Magus," the story of a young Englishman who gets caught up in the frightening dramatic fantasies of a strangely powerful man on an Aegean island, he again wrote an ending of self-conscious ambiguity, leaving the hero's future an open puzzle that readers are challenged to solve for themselves. (PARTIAL)

[johnfowles]

Originally posted by <Next Saturday>:
I was relieved to read that it wasn't you, Sir John:

Quite correct MS and I am pleased that your posting means rhat I can simply reply instead of starting another new topic that

woild no doubt have caused the probable protestations of the forum category purists out there I am submitting this to the general Lightfoot discusion forum because it is a link to a recent Newsgroup thread started my our charmant moderator about the death of my great English novelist namesake......

(Old picture of the novelist as a youngish man)
Yes in my response I have managed to include a few references to Gord:-
the thread starts at:-
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.m...be774fb4613fd2
As always to see the full thread (the posting by Char then my reply simply click on "show options" on her message then select "view thread"
John Fowles
During the interview, he not only revealed that he was continuing to work on an album the 20th of his career that he had begun early in 2000 and for which he has written 23 songs, he also played recordings of a few of them during this interview.

He admitted any songs he writes from here on might have a new perspective. "In the past I had a fear of death," Lightfoot said. "I've lost that fear. I feel much better about accepting death now."

from:-
http://users2.ev1.net/~smyth/linerno...footGordon.htm

[ November 09, 2005, 12:06: Message edited by: johnfowles ]

[johnfowles]

Originally posted by <Next Saturday>:
I was relieved to read that it wasn't you, Sir John:

Quite correct MS and I am pleased that your posting means rhat I can simply reply instead of starting another new topic that

woild no doubt have caused the probable protestations of the forum category purists out there I am submitting this to the general Lightfoot discusion forum because it is a link to a recent Newsgroup thread started my our charmant moderator about the death of my great English novelist namesake......

(Old picture of the novelist as a youngish man)
Yes in my response I have managed to include a few references to Gord:-
the thread starts at:-
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.m...be774fb4613fd2
As always to see the full thread (the posting by Char then my reply simply click on "show options" on her message then select "view thread"
John Fowles
During the interview, he not only revealed that he was continuing to work on an album the 20th of his career that he had begun early in 2000 and for which he has written 23 songs, he also played recordings of a few of them during this interview.

He admitted any songs he writes from here on might have a new perspective. "In the past I had a fear of death," Lightfoot said. "I've lost that fear. I feel much better about accepting death now."

from:-
http://users2.ev1.net/~smyth/linerno...footGordon.htm

[ November 09, 2005, 12:06: Message edited by: johnfowles ]