John Fowles is one of the most prominent and popular British writers, a modern classic, and the author of 'The Collector' and 'The French Lieutenant's Woman.'

'The Magus' serves as Fowles's signature novel. In this novel, on a remote Greek island, a mysterious 'magician' conducts merciless psychological experiments on people, torturing them with passion and nothingness. The book combines the realistic tradition with elements of mysticism and detective fiction. The erotic scenes are perhaps the best written about carnal love in the second half of the 20th century.