The Magus

The next weekend, Nick is back in his room at Conchis’s house where he notes new books by his bedside, including a volume in French, with a marked passage describing a risqué masque inspired by Greek myths. The passage makes it clear to Nick that everything happening to him in Bourani is a play.

Over post-dinner coffee, the young woman from last weekend joins Nick and Conchis, Conchis introducing her as Lily Montgomery. Determined to play his part in the masque, Nick urges Lily to take a seat and begins a conversation with her, observing that she has a British accent. Conchis abruptly states that the woman is not the real Lily, his sudden abdication of pretense surprising Nick.

Conchis picks up his story from 1919, the year in which his father died. Conchis and his mother moved to Paris, where he began studying medicine. Conchis’s group of medical students considered medicine their religion and planned to found an international association called the Society of Reason which would supersede every chauvinistic, self-serving government. This association was disbanded because of opposition from both communists and right-wing Catholics.

When Conchis goes inside to fetch brandy, Lily asks Nick to walk around the terrace with her. Nick wants to drop their pretense and speak to Lily honestly, but Lily suggests they keep up the masque even in the absence of Conchis, whom she calls “Maurice.” Nick and Lily flirt with each other, Nick touching Lily’s cheek tenderly. When Nick asks Lily if she is an actress, she replies that every person is an actor in some sense. At the sound of Conchis’s approach, Nick and Lily return to the table.

Conchis now describes his relationship with elderly, wealthy, and misogynistic Count Alphonse De Deukans, whom he met in Paris. De Deukans invited Conchis first to his own apartment, showing him his exquisite collection of harpsichords, and then to his chateau in Givray-le-Duc in eastern France, packed with rare art and collectibles. One of the collectibles was Madame Mirabelle, a mechanized nude sculpture, who would wrap her legs and arms around De Deukans as he lay atop her, but would stab any other man through his groin. Although De Deukans’s belief in pleasure for the sake of pleasure had a profound impact on 25-year-old Conchis, Conchis gradually began to see the selfishness in the older man’s way of living.

The sound of a horn interrupts Conchis’s narration, a voice calling out for Apollo. As Nick and Lily go to the edge of the terrace, they see a play being performed in which a naked man representing Apollo stands still, while a nymph races in terror, chased by a satyr springing an enormous erection. The girl seems to collapse in exhaustion, and a woman in a chiton appears on the scene, carrying a bow (playing Artemis, Apollo’s twin and goddess of the hunt). Artemis shoots the satyr and walks over to Apollo, the spotlight fading.

After the masque, Conchis resumes the tale of De Deukans. In a tragic turn, De Deukans’s chateau was destroyed in a fire while both Conchis and De Deukans were away. Broken by the loss, De Deukans died of an overdose in his hotel room. He willed his surviving fortune to Conchis; many of the artworks and musical instruments in Bourani are the gifts of De Deukans.

The will also contained five words in Latin, which translate to “Which are you drinking? The water or the wave?” (187). According to Conchis, everyone must ask themselves this question. Nick cannot decide if he drinks the water or the wave. Conchis says goodnight, leaving Nick the manifesto of the Society of Reason to read.

Nicholas studies the manifesto of the Society of Reason, noting the datedness of its sincerity. In light of World War II and the atomic bomb, the manifesto’s insistence on creating a world where humanity will be governed by reason seems childish.

Next morning, Nick visits the beach and sees Lily, looking ravishing. He asks her about the other girls (the nymph and Artemis) from the previous night. Lily feigns ignorance, then distracts Nick by sitting close to him, showing him the scar on her wrist. She and Nick flirt, then squabble. Lily remarks that Nick’s insistence on knowing the truth shows he has little imagination, which is why he cannot write good poems. Lily’s knowledge about his poetry stuns Nick. She apologizes immediately.

The two walk along the beach, Lily a little behind Nick. To his shock, Nick sees Lily on the terrace of the house, something which should be impossible. A tall man wearing a sinister jackal’s mask appears next to this Lily, and pulls her back. A frightened Nick turns, but the Lily on the beach has vanished.

Disoriented, Nick goes back to the house where Maria hands him a note from Conchis saying he has been called away urgently on business. There is also a telegram from Alison, announcing her arrival in Athens next Friday.

As he recovers from the disorienting encounter with the two Lilys, Nick realizes the only explanation is that his Lily has a twin, also participating in the masque. Nick ponders Lily’s behavior: He knows she is playing the part of a seductress, yet sometimes he senses genuine affection in her demeanor. The different facets of Lily are so intriguing that they consume all of Nick’s attention.

In this context, Alison’s telegram seems an unwelcome intrusion “like grit in the eye when one particularly wants to see clearly” (201). Nick supposes that Conchis already read the telegram, since it was brought in by Hermes. Perhaps that is why Conchis left the island, to direct Nick to visit Alison.

Lily sneaks up on Nick, Nick examining her wrist to make sure she is the right sister. When Nick asks Lily about the man in the jackal mask and her twin sister, Lily feigns cluelessness. An angry Nick grabs her shoulders and forces her on her back, asking her to tell the truth. Nick releases Lily and she cries. Nick feels he has asserted his power over Lily and experiences a sense of catharsis. As Nick helps Lily up, he thinks all his struggles with Alison and other women were justified because he has been waiting for the real thing, which is Lily, his Ariadne.

Lily and Nick walk on the beach, spotting a recently installed statue of Poseidon, the sea god. Lily finally tells Nick her real name, which is Julie Holmes. She is British and has a twin sister, June. Both sisters are amateur actresses who arrived in Bourani for the first time a few weeks ago. Nick thinks it is surprising that Julie’s arrival in Bourani is so recent, since he was under the impression that she was part of the masque played with Mitford and Leverrier. However, he keeps his thoughts to himself.

