WRITER

John Fowles

1926 - 2005

Photo of John Fowles

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John Robert Fowles (; 31 March 1926 – 5 November 2005) was an English novelist, critically positioned between modernism and postmodernism. His work was influenced by Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, among others. After leaving Oxford University, Fowles taught English at a school on the Greek island of Spetses, a sojourn that inspired The Magus (1965), an instant best-seller that was directly in tune with 1960s "hippy" anarchism and experimental philosophy. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of John Fowles has received more than 881,879 page views. His biography is available in 46 different languages on Wikipedia. John Fowles is the 994th most popular writer (down from 941st in 2019), the 762nd most popular biography from United Kingdom (down from 759th in 2019) and the 90th most popular British Writer.

John Fowles is most famous for his novel The French Lieutenant's Woman.

Memorability Metrics

  • 880k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 61.75

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 46

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 6.03

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.65

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

The aristos
1964
A maggot
1985
The French Lieutenant's Woman
1969
Daniel Martin
1977
The Collector
1900
The Magus
Authors, French
1965
The French lieutenant's woman
Fiction, Triangles (Interpersonal relations), Man-woman relationships
By the author of *The Collector* and *The Magus*, a haunting love story of the Victorian era. Over one year on the N.Y. Times Bestseller List and an international bestseller. "Filled with enchanting mysteries, charged with erotic possibilities . . —Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, N.Y. Times
1969
The Collector
English Horror tales, Butterflies, Collection and preservation
Fowles’ stunning debut is a study of a lonely young sociopath who kidnaps the woman he has fixated on, keeping her in his cellar in the belief that she will eventually come to love him. The story is narrated in turns by the young man and his captive, giving two opposing points of view.
1900
The Magus
British, English Psychological fiction, Fiction
A startlingly original novel about a young English graduate who takes a position as a teacher at a private school on a small Greek island. Bored and lonely he spends his free hours wandering alone until he meets a wealthy and mysterious neighbour. Soon he finds himself a victim of this man’s increasingly bizarre psychological games and obsessed with a young woman who may or may not be a willing participant in these games.
1965
The Ebony Tower
British and irish fiction (fictional works by one author), Fiction, short stories (single author), English Short stories
The five masterful works of short fiction in The Ebony Tower bring us once again into the company of a great contemporary novelist working his intriguing and dazzling themes, probing the fitful relationships of fantasy and reality, love and hate, pleasure and pain. And they are an enduring testament to John Fowles's reputation as one of the finest storytellers of our time.
1974
The aristos
Civilization, Life, Philosophy
This book was first published against the advice of almost everyone who read it. I was told that it would do my ‘image’ no good; and I am sure that my belief that a favourable ‘image’ is conceivably not of any great human – or literary – significance would have counted for very little if I had not had a best-selling novel behind me. I used that ‘success’ to issue this ‘failure’, and so I face a charge of unscrupulous obstinacy. To the obstinacy I must plead guilty, but not to lack of scruple; for I was acting only in accordance with what I had written. My chief concern, in The Aristos is to preserve the freedom of the individual against all those pressures-to-conform that threaten our century; one of those pressures, put upon all of us, but particularly on anyone who comes into public notice, is that of labelling a person by what he gets money and fame for – by what other people most want to use him as. To call a man a plumber is to describe one aspect of him, but it is also to obscure a number of others. I am a writer; I want no more specific prison than that I express myself in printed words. So a prime personal reason for this book was to announce that I did not intend to walk into the cage labelled ‘novelist’. Aristos is taken from the ancient Greek. It is singular and means roughly ‘the best for a given situation’. [From the Author's Preface to the second edition of 1968, as reproduced in the New American Library edition of 1970]
1964
A maggot
Travelers, Fiction, Murder
1985

Among WRITERS

Among writers, John Fowles ranks 994 out of 7,302. Before him are Christoph Martin Wieland, Aron Nimzowitsch, Assia Djebar, Pierre-Jean de Béranger, Waris Dirie, and Corinna. After him are Samuel Richardson, William Styron, Mimnermus, Henry Fielding, Jean Webster, and Nicolas Chamfort.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1926, John Fowles ranks 68. Before him are Sergio Corbucci, Hilary Putnam, Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, Margot Frank, Abdoulaye Wade, and Richard Matheson. After him are Steve Reeves, Noah Gordon, César Pelli, Konstantinos Stephanopoulos, Gyula Grosics, and Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart, 18th Duchess of Alba. Among people deceased in 2005, John Fowles ranks 40. Before him are Max Schmeling, Ahmed Deedat, Maria Schell, Mary Jackson, Brother Roger, and Birgit Nilsson. After him are George Dantzig, Philip Johnson, Rosemary Kennedy, Ephraim Kishon, Wim Duisenberg, and Emmanuelle Arsan.

Others Born in 1926

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Others Deceased in 2005

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In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, John Fowles ranks 762 out of 8,785. Before him are H. Rider Haggard (1856), James Hadley Chase (1906), James Lovelock (1919), Amy Winehouse (1983), Bernard Hill (1944), and Margaret of York (1446). After him are Samuel Richardson (1689), Henry Fielding (1707), William Adelin (1103), Charles Scott Sherrington (1952), John E. Walker (1941), and Judith of Flanders (844).

Others born in United Kingdom

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Among WRITERS In United Kingdom

Among writers born in United Kingdom, John Fowles ranks 90. Before him are James May (1963), Ann Radcliffe (1764), Patrick White (1912), Percy Fawcett (1867), H. Rider Haggard (1856), and James Hadley Chase (1906). After him are Samuel Richardson (1689), Henry Fielding (1707), Thomas De Quincey (1785), P. D. James (1920), Thomas Malory (1405), and Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (1757).

British born Writers

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