The Ebony Tower

by Джон Фаулз and John Fowles

Book Overview

The Ebony Tower, comprising a novella, three stories, and a translation of a medieval French tale, echoes themes from John Fowles's internationally celebrated novels as it probes the fitful relations between love and hate, pleasure and pain, fantasy and reality.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316287458
• ISBN13: 9780316287456
• Release Date: June 1999
• Publisher: Back Bay Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.8" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

Multilayered Word Pictures From a Master

If you're looking for the easy bedtime read John Fowles short fiction collection may not be what you are searching for. If you're looking for thought provoking contemporary fiction by a master this is for you. No one ever said a Fowles book would be easy and The Ebony Tower is no exception. The premise is five interlocking short stories all in a way centered around a medieval myth (which the author provides in brillent translation). Each story attempts not only to address its immediate subject but entire concepts and reflections on life and art as well. The stories force one to look at more than the daily lives of the characters but to see deeper(a sort of removing of the various layers that make up individual events of these peoples lives). While the individual plots may seem somewhat foriegn to first time readers if you stick it out to the end you'll come away with a new outlook on the world, art, history and the conflicts between the generations.Add in Mr. Fowles lush word pictures and you can't go wrong.

Varied, textured, resonant short works by a favorite author

I do like Fowles's novels, but I agree with the Amsterdam reader, this is a chance to get a distilled version of his charm: all the pleasure of his intelligent plotting and dialogue, without the excesses a novel will allow. I love the way the various stories resonate with each other in obvious and subtle ways--in that, it reminded me of Julian Barnes's _The History of the World in 10 and a 1/2 Chapters_ (another short story collection I loved).

intelligent and compelling

In Fowles' short stories I tend to find none of the excesses and all of the good things that I enjoy about his novels. Definitely worth reading, particularly if you have an interest in painting.

Read this if you want to learn more about being alive.

Its kind of self-damning to review this book, given the authors view of those who do such things, but nonetheless there is so much insight to be gained about being alive, human communication, and the "systems" we are only vaguely aware of being trapped in, that I felt there should be some sort of attestation here for those who have not read it.