FOWLES, JOHN

born March 31, 1926, Leigh upon Sea, Essex, Eng. in full John Robert Fowles English novelist whose allusive and descriptive works combine psychological probingschiefly of sex and lovewith an interest in social and philosophical issues. Fowles graduated from the University of Oxford in 1950 and taught in Greece, France, and Britain. His first novel, The Collector (1963; filmed 1965), about a shy man who makes use of a gambling windfall to kidnap a girl and keep her captive in a hapless search for love, was immediately successful. A Greek island is the setting of his second novel, The Magus (1965, rev. ed. 1977; filmed 1968). The French Lieutenant's Woman (1969; filmed 1981) is a love story set in Victorian England that richly documents the social mores of that time. A volume of collected novellas, The Ebony Tower, was published in 1974. His later novels include Daniel Martin (1977), Mantissa (1982), and A Maggot (1985). Fowles has also written verse, adaptations of plays, and the text for several photographic studies.