FOWLES, John

‘The most important questions in life can never be answered by anyone except oneself.’

John Fowles was an English novelist; known for his philosophical concepts contained within his writing, he was named one of the Greatest British writers since 1945. Born on 31^st March 1926, in Essex, Fowles grew up in the English suburban culture of the 1930s; which he viewed as oppressively conformist, with his family life being intensely conventional. Therefore, when he discovered the works of the French existentialists, Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre; he found their writings mirrored his own outlook and thoughts on conformity and the will of the individual. He then began to work in Greece as a teacher, and developed his previously repressed love for writing; though didn’t consider his work good enough until late 1960, when he finished the first draft of ‘The Collector’ in just four weeks! He continued to work on it until 1962 when he finally submitted it to a publisher. It was an immediate best seller. Fowles continued to write, and the next year published ‘The Aristos’, a collection of philosophical thoughts on art and human nature.  In 1965, he finally published his novel ‘The Magus’, which he had been working on for over a decade, about freedom and existentialism. In 1977, ‘Daniel Martin’ was published; a novel widely considered to be autobiographical as it spans 40 years of the life of a writer, containing the same philosophical insight and existentialist style Fowles became known for. Followed by ‘Mantissa’ in 1982, which tells the story of a novelist’s obsession with his muse. 

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