The young Englishman Nicholas Urfe accepts a teaching position on the Greek island of Spetses where his friendship with the owner of the islands most magnificent estate leads him into a nightmare. As reality and fantasy are deliberately confused by staged deaths, sensual encounters, and terrifying violence, Urfe becomes a desperate man fighting for his sanity and his life.

"The Magus" reflects the zeitgeist of the 1960s and addresses the philosophy of existentialism, psychoanalysis and philosophical mysticism. John Fowles work is based on autobiographical experiences and the novel is considered his main work. It is one of the most important English novels of the 20th century and made a significant contribution to the fact that Fowles was proposed for the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1999.