The French Lieutenant's Woman

Mar 21, 2013 Steve aka Sckenda rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Lovers of Hardy's "Tess of the D'Urbervilles", Victorians, Post-modern Literature

Recommended to Steve aka Sckenda by: Professor Mosley

Shelves: favorites-contemporary, 20th-century, british, postmodern, freedom, social-class, psychological, movie, film-to-lit, favorites, multi-read, time-100

I encountered FLW in a literature-to-film class in 1986 where the main focus was the clever way in which Harold Pinter, director of the 1982 movie, dealt with Fowles’ multiple endings. Yet, each re-reading of the book, like an archeological dig, yields new strata of meaning. In addition to the structure for which it is famous, this book explicates the ideas of Darwin, Freud and Marx and explores characters struggling for freedom from their creator– Fowles.

Charles Smithson’s privileged aristoc...more I encountered FLW in a literature-to-film class in 1986 where the main focus was the clever way in which Harold Pinter, director of the 1982 movie, dealt with Fowles’ multiple endings. Yet, each re-reading of the book, like an archeological dig, yields new strata of meaning. In addition to the structure for which it is famous, this book explicates the ideas of Darwin, Freud and Marx and explores characters struggling for freedom from their creator– Fowles.

Charles Smithson’s privileged aristocratic class is going extinct and being supplanted by the mercantile class, represented by the Freeman family into which he intends to marry. Despite the fact that he is an amateur paleontologist and a disciple of Darwin, Charles fails to recognize that he, himself, has much in common with the fossils that he hunts on the cliffs of Lyme Regis. Nature has selected its fittest for survival, and he is a man struggling to overcome the crush of evolutionary history.

Sarah Woodruff’s masochism is a Freudian mystery. Standing on the Cobb and staring out to sea, she appears to have become "addicted to sadness as one becomes addicted to opium." Why does she want to be the sacrificial victim? "Where you and I flinch back, she leaps forward." Her mysteries are locked away in the subconscious id. Will her fate become that of Tess of the D’Urbervilles (Fowles’ favorite book)?

Sam, the proletarian manservant, has never heard of Karl Marx, scribbling away in the British Museum Library, yet he intuitively senses that he has nothing to lose but his chains. In fact, this search for freedom is another major theme that each character confronts in his or her own way, with varying degrees of success.

Finally, Fowles plays with the concept of the author as an intrusive narrator. He inserts himself into the novel and then vanishes. You almost hear the Victorian roar of the withdrawing tide of faith. Does God exist in a post-modern novel? Do characters in a novel have free-will or is their fate predetermined by an omniscient writer? Is the writer facing extinction? Can novels like this survive in the digital age?

I wrote and posted this review on February 28, 2012. It was my first book review ever. (less)

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Apr 01, 2010 Whitaker rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: modern-canon, recommended-unreservedly, 2010-read

The writer slides a blank sheet of paper into his typewriter. His fingers hover over the "asdfjkl;" like a pianist ready to tackle the Moonlight Sonata. Then he withdraws them and gazes pensively into the distance at the grey sea and even greyer sea wall keeping its salty waters at bay. He had had a vision in his head of a woman walking by the sea, all shrouded in the cloak. Something about her called to him. He wants to start writing but something is stopping him.

Now you might wonder what it i...more The writer slides a blank sheet of paper into his typewriter. His fingers hover over the "asdfjkl;" like a pianist ready to tackle the Moonlight Sonata. Then he withdraws them and gazes pensively into the distance at the grey sea and even greyer sea wall keeping its salty waters at bay. He had had a vision in his head of a woman walking by the sea, all shrouded in the cloak. Something about her called to him. He wants to start writing but something is stopping him.

Now you might wonder what it is that is preventing him from going on. Why it is me. I'm unsure whether he uses a typewriter or should I have him using a pen, and if a pen, what kind? A biro? Those were popular in the late 1960's I think. He is also, of course, struggling with the notion of what it means to write. After all, this was the time of the post-modernists. A writer couldn't write and be a serious writer without acknowledging the art of writing itself. And he most definitely wants to be a serious writer.

