SOURCE: "The Ebony Tower: Variations on the Mythic Theme," in her The Fiction of John Fowles: A Myth for Our Time, The Penkevill Publishing Company, 1988, pp. 77-99.

In the essay below, Barnum offers a comprehensive overview of Fowles 's The Ebony Tower, noting similarities between the stories, particularly the recurring theme of missed opportunities, as well as similarities between Fowles's short fiction and his novels.

John Fowles's fourth work of fiction, The Ebony Tower, continues the theme of the novels in the more precise format of the short story. The working title for the collection was Variations, Fowles's intent being to show variations on the theme of his previous fiction. But since early readers found the title (and its connections) obscure, it was abandoned in favor of the present title. If, however, we consider Fowles's stated intent, we see a partern emerging of the protagonist's struggles to take...