Mantissa

First edition. 8vo. 192pp. Grey cloth boards, lettered in gilt to spine. Wove paper jacket design by Mon Mohan, reproducing Picasso's Sculptor and Kneeling Model with Overturned Sculpture Head. Author's sixth novel. A short extract was first published in the magazine Antaeus, (1981).

Miles Green is prescribed an unorthodox regimen when he wakes up amnesiac in a mysterious hospital. An imaginary dialogue between the deeply serious novelist and Erato, his uncooperative, pagan muse, ensues.

Originally intended to be published privately in an edition of no more than 100 copies, contractual obligations forced Fowles's hand and its mainstream publication solicited mostly negative reviews. The shortest of his novels by far, the plot explores the creative process, the sometimes clashing demands of author, characters and reader, and the battle of the sexes. "A dark comedy of muses, art and perception: erotic, clever, funny". –Chicago Tribune