John Fowles: The Journals, Vol. 2: v. 2 [Hardcover]

"An absolutely compulsive, often stunning and moving read. . . Like his unforgettable fictional characters, John Fowles lived large, and the publication of "The Journals: Volume II" constitutes an event . . . His two volumes of journals rank among his greatest achievements. [An] elegiac tone, and discursive and digressive sensibility, resonates throughout the detailed entries . . . It's all here. The drink count. The roe deer, bats and spiders. Sales figures and gossip. Complaints and snipes. Serious illnesses and personal triumphs. Grand flights of philosophical reflection and meticulous observations of mice. Real estate prices and the bricks and mortar of literary composition. Famous writers and neighbors down the road . . . The reader of Fowles feels somehow invited to enter a clearing made by language, a privileged and charged place . . . With such access comes an opportunity to understand but also to accompany, to witness. As a result, finally the reader of these journals feels lu

Chosen by William Boyd. `wholly absorbing.'

A major literary landmark: the second volume of one of the most extraordinary journals of our time.

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 on the Dorset coast 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. While the challenges of the passing years - whether illness, depression or personal bereavement - underline the vanity of worldly ambition, he finds refuge and solace in his study of the animals, plants, birds and insects of the surrounding countryside.

This concluding volume of the Journals contains an eloquent expression of this profound attachment to the natural world, but also marks a writer's continuing quest for wisdom and self-understanding. Unflinchingly honest, it provides an invaluable insight into the creative background of his novels, as well as the writer's inner life and preoccupations.

(20050107)

A major literary landmark: the second volume of one of the most extraordinary journals of our time.

John Fowles was born in 1926. His books include The Collector, The Aristos, The French Lieutenant's Woman, The Ebony Tower, Daniel Martin, Mantissa, A Maggot and Wormholes. He died in Lyme Regis in November 2005.

Charles Drazin is an editor and writer, whose previous books include In Search of the Third Man and Korda: Britain's Only Movie Mogul.

(20050107)