Julie tells Nick she is not yet prepared to break Conchis’s rules and begs Nick not to share her confidences with Conchis. Moved by her vulnerability, Nick kisses Julie, even though he is aware both are being watched. Nick’s suspicion is confirmed when he sees Conchis a little while later, holding binoculars.

After Julie goes away, Nick asks Conchis about her twin. Conchis admits that Lily’s real name is Julie, but claims she does not have a twin. The twin is a persona Julie has manufactured as a symptom of a severe mental health issue. He goes on to narrate a convoluted story in which he came across Julie’s complicated case, and being a friend of her parents, offered her his island for a few months every year as a way of working out her delusions through elaborate playacting. Both Leverrier and Mitford participated in the game and fell in love with Julie, Mitford going as far as wanting to whisk her away from Bourani. The affair ended shambolically, which is why Mitford dislikes Conchis.

Conchis asks Nick not to fall in love with Julie. He suggests Nick stay away from Bourani the next weekend, and meet Alison instead. Nick agrees, feeling cast aside, but he decides to be patient and unravel the mystery of Julie.

After dinner, Nick reads notes on psychiatry given to him by Conchis, which discuss the treatment of schizophrenia through the use of datura, a plant with narcotic and hallucinogenic properties. Meanwhile, Conchis plies Nick with strong raki (a strong alcohol).

Soon, Conchis asks an intoxicated Nick to lie back in the lounge chair and look at the constellations in the sky. Nick realizes Conchis is hypnotizing him, just like in the notes. Nick complies with the experiment and focuses on a constellation. As he relaxes, he feels one particular star grow huge and sees himself rising to face it in the void, like an equal. The transcendent experience leaves Nick feeling connected to the vast universe. Gradually, he descends to earth and falls asleep.

When Nick wakes up on Monday morning, he feels embarrassed at allowing himself to be hypnotized the previous night. The negative feelings are countered by Nick’s joy at recalling his experience with the stars.

Torn between these feelings, Nick walks back to school. He admits to himself that his confusion is compounded because he feels hypnotized by Julie, too. Julie’s old-fashioned feminine submissiveness and mystery appeal to the virile male in Nick. Soon after, Nick departs for Athens to see Alison.

After vivid, green Phraxos, Athens seems drab to Nick as he checks into the Piraeus hotel. When he sees Alison, he feels a similar disappointment at her contemporary clothing and short hair. Nick lies to Alison that he cannot have sex with her because he’s caught syphilis, though the truth is he wants to be faithful to Julie. Alison sympathizes with Nick. As Nick listens to the story of Alison’s break-up with Pete, he finds himself enjoying the conversation, though he thinks it is probably because of the change in scene, rather than Alison’s company.

Going out for dinner, Nick tells Alison they must behave with each other like siblings as syphilis has instilled in him a fear of women. Alison jokingly calls Nick “brother” at first, but stung by his rejection, begins to cry. Nick mollifies her, but more to prevent a scene rather than out of genuine emotion.

Nick and Alison drive to Livadia, from where they can trek to the Parnassus range. They’re forced to stop at one point to let a flock of sheep led by two children pass. Alison is tender with the children, noticing the little girl has been bitten by lice, and applying cream on the sore spots. Nick feels her tenderness is a show meant to make him feel guilty about denying her marriage and motherhood. He drives away in silence when Alison gets back in the car, reaching the mountainous village of Arachnova, the base of their trek.

The trek to Parnassus takes six hours, with a muleteer accompanying Nick and Alison to the range. After the muleteer takes a different path to a cottage where he will drop their supplies, Nick and Alison help each other in the climb, the activity breaking the physical reserve between them. They clamber up Lykeri, the highest peak, studded with violets, and watch in awe the stunning landscape of valleys, peaks, and rivers at their feet. Nick thinks he would never have had the sublime experience without Alison’s willingness to make the tough climb.

On their way down, Nick and Alison end up in a volcanic crater. They manage to extricate themselves and reach the small cottage Nick had booked. Alison unpacks the supplies left by the muleteer and prepares a meal.

After dinner, Nick and Alison sit together by the stove, huddled in blankets. Alison kisses and caresses Nick. Though Nick feebly resists at first, he soon joins Alison in lovemaking. Afterward, the two fall asleep. Nick wakes up in the middle of the night and looks at Alison, sleeping next to him. The sight of her evokes such tenderness in him he decides he must tell her the truth tomorrow—that he has been staying away from her because of Julie.

On the climb down to Arachnova, Alison tells Nick about her life as an air hostess. At first the job seemed exciting, but now she finds it repetitive, sometimes wishing she could open a plane window and fall into the air. The travelling makes her feel a lack of rootedness, her only home being the people she loves.

Nick and Alison come across a pristine pool fed with snowmelt. They strip, dive in, and dry themselves in the sun, making love. Realizing he loves Alison as much as he does Julie, Nick tells Alison the real reason he initially resisted her. Nick tries to downplay his attraction to Julie, telling Alison he is more consumed by Bourani because of Conchis’s psychological experiments. However, Alison sees through the pretense and tells Nick he is selfish.

Back at the hotel, Nick quarrels with an inconsolable Alison, who accuses Nick of objectifying her. She gives Nick an ultimatum to return to her, Nick refuses, and the fight turns physical, with Nick slapping Alison. A sobbing Alison collapses on the bed. When Nick wakes up the next morning, he learns Alison is gone, leaving him an angry note reminding him that their relationship is finished.