intertext

Please read curtana's beautiful post, though it may make you cry, as it did me.

I loved Madeleine L'Engle's work. Strangely, the novels of hers I loved best were not the fantasy series, beginning with A Wrinkle in Time, though that was the first of her books I read and of course the most famous. I thought her best books were the ones in a series of vaguely mystery suspense stories, starting with The Young Unicorns, and continuing through The Arm of the Starfish and Dragons in the Waters. Who can forget Canon Tallis, a marvellous character?

And A Ring of Endless Light is probably her best book of all. It's a lovely novel, less well known than it should be.

Her work was always thoughtful and filled with light. Her death is a sadness, but we have a great legacy in her books.

I can't believe that it took Entertainment Weekly *blush* to inform me of the death of John Fowles at 79 on November 5th. Did I miss something? Or has he just slipped below everyone's radars these days? The Magus was the first really difficult work that I really got on a level beyond just the plot when I read it at about the age of 17, and Fowles' work in a peculiar way underlined my young adulthood. I read all the "biggies" - The French Lieutenant's Woman, The Collector, Daniel Martin, when I was in my twenties; A Maggot was a bit later, I think. He hasn't really written anything for years, but I still think of him as an Important Writer, and I adore The French Lieutenant's Woman. Can anyone visit Lyme Regis now without seeing her ghost at the end of the breakwater (even if with Meryl Streep's face)? Thank you, Mr. Fowles, for many hours of thoughtful and challenging reading.