Description
John Fowles's previous novels, The Collector, The Magus, and The French Lieutenant's Woman, have proved him a perceptive, seductive storyteller. Continuing in this tradition, Daniel Martin is an intricate portrait of the relationship among four people, painted with a masterful combination of compassion- ate characterization, innovative style, and stimulating ideas. Yet the overall thrust of this novel differs in some fundamental ways from Fowles's earlier stories. Set internationally and spanning three decades, Daniel Martin is, in the author's own words, "in- tended as a defence and illustration of an unfashionable philosophy, humanism," a sensitive portrayal of a middle-aged man's attempt to free himself from the dictates of his past and gain control over his future, and a compelling love story.
Daniel Martin, from whose point of view the story unfolds, is a successful English playwright and Hollywood scenario doctor. He returns to England at the request of his friend, Anthony Mallory, who is dying of cancer. While there, Martin is also reunited with his ex-wife and her sister. Although the four were inseparable while attending Ox- ford, Martin has become alienated from the others since his divorce. In the memory- laden atmosphere of his homeland, he is forced to confront the changes in himself and in his friends, and, in a series of richly textured flashbacks that encompass his sexual initiation and the intense emotions of his university days, Martin tries to comprehend and rectify his past mistakes. In conversations with his friends or in his own reflections, Martin evokes a variety of ideas illuminating excursions into religion, history, natural history, psychology, politics, and the carts which give rise to unexpected questions and startling answers. The result is that Martin creates a more satisfying existence for himself, and rediscovers a love that had been dormant for years.
ISBN:0316289590
