Selected Poems - Couverture souple

John Fowles (1926 - 2005) is widely regarded as one of the most innovative and important English writers of the second half of the twentieth century. Born in Leigh-on-Sea, he later studied French at Oxford. He taught first at Poitiers University in France, then on the Greek island of Spetsia for two years, before returning to London. His first published novel, The Collector (1963), was a major critical success and achieved bestseller status. In 1965 his magnum opus, The Magus, was published, followed in 1969 by The French Lieutenant's Woman, another bestseller. The 1981 film version, with a screenplay by Harold Pinter, directed by Karel Reisz and starring Meryl Streep, was a triumphant success. He published several other fiction and non-fiction books, but his only other book of poetry, simply called Poems, came out in the USA (but not in the UK) in 1973.

This selection of Fowles s poetic work includes two major sequences dating from the early part of his career in the 1950s and 60s, both of which ( Apollo and Mycenae ) draw on his time living in Greece and his interest in Greek mythology. The other poems included, largely unpublished previously and roughly in chronological order, are very varied in content, form and technique, and culminate in a sequence written in hospital towards the end of his life. Together, these poems constitute a powerful body of work reflecting on love, nature, suffering and desire. Fowles was always interested in verse translation and adaptation, and the book concludes with a fascinating sample of this side of his literary achievement. This section includes his translations of Martial, Catullus, Li Po and the eighth-century Man yoshu, Japan s oldest poetry compilation.