John Fowles

John Robert Fowles was an English novelist, essayist, and poet. He was one of the outstanding representatives of postmodernism in literature. He was the author of 7 novels, 5 novellas, a book of poems, biographical prose, essays, short novellas, stories and articles, and also published his journals. His major works gained worldwide recognition, were translated into many languages, and were adapted for film.

John Fowles was born into the family of a prosperous cigar merchant. He graduated from a prestigious school in Bedford, where he proved himself an athlete and a capable student. He then underwent training for naval service at the University of Edinburgh; after completing the course on 8 May 1945, he was sent for 2 years to the Okehampton camp near Devon. Having отказed a military career, he entered New College, Oxford University. He specialized in French and German and received a bachelor's degree upon graduation in 1950. At Oxford, after reading the existentialists Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, he first began to think about life as a writer.

At the beginning of his teaching career, Fowles taught at the University of Poitiers, France. In 1951, he accepted an offer to become an English teacher at the Anargyrios and Korgialenios School on the island of Spetses (Peloponnese, Greece). There he met his future wife, Elizabeth Christie. He wrote poetry. He grew close to his fellow expatriate teachers, but in 1953 he and other teachers at the school were dismissed for attempting reforms. After returning to England, he taught English as a foreign language for 10 years at St. Godric's College in Hampstead, London, a school for girls. In April 1957, he married E. Christie, with whom he lived for 35 years. She had a tremendous influence on the author's personality and became the prototype of the main heroines of his novels.

In 1963, Fowles published the novel The Collector, whose success allowed him to leave teaching and devote himself entirely to literature. It was followed by the large-scale and daring novels The Magus and The French Lieutenant's Woman. In 1968, he settled in the small