Essay As the title itself suggests, The Enigma by John Fowles is a short story that is surrounded by mystery. The author tells us a story about disappearance of a rather important person- a Member of Parliament. The disappearance of Mr Fielding contravened all social and statistical probability, and this fact made me, as a reader, keep interested in the plot until the end of the book. The author starts with a description of a missing person. Marcus Fielding, a Conservative Member of Parliament, was an example of a typical middle- ranking British politician. He was in his late 50 s, rich, happily married, devoted to his wife and family, no even the slightest evidence of infidelity. The family members might have had some conflicts or misunderstandings but nevertheless they tried to keep up appearances. Mr Fielding was a responsible and reliable person with a good reputation. The politicians gave the impression that he was a better man than any kind of them- a top- class rural constituency member, sound party man, always well-briefed when he spoke, very pleasant fellow. He was a man who, if there were an--arium of living human stereotypes, would have done very well as a model of his kind: the successful City man ( on the board of several City companies) who was also a country land-owner. He used to be a good landlord, who liked to be consulted over everything; and everything had to be decided “ on accountancy grounds”. On the one hand, he was ruthless in running the farm for maximum profit, on the other hand, he was “ very pleasant socially, very understanding”. As for his career ambitions, he had accepted that he lacked the single-minded drive and special talents of ministerial material. He was not good at cut -and- thrust side of parliamentary debate. He was little ambitious and didn't try to be a candidate for any Downing Street list. Everybody believed , he had a feeling that he had done his stint and he wasn't politically disappointed. To sum up, a typical middle-ranking politician is a person who sets himself very high standards, who wants to be both: “a rich man on the grab” and a pillar of the community.