Mantissa

Condition remarks:
Condition: Very Good. Jacket: Fair, slight wear to edges and corners, no tears; some insect damage. Page Condition: Good. Markings: No markings. Binding: Tight and secure with no loose pages.

A provocative and playfully metafictional novel, Mantissa presents a battle of wills between a writer named Miles Green and his Muse — a shape-shifting woman who takes on multiple identities as she torments, seduces, and challenges him inside the surreal confines of a hospital room. John Fowles constructs a brilliantly self-referential narrative that argues for the inseparability of creativity, sexuality, and artistic inspiration. The novel's tone is at once satirical and intellectually sharp, lampooning literary pretension while simultaneously engaging in it with gleeful self-awareness. A witty and audacious departure from Fowles' earlier works, Mantissa remains a fascinating meditation on the nature of storytelling and the power dynamics between author and imagination.