Published Reviews of John Fowles, by Robert Huffaker

With the publication of Robert Huffaker’s critical study the monographs on John Fowles now equal the number of his novels. Interestingly, all four books are by American authors published by American presses, a fact which in itself says something not only about Fowles’s greater attraction this far for Americans. Robert Huffaker’s book is the most complete, comprehensive, and detailed of any yet published . . . . The author treats all of Fowles’s work, including such minor pieces as his prefaces and introductions to reprints on translations of older and sometimes obscure novels, like Claire de Durfourt’s Ourika (1824), which Fowles much admires. Approaching Fowles’s achievement from the standpoint of his most autobiographical novel, Daniel Martin, and drawing upon a personal correspondence with the writer that dates back to 1973, Robert Huffaker argues for Fowles as essentially a naturalist. He does not overlook the contributions of earlier critics and adds to theirs several of his own, such as a discussion of Jungian thought in Fowles’s work, especially in The Magus. He does not quote extensively from Fowles’s fiction; hence, one is usually hearing about Fowles’s writing and misses the actual voice of the author, except for excerpts from the private correspondence, which are often revealing, or brief quotations from published essays and interviews.
Following the format established by the Twayne series, Robert Huffaker divides each chapter into subsections, such as “The Novel’s Genesis,” “The Plot,” “The Novel’s Historical Character,” and so forth. While this method, much like a textbook’s, is designed to help students, it often breaks up the development of Mr. Huffaker’s argument and becomes positively excessive in his extended treatment of The Magus (eighteen subsections!). The arrangement of the chapters is also unusual. Mr. Huffaker begins with “John Fowles, Daniel Martin, and Naturalism,” which states one of his major themes and treats the last novel first. Since Mr. Huffaker discusses his subject’s life and thought in this opening chapter, taking the last novel first may be justified. Similarly, The Magus, which was begun well before The Collector although published afterwards (still too soon for Fowles, it appears), becomes the focus for the second chapter. Chapters on The Collector and The French Lieutenant’s Woman then follow, and the book concludes with a chapter on the shorter fiction in The Ebony Tower and a final brief coda to the whole, “Lasting Fiction,” which consists mainly of a summary paragraph on each of the five volumes discussed. Throughout the various chapters Mr. Huffaker refers to the poetry and other pieces Fowles has published wherever they are relevant. His book also contains a bibliography of Fowles’s work and an annotated list of studies on Fowles.
Not the easiest format to follow, but it is not without logic and may be less difficult than I have made it sound. More to the point, Mr. Huffaker’s analyses are usually cogent, probing, and enlightening. His treatment of the multiple endings of The French Lieutenant’s Woman is sound, and he leaves no question that the final ending is the true one. He is excellent on Fowles’s strategies as a novelist and recognizes the different intentions that lie behind each of the novels. Mr. Huffaker has obviously lived long with this work, which his preface suggests is a labor of love, but he does not tend either to overpraise Fowles’s accomplishments or to minimize his faults. Complementing the work of his predecessors in significant ways, his book is a useful addition to the growing body of criticism on Fowles.

The Yearbook of English Studies

Robert Huffaker’s introduction to John Fowles is a more sophisticated TEAS volume than many. Huffaker succinctly analyses the fiction, relating each work to a number of pervasive themes—the importance of nature, the need for “freedom of will and of expression,” “the lure of mystery and sexual longing,” and “conflicts that arise when man’s idealism obscures his reality.” But Huffaker also introduces other problems and concerns arising from Fowles’s narrative: his use of the anti-hero figure, his manipulation of mythic quest archetypes, the influence of such diverse writers as Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf. In a neat summary chapter, Huffaker lauds Fowles’s faith in “human feeling and will” which can occasionally triumph “over deterministic forces.” Undergraduates will also welcome the annotated selected bibliography.

Year’s Work in English Studies

This is a book which has been anticipated for several years and for which there is a need. While there have been increasing numbers of articles on Fowles, there are to date only three books of criticism published, each of which has its limitations. William Palmer’s The Fiction of John Fowles is narrow in focus, being overly concerned with tracing and establishing the roots of Fowles’s fiction in the works of previous writers and in demonstrating the ways in which the novels are statements of art imitating life. Published in 1974, it covers only the first three novels. Peter Wolfe’s John Fowles: Magus and Moralist, published in 1976, also covers only the first three novels. Revised in 1979 to include Daniel Martin, Wolfe’s book still excludes discussion of The Ebony Tower. Barry Olshen’s John Fowles (l978) is a general introduction which includes discussions of all five fictional works, but Olshen’s profuse praise of Fowles hints at a certain myopia. It is thus refreshing to read Huffaker’s book, which examines the Fowlesian corpus from many different angles, giving the reader much to ponder.
Huffaker knows his subject well, having written a dissertation on Fowles in 1974. The present study is not a rehash of the dissertation. In fact, it seems to take up where the dissertation leaves off, using the earlier material as a starting place for the greater exploration of Fowles’s writing. In this work, Huffaker weaves discussions of historical perspective, biological evolution, fictional modes, Jungian motifs, naturalism, existentialism, and more into his analysis of the fiction. . . .
Chapter 2 provides a thorough discussion of The Magus. Elaborating upon the way in which Fowles combines the quest theme with Jung’s analytical psychology to move Nicholas toward a state of understanding that makes him one of the “Elect,” Huffaker clarifies much that has been touched on by other critics. The chapter following, on The Collector, concentrates heavily on the broad social implications of the novel and the clash between the economically deprived and the economically comfortable . . . .
The best chapter in the book is on The French Lieutenant’s Woman. Here Huffaker explains the narrative technique of authorial intrusion, the multiple endings, the aspects of biological and social evolution, and much more. Not fearing to discuss difficult scenes which others have glossed over or ignored, Huffaker is particularly strong in his analysis of the pivotal scene in the church in which Charles confronts Christ, recognizing the humanity of both Christ and Sarah.
In the chapter on The Ebony Tower, Huffaker continues to elaborate on the interwoven threads Fowles weaves, particularly those of the medieval romance, the quest, and abstraction versus reality. While he touches only briefly on the relationship between the title novella and the medieval romance Eliduc, which Fowles translates and includes in the volume, Huffaker does provide good, if somewhat brief, discussions of the three remaining stories, particularly the troublesome last one, “The Cloud.”
The concluding chapter, which recapitulates the previous discussions of the fiction, seems redundant, but the opening section of the chapter accurately assesses Fowles’s strength as a novelist in his describing timeless themes with topical application. The bibliography, partly annotated, is thorough and complete. The book is slim but not superficial. The focus is broad, the discussion wide-ranging, and the writing clear enough to be understood by the beginning student, yet sophisticated in ideas and presentation, so as to prove rewarding to the Fowles scholar.

South Atlantic Review

Robert Huffaker offers valuable discussion of Fowles’s time in France and Greece and of the influence these experiences had upon his life and work.

Multicultural Writers Since 1945