Maugham once said "The artist's egoism is outrageous; it must be;
he is by nature a solipsist and the world exists only for him to
exercise upon it his powers of creation." This is concretely the
intent and exemplification thereof in the title story of Fowles'
collection of five longer short ones - two of which will pick up
this theme where the artist must cold-shoulder the world and human
values to swaddle his creativity. Thus he introduces also
outrageous, also impossibly egoistic Breasley, who has found a
sanctuary for his solipsism in a lovely house in Brittany where he
is attended and serviced by two young women when David Williams, a
writer-lecturer in the field having given up his own work, comes to
interview him. There David realizes for the first time that his own
"Ebony Tower" is a void where "safety hid nothingness" except the
abandonment of himself and his potential. In "Poor Koko" we have
another reclusive - a writer of 66 who has always shirked real life
for his work - now to be destroyed by the impromptu visit of a
young hood. And again in "The Enigma" the disappearance of a
conservative MP, hemmed in by correct appearances and rightist
assumptions, vanishes if only to impose a lingering question mark
on the mediocrity of his achievements. The last story is a sad
fairy tale come true, told to a child, experienced by a young woman
- and there's a charming lais of the 12th century Marie de France
in "Eliduc." To the stories Fowles lends his eclectic erudition,
the attractive overlay of sensuous surfaces, and a little
commentary for and of our time. And as always he proceeds with
splendid ease and confidence to catch the eye at a pleasurably
decorative level and then turn it inward. (Kirkus Reviews)
THE EBONY TOWER is a series of novellas, rich in imagery, exploring the nature of art.
The story of the title - which the OBSERVER described as 'the finest thing Fowles has written' - concerns a journalist visiting a celebrated but reclusive painter. He is intrigued by the complicated erotic relationship between the elderly painter and the beautiful young women who share their lives with him.
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