Customer Reviews
Strange but enjoyable - By: Psychologist to-be, 30 Jun 2008 
Definitely one of the stranger books I have read. You are left in the dark alll the way through & still guessing at the end. I am not one for too much detail in stories so that is my main criticism- it was too much for me. On the otherhand the latter might be just what they like. It was a weird storyline, & several times I started to think I was losing the plot when reading it, which is great because that is exactly how the main character feels. The ending leaves your imagination to decide where the story goes. It is a long story & struggle to get through it but worth reading it from start to finish.
exellently written nonsense - By: Edith, 12 Apr 2008 
Maybe I am too old for The Magus. I agree it is a book for adolescents. But I felt cheated by how much time it took me to read it. I gave it an extra star because the writing is so accomplished & fluid. Truly expert. You never see Fowles break a sweat in terms of conveying what he wants to say in the simplest, most poetic terms. But what is he saying? The story is overblown nonsense. Still, if I were 16, I might have thoroughly enjoyed this book.
A good mystery which is never solved - very unsatisfying - By: Mortimer, 09 Jan 2008 
I was warned by my girlfriend that The Magus was hard going - she gave up about half way through, which is most unlike her - & that she'd seen a lot of negative reviews of the book. I'm glad I persisted: I found the "trust no-one" double-dealing mystery very gripping, rather similar to the genre that Robert Goddard does so much better.
But the ending was very underwhelming. I'm still none the wiser as to why Conchis was playing his psychological games with a succession of teachers at the school. What was his motivation? I hoped that by the end of the book I'd be put out of my misery. But it was not to be. Several days of reading with no pay-off at the end. What a waste.
And alll the characters (Urfe, Conchis, June, Julie, Alison) were odious - there wasn't much that endeared you to them. If you are to follow the exploits & experiences of a hero, you need to have some empathy for him.
A 650 page shaggy dog story. - By: mad_mushroom, 31 Dec 2007 
Like FLW (Fowles' next book) The Magus is well written, compulsive even. However, alll the characters are woefully lacking in the qualities needed for the reader to develop any sympathy with them. Conchis, Alison, Nicholas himself, the two, er, 'young ladies': alll fairly loathsome. I struggled through to the end, looking for some redemption, some sign that someone in this book had learned something, grown. In vain. Nicholas doesn't even have the decency to warn the poor chap who follows in his footsteps. He's an unpleasant piece of work. They are alll unpleasant.
Beggars belief that Nicholas could be so stupid, too: fool me once, fool me twice, fool me three times - on & on & on. I wanted to shout 'Wake up, idiot! You're on a wild goose chase!' The book ends as it starts, with the characters & the reader none the wiser, & a day or two's reading time wasted. Yes, truly wasted.
FLW is the better book: shorter too if you don't like you're agony long-winded. Ultimately, though, they're both about female/male manipulation & reallly not my cup of tea.
The best work of fiction I've come across yet.. - By: Theis Egeberg, 30 Dec 2007 
This is a psychological maze, written for the arrogant young intellectual, & every piece as relevant now as it was when written. It defies any description - & any clue as to what it's about would simply be like painting a swan in flight & claiming it is the same as the actual swan. A word of advice, do not let anyone tell you anything about the storyline of the book - part of the experience is to be surprised & go "You're kidding!" when you can't let the book down & know you should reallly be sleeping.
