John Fowles has the distinction of being both a best-selling novelist and one whose work has earned the respect of academic critics. In this clear and concise book, James Acheson traces the development of Fowles' novels from The Collector, The Magus and The French Lieutenant's Woman, each concerned with the quest for self-knowledge, through to The Ebony Tower and Daniel Martin. He shows how the sexual element of Fowles' early novels is interwoven with the author's interest in French existentialism as, in his first three works of fiction, Fowles' main characters are obliged not only to struggle with sexual issues but to choose between living a life of humdrum conventionality, on the one hand, or seeking to discover a sense of their own 'authenticity' on the other. By the 1970s, however, Fowles' interest in existentialism had begun to wane, his disillusionment taking different forms in The Ebony Tower, a collection of short stories, and in Daniel Martin, the novel that followed it. In A Maggot, his most recent work of fiction, he abandons existentialism in favour of a more generalised philosophical issue - the limits of human knowledge.

John Fowles (Modern Novelists)

Literature & Fiction

James Acheson

British & Irish

PALGRAVE~MACMILLAN

John Fowles has the distinction of being both a best-selling novelist and one whose work has earned the respect of academic critics.  In this clear and concise book, James Acheson traces the development of Fowles' novels from The Collector, The Magus and The French Lieutenant's Woman, each concerned with the quest for self-knowledge, through to The Ebony Tower and Daniel Martin.  He shows how the sexual element of Fowles' early novels is interwoven with the author's interest in French existentialism as,  in his first three works of fiction, Fowles' main characters are obliged not only to struggle with sexual issues but to choose between living a life of humdrum conventionality, on the one hand, or seeking to discover a sense of their own 'authenticity' on the other.   By the 1970s, however, Fowles' interest in existentialism had begun to wane, his disillusionment taking different forms in The Ebony Tower, a collection of short stories, and in Daniel Martin, the novel that followed it.  In A Maggot, his most recent work of fiction, he abandons existentialism in favour of a more generalised philosophical issue - the limits of human knowledge.

History & Criticism

St.Martin's Press

Between 1929 and 1949 Beckett wrote a number of essays, notes and reviews. Though this early work may seem minor, there nevertheless emerges from it a consistent artistic theory concerned with the relationship between art and the limits of human knowledge. The fascinating variety of ways in which Beckett put theory into practice in his early fiction from Dream of Fair to Middling Women to The Unnamable, and in his drama from Waiting for Godot to What Where, forms the subject of this book.

Samuel Beckett’s Artistic Theory and Practice: Criticism, Drama and Early Fiction

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Books by James Acheson

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by James Acheson. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

John Fowles (Modern Novelists)

John Fowles (Modern Novelists)

Samuel Beckett’s Artistic Theory and Practice: Criticism, Drama and Early Fiction