The Magus by John Fowles - Lettered Edition

Widely considered John Fowles’s masterpiece, The Magus is a masterwork of contemporary literature. By turns disturbing, thrilling and seductive, the novel is a spellbinding exploration of the complexities of the human mind.

When a young Englishman, Nicholas Urfe, accepts a teaching post on a remote Greek island and strikes up a friendship with a reclusive millionaire, he soon finds himself a pawn in the trickster’s deadly game of violence, seduction and betrayal. As Nicholas is drawn deeper into the psychological traps, he finds it increasingly difficult to distinguish past from present, or fantasy from reality. A work rich in symbols, conundrums, and labyrinthine twists, The Magus endures as the most enigmatic and magical novel in the Fowles canon.

The Magus was the first novel John Fowles wrote, although it was his third to be published, following The Collector (1963) and The Artistos (1964). He began writing it in the 1950s under the working title The Godgame, and based the story partly on his own experiences on the Greek island of Spetses, where he taught English for two years at the Anargyrios School. Fowles worked on The Magus for twelve years before its publication in 1965. Despite gaining enormous critical and commercial success, he continued to rework it, publishing a final revision in 1977.

Today, the novel is considered a modern classic, included in Modern Library’s list of 100 Best 20th Century Novels, and the BBC’s The Big Read survey of the top 200 best loved novels.

The signed limited edition of The Magus by John Fowles is presented in three states: Lettered, Numbered and Artist editions.

LETTERED EDITION

• 6” x 9” trim size.
• 800 Pages.
• Limited to 26 copies.
• Signed by Christopher Priest, Eileen Warburton and Marc Burckhardt.
• Full leather binding with three-piece cover construction.
• Foil blocking in five colors on the cover and spine.
• Leather wrapped endbands.
• Endsheets are hand marbled for this edition by Jemma Lewis.
• Handbound by Amy Borezo at Shelter Bookworks in Orange, Massachusetts.
• Color fold-out featuring the Artist edition dust jacket illustration, as well as a reproduction of the first edition jacket art by Tom Adams.
• Foreword by the author, originally published in the 1977 revised edition.
• A 1994 bonus essay by the author.
• Transcript from the author's October 23, 1997 appearance on the BBC's The Lively Arts.
• New exclusive introduction by Christopher Priest. 
  
• New exclusive afterword by Eileen Warburton.
• Six full color illustrations by Marc Burckhardt.
• Set in Monotype Digital Fournier.
• Printed offset on Mohawk Via Vellum paper.
• Housed in a clamshell enclosure covered in European cloth with a leather spine label.
• Wooden “Le Bateleur” Tarot card with the design laser engraved in olive ash burl wood veneer included as a companion to all Lettered edition orders.
  
• Bookmark with all pre-orders.

Published editions may differ slightly from mockups and prototype designs.
Illustrations © 2022 by Marc Burckhardt.