John Fowles wrote

The Tree

in close cooperation with Frank Horvat, who not only contributed a preface, but also a wonderful collection of photographs of trees that support the arguments presented in Fowles’s text. Similar to other Fowles works, for instance

Shipwreck

(1974) or

Islands

(1978),

The Tree

thus draws substantially on the dialogue between words and images and emphasizes the importance of visuality for any critique of Fowles’s oeuvre (see Vieth). It is therefore with some caution that one should approach editions of this text that do not include the original photographs.

The Tree consists of four parts: the first concentrates on Fowles’s childhood and in particular on his father’s view of gardening; in the second Fowles moves from comments about systems of biological

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Citation: Bayer, Gerd. "The Tree". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 December 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=10542, accessed 21 November 2024.]

10542 The Tree 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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