Mantissa

by John Fowles

Book Overview

In Mantissa (1982), a novelist awakes in the hospital with amnesia -- and comes to believe that a beautiful female doctor is, in fact, his muse.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316290270
• ISBN13: 9780316290272
• Release Date: August 1997
• Publisher: Back Bay Books
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Amusing, So To Speak

Mantissa is a short, light romp through the writer's mind. There's no heavy subtext to mull over. There's no ponderous character development to follow. There's just Miles Green in his hospital room, which becomes other things, and Erato, the woman who is his muse. A few other characters lurk in orbit around the room, but the whole story takes place literally in the brain of Miles. Most of the book is dialogue between Miles and Erato as he alternately romances and berates his muse, the essence of his creativity, and is repaid in kind. It's an animated metaphor for the process of writing, and many times the characters seem to know they are merely characters in a book. It begins in a hospital where Miles has just recovered, having lost his memory through some accident, but that scenario quickly ends as Erato takes on numerous personalities and attitudes in her interaction with Miles. This is probably best for those familiar with John Fowles's other works. Mantissa is clever, it's funny, it's self-aware, and it's not going to shake the literary world. It's just a quick afternoon read that gives you a peek into the mind of a writer.

Fans of Fowles's serious work be warned,

With Mantissa you will not be embarking on any high-minded journeys along difficult paths to higher truths as you would with The Magus, The Collector, and A Maggot. Keeping that in mind, there is much to enjoy in Mantissa, which sketches several dialogues between Miles Green, an author and Erato, his muse, all of which take place in Green's fertile and erotically charged imagination. As always with Fowles, and especially here, leave any puritanical notions you might have about sex and Freudian analysis at the door. That said, this short piece works on a number of levels and provides humor and insight into struggles intrinsic to the creative process, the clash of the sexes, and what Fowles seems to regard as the strong sado-masochistic tendencies inherent in all relations between men and women. The satire of modern academics and neoclassicists is very funny if you can struggle through the lingo.

John Fowles KICKED by Muse!

John Fowles minus his usual novelistic costuming relaxes, writes brilliantly, reveals craft secrets, pokes gentle, if firm, fun at both himself & the business of literature, adores/insults his muse & is properly inspired/kicked for his trouble. MANTISSA is sweetly funny, roughly true, a deft tale of the endless left/right (or male/female or rational/intuitive) mind combat which is the natural environment of creation, the brainswamp from which much of our best writing emerges. Complete with a terribly nice pun on the names of a writer & a shrink, adequate eros (every bit of it strictly imaginary), & some charming intermusine backbiting, in the end. Astounding! Hilarious! The Nubile Prize for Metafiction!

Delightful mental jousting with a beautiful muse.

Fun from beginning to end, John Fowles explores the never-smooth relationship between the author and his muse. Miles Green verbally and physically jousts for 200+ pages with his muse, Erato, as well as Dr. A. Delfie and the voluptuous Nurse Cory. If this doesn't excite you, I don't know what will. Extra fillips of pleasure for those who detest various sorts of modern criticism. It's a wonder John Fowles' Twaynes English Author Series Volume hasn't been recalled. He does not spare the rod. A warm, funny, smart book.