Wormholes: Essays and Occasional Writings

John Fowles's place in English literary canon has been assured for several decades. His non-fiction writings are less well known, however, in part because they have appeared in periodicals or academic journals, or as forewords or introductions to the authors work. Here, for the first time, is a representative gathering of Fowles's fugitive and intensely personal writings. Wormholes covers the period from 1963 and the appearance of Fowles's first novel, The Collector, to the present. It represents the writer's developing views on the art of fiction, and the relationship of literature to life and morality, throughout the mature, fertile period of his career. Wormholes is a delicious sampling of the various matters that have plagued, preoccupied, or delighted Fowles throughout his life. Not only is it a rich mine of essays as art, it is also a `geography' of the mind of one of the twentieth century's greatest novelists.