In terms of plot (though not of metaphysics or of morals) the biggest question is: Will Nicholas and Allison get back together? When they meet, at the end of the book, that is the issue before them. Well, as much as one hates to disagree with the New York Times, I did not find the ending all that ambiguous. ( Caution: Spoilers ahead.) The Times review says:Īnd in "The Magus," the story of a young Englishman who gets caught up in the frightening dramatic fantasies of a strangely powerful man on an Aegean island, he again wrote an ending of self-conscious ambiguity, leaving the hero's future an open puzzle that readers are challenged to solve for themselves.
I find it interesting that many people find the ending of the book frustratingly obscure or deliberately ambivalent. (Another odd feature is the rare link from a major news outlet to "Ralph" via Fowles's passing.) The Magus is the only book of Fowles's that I have read, and my hat is off to him for writing a book of great interest, great influence, and sustained moral seriousness - although his ultimate viewpoint on life is not one that I share. The New York Times obituary can be found here. In an odd coincidence, on Saturday, the day I finished reading The Magus, its author John Fowles died.
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