Reading Club: The Magus by John Fowles - Εικόνα

The SNFCC Reading Club, coordinated by the author Panos Tsiros, continues in August.

On Monday, August 31st, bibliophiles renew their monthly appointment at the Mediterranean Garden of the Stavros Niarchos Park, from 19:30 to 21:30, to discuss the book they read during the month that just passed. The group of readers will once again have the opportunity to come together and use the book of the month as a starting point to share experiences, emotions and ideas, as well as to create new friendships and exchange opinions.

August book of the month: The Magus by John Fowles

 

John Fowles (1926–2005), a basic representative of modern/postmodern literature, with influences by Sartre and Camus, is considered, according to The Times, as one of the most important British authors of the second half of the 20th century, while The Magus achieved record sales when it was first published in 1963, and established Fowles firmly on the global literary scene. It is included, in fact, on the list of “100 best novels of contemporary literature” (1999, Modern Library 100 Best Novels). His books The Collector, The Ebony Tower, A Maggot, The Greek Experience, and The French Lieutenant’s Woman, among others, have been translated into several languages, and a number of them have been adapted for film and television. It was recently announced that English director Sam Mendes will be filming the television adaptation of The Magus in Spetses.

The Magus, a novel of intense symbolism, vivid descriptions and an enigmatic atmosphere, remains the Greek reading public’s favorite among the books of the famous English author. And not at random, as this emblematic novel is directly related to Greece: it was written in Spetses, in the early 1950s, where a young Fowles worked as an English teacher at the Anargyreos & Korgialenios School. The plot develops on a remote Greek island, Phraxos, where the protagonist, Nicholas Urfe, teaches English. The British teacher meets the wealthy and cosmopolitan Maurice Conchis, who draws him into a challenging psychological game. Urfe comes face to face with painful existential dilemmas and is forced to seek new ways to process reality, love, adulthood, and life itself.

Fowles notes on the value of the novel as a literary genre: “Another reason I think the novel will survive is that the reader has to work in a novel. In a film, you are presented with someone else’s imagination exactly bodied out. The marvelous thing about a novel is that every reader will imagine even the very simplest sentence slightly differently”.

Panos Tsiros was born in Athens in 1970. He studied at the School of Philosophy of the University of Ioannina, and went on to pursue postgraduate studies in Philosophy in England, completing his thesis on Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico–Philosophicus. He has worked in secondary education for several years. His first collection of short stories, Ferte mou to kefali tis Marias Kensora (Bring me the head of Maria Kensora), was published in 2007 by Gavriilidis Publications, followed, in 2013, by another short story collection, entitled Den ein’ etsi? (Isn’t it so?), published by Mikri Arktos. His third collection, I monaksia ton skilon (The loneliness of dogs) was released by Nefeli Publishing in 2019. He has collaborated with several magazines, and a number of his short stories have been translated into French.

 

Monday 31/08 | 19.30-21.30
MEDITERRANEAN GARDEN

For adults
Up to 30 participants
Free admission by online pre-registration (the Reading Club takes place in Greek)

Pre-registration starts on Friday 07/08 at 12.00.

Coordinator: Panos Tsiros, author

To take part in the Reading Club, registered participants are required to have read the book of the month.

 

September book of the month: The secret history by Donna Tartt

 

Participant safety information:

  • Participants are advised to wear a non-medical face mask, use hand sanitizer, and maintain safety distances in accordance with guidelines and signage.
  • Single-use Personal Safety Equipment (gloves, masks, etc.) must be discarded immediately after use in the yellow bins provided.
  • The shared use of objects (pencils, pens, papers, books, etc.) should be avoided.
  • Participants are also advised to bring mosquito-repellent.

See also

Sunday 02/08, 20:30

Shadow Theater: Karagiozis at the SNFCC

More

Monday 03/08, 12:00

#snfccAtHome: A Walk in the Park… from the SNFCC website

More