John Fowles was one of the most significant of English novelists in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1999, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Fowles's writing spans a number of genres: he wrote historical fiction, a detective story, a thriller, science fiction, mystery and romance. He was always prepared to recycle devices and structures from popular fiction, but his work remains distinguished by its attention to ideas: in particular, existentialism, the conflict between the sexes, the relationship of man to nature, and the role of the artist. Fowles is hailed by some critics as an exemplary postmodernist, but this is somewhat at odds with the view of creativity he expresses in his essays. Fowles believed that literary composition was a mysterious personal voyage; he was…
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Citation: Stephenson, William. "John Fowles". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 October 2002; last revised 01 January 2006. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1603, accessed 24 November 2024.]
