The Magus

Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1965 First American edition, first printing. Publisher's green cloth, spine lettered in red, and red top stain; in its original wraparound pictorial dust jacket designed by Tom Adams, featuring a surreal collage of Greek masks, artifacts, and flora. Near fine book, with light toning to spine and board edges; very good unclipped dust jacket, with some toning to spine, light rubbing to rear spine fold, light wear to spine ends with a shallow chip to head of spine, and a few closed tears to panels including a 2-inch closed tear to top edge of rear panel. Overall, a pleasing example of the iconic dust jacket. The Magus follows Nicholas Urfe, a young Oxford graduate and aspiring poet who is mentally deteriorating while teaching on a small Greek Island. Nicholas becomes depressed and falls into a friendship with Maurice Conchis, a wealthy and mysterious man who severs Nicholas' grip on reality through elaborate mind games. The story was inspired by John Fowles' time teaching on the Greek island of Spetses as a young man. The Magus was the first book Fowles wrote but the third to be published. An immediate sensation, the plot reverberated the experimental philosophy of the 1960s, and it was adapted into a film shortly after its publication.. First American Edition. Hard Cover. Near Fine/Dust Jacket Included.