A Maggot

A Maggot

Summary

An extraordinary work of fiction, from one of the world's most exceptional writers.

The year is 1736 and five travellers are journeying across Exmoor on horseback, their purpose unknown. One evening they stop at a village inn for some rest and, soon after, hear that a man has been hanged nearby and that another is missing. What follows is a maze of beguiling paths and wrong turnings, rituals and revelations, unaccountable motives and cryptic deeds, as the mystery swerves towards a startling vision at its centre.

'This altogether admirable novel serves, as all literature should, the forces of subversion' Anthony Burgess, Observer

'The reader is carried headlong into a maze of violent death, bizarre sex, disguise and terror' Sunday Times

Reviews

  • A remarkable and brilliant work of fiction...the imaginative power of the novel is astounding, the technical virtuosity and structural daring equally so
    The Times

About the author

John Fowles

John Fowles was born in 1926. He won international recognition with The Collector, his first published title, in 1963. He was immediately acclaimed as an outstandingly innovative writer of exceptional imaginative power, and this reputation was confirmed with the appearance of his subsequent works: The Aristos, The Magus, The French Lieutenant's Woman, The Ebony Tower, Daniel Martin, Mantissa, and A Maggot. John Fowles died in Lyme Regis in 2005. Two volumes of his Journals have recently been published; the first in 2003, the second in 2006.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more