The Magus

The Magus (1965) by John Fowles is a metafictional psychological thriller that blends a twisty, mysterious plot with existentialist philosophy and Postmodernist narrative play. Set on a beautiful, remote Greek island, the novel follows Nicholas Urfe, a disaffected British schoolteacher who becomes entangled in a surreal psychosexual game orchestrated by the enigmatic Conchis. Nick’s descent into Conchis’s world leaves him grappling with The Quest for an Authentic Self Amid Illusions, Narrative Instability as Metaphor for Reality, and The True Meaning and Price of Freedom. Peppered with mysterious godmen, figures straight out of mythology, and a looping, self-referential reality, The Magus is considered one of the most popular novels in Fowles’s prolific oeuvre.

The guide uses the Vintage Classics Kindle edition of the revised version of the novel, first published in 1977.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide contain depictions of sexual content, graphic violence, gender discrimination, emotional abuse, physical abuse, child abuse, substance misuse, mental illness, suicidal ideation, death by suicide, ableism, racism, death, rape, pregnancy termination, and antigay bias.

Plot Summary

Twenty-five-year-old Nicholas “Nick” Urfe is at a crossroads. Bored with his schoolmaster’s life in England, the bright young man looks for a transformative adventure. He learns of a job opening at the Lord Byron school in the remote, exquisite island of Phraxos in Greece. As Nick applies for the job, he meets Alison Kelly, a young Australian woman training to be an air hostess. Nick falls in love with the beautiful, emotional, and honest Alison, and the two begin a romance. However, the relationship ends when Nick leaves for Greece, secretly happy to escape from Alison before things get too serious. Nick has little idea that there is more to Phraxos than meets the eye.

On Phraxos, Nick receives an invite for a weekend stay in a beautiful part of the island called Bourani, from a mysterious man called Maurice Conchis, rumored to have collaborated with the Germans during World War II. Intrigued, Nick accepts. The stay at Conchis’s draws Nick into a maddening, alluring game where portions of the life-story Conchis tells Nick are enacted by actors, such as when Nick spots a young woman who looks exactly like the portrait of Conchis’s dead fiancée, Lily. Part of the intrigue of Conchis’s game is that the actors are not allowed to disclose the play’s purpose to Nick.

Thrilled to be part of something grand, Nick plays along, forgetting Alison for the time being. He also develops a fierce infatuation for the beautiful, coy Lily. As Nick continues to visit Conchis on weekends, Conchis tells him that he was never a German collaborator. He was vilified because he defied the German command to kill a Greek resistance fighter, which led the sadistic officers to murder 80 villagers. Conchis narrates other stories to Nick, each containing a lesson on human existence. However, it is unclear whether Conchis’s stories are truth or lies, leaving Nick confused.

Nick’s bewilderment is compounded when he spots a woman who looks like Lily’s double. Lily finally reveals the woman is her twin; both young women are actors hired by Conchis for an elaborate production. Meanwhile, Conchis claims Lily does not have an actual double, saying she has constructed an alter ego because of a mental health issue. As Nick grows close to Lily, who tells him her real name is Julie, he becomes increasingly frustrated by Conchis’s games. A break from illusion arrives in the form of a telegram from Alison, due to visit Athens for a stopover. Although Nick is reluctant to leave Julie, he goes to see Alison.

Alison and Nick take a trip to the Parnassus mountains, where they share a tender, transformative experience. Nevertheless, Nick holds off telling Alison about Julie till the very end of the Athens trip. Stung by what she considers Nick’s betrayal; Alison breaks off things with Nick. Nick is plunged into guilt and despair, but soon resumes his visits to Bourani, forgetting his troubles with Alison. The line between fiction and reality grows even more blurry as Nick meets Julie and her twin, June, together, proving Conchis’s story about Julie’s “condition” was a lie. Nick and Julie grow intimate, despite Conchis’s warning that Nick stay away from Julie. Upset that Nick did not follow the script, Conchis dismisses him from his home.

A few days later, Nick receives the shocking news of Alison’s death by suicide, possibly because of heartbreak. Consumed by sorrow, Nick rushes to Bourani to seek solace in Julie. Meeting Julie makes Nick feel stable, but the sense of stability is upended when he is seized on the beach by actors pretending to be the German soldiers who had forced Conchis to make an impossible choice. The soldiers make Nick watch as they “torture” Greek resistance fighters, and leave Nick tied up on the beach.

Nick manages to break free from the bonds and decides he is done with Conchis for good. However, he returns to the older man’s home when called over for a final time. In the extremely bizarre sequence of events that follows, Nick has sex with Julie, Julie reveals that she was lying about being in love with Nick, and Nick is kidnapped, drugged, and taken to Conchis’s yacht for his “trial.”

It is revealed that Nick has been the subject of an intense psychological experiment all along: Julie, Conchis, and the other “actors” are psychologists who place their subjects under duress to reveal their true personality. Nick’s final test is the choice to punish Julie. Nick decides to spare Julie, much as Conchis spared the Greek resistance fighter. Conchis declares Nick is an “elect,” someone who has learnt to act from true free will. The trial ends and Nick heads back to England.

On his way to England, Nick catches a glimpse of Alison. It becomes clear that Conchis roped Alison into his game at some point, instructing her to fake her death to test Nick. Back in London, an enraged Nick searches for clues about Conchis, Julie, and Alison, desperate to make sense of events. The quest leads him to Lily de Seitas, the woman who is Conchis’s associate and the mother of Julie and June. Lily reveals Conchis is not a psychologist, but someone who plays the “godgame” with a new subject every year, testing their limits. Lily advises Nick to be patient with Alison, who will seek Nick out when she feels ready.

Realizing he wronged Alison, Nick abandons his anger against her, and spends his days waiting to hear from her. In the final chapter of the novel, Alison meets Nick at last. The two argue, unsure about how to proceed. Alison thinks Nick cannot change, but Nick promises to be always honest with her from then on. The novel ends on this open note, though it is suggested that Nick and Alison will reconcile.