He thinks, "I think Meryl Streep should play this woman. She'd be absolutely perfect as…as… Hmmm, I haven't given her a name yet."(1) Suddenly, the writer turns around, his back to the typewriter. "Oi! You there! You can't go around telling me what to do. I have my own volition, I do. I'm going to write about this woman, and she's going to be this Victorian lass. She's beautiful and she slept with this French lieutenant, or at least, I think she does. And actually, I'd much prefer Dolly Parton in the role, if you don't mind. Also, she's going to marry Charles. Or maybe she doesn't. I haven't decided yet. No, I think I'll have my cake and eat it too."

Er, hang on, a minute. This is strange. I'm the one in charge here. John Fowles has already written this book. It's actually 2010.

"Well, the John Fowles in your mind hasn't yet, has he? That's why you have me sitting here before this bloody typewriter, speaking in this fake-o English accent, staring out the bleeding window."

Oh dear, this really isn't going the way I intended. I'm just going to close Microsoft Word(TM) now.

"You can't do that. That won't get rid of me. I'll live on forever in your mind. Mwa ha ha ha ha(2)

(1) Of course, he didn't really think that. I just made it up, but I do want to nod at the fact that this book was later made into a film with Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons.

(2) For a far better version, see The Guardian's "The Digested Classic".
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Jan 08, 2008 Kelly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, brit-lit, victorian-wannabes, goth-goth-baby, owned, po-mo, 20th-century-postwar-to-late, grand-opera

I think the greatest strength of this book is the utter uniqueness of it. I don't think I've ever read a book like it. It is set in the Victorian year of 1867, and yet, the sensibility of the book is thoroughly grounded in the 1960s (when it was written). The language, metaphors, and focus of the book all come from the 1960s, and the actions of the characters are all given the lens of the highly visible author- who is in fact one of the major characters of the book (much in the style of Thackera...more I think the greatest strength of this book is the utter uniqueness of it. I don't think I've ever read a book like it. It is set in the Victorian year of 1867, and yet, the sensibility of the book is thoroughly grounded in the 1960s (when it was written). The language, metaphors, and focus of the book all come from the 1960s, and the actions of the characters are all given the lens of the highly visible author- who is in fact one of the major characters of the book (much in the style of Thackeray, though more personally done here, I think).

The plot itself starts off as a flimsy Victorian melodrama, if one were to remove everything but the bare skeletons of the action from it: boy meets girl, boy is engaged to girl, boy meets mysterious amazing girl, boy suffers crisis of love, moral dilemmas abound... and then it develops into something else much more modern with modern situations and dilemmas. But it is how it is described that is the best p art of the book: the focus is on the philosophies, the problems, the context of the era. Fowles is deeply involved in trying to explain the actions of his characters with pages long meditations and research into the Victorian pysche, based on thinkers, papers, popular opinions and events of the era. For example, the main character, Charles, is an amateur scientist and is a very strong Darwinist. Fowles gets involved with class issues, capitalist society, poetry, the suffrage movement, feminism, and of course, the overarching focus of the book: sexuality and its repression and unrepression.

(It is here that comes my only real criticism of the book: that at times the book is very dated to the 1960s in its utter obsession with sex and bohemia and "fuck the system!" kind of rhetoric. Which still rings with many today, so perhaps it isn't a problem for all. I just found it sort of threw me out of the magic of the story when he tried to make his characters 1960s type heroes.)

Another large and fascinating part of the book is that John Fowles allows us to see him at work. He shows us the road not taken in statements like (but much more eloquently put than this): "Well... I could do this.. but that would betray the character.. but it is the formula.. where shall I go from here?" He lets the reader see behind the curtain, and see his process, lets them know that he recognizes what he is doing and what he could have done or should have done by convention. He muses on what the character might want, or what he might want, and the various conventions that an author has at his disposal to most effectively display what he wants to convey. I did not think that it threw me out of the book at all. It made it even more interesting, actually.

I'd recommend this book for even people who don't usually like Victorian literature. It has so modern a voice and discusses so many issues that we find of relevance today that perhaps your eyerolling can be kept to a minimum. (less)

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Nov 28, 2007 Briynne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Fantastic book, and not at all what I expected. I was expecting a contemporary Victorian novel - perhaps a "Scarlett Letter" written in the 1880s. Imagine my surprise upon finding out that, in fact, its this weird, fascinating, post-modern version of a Victorian novel written in the 1960s. So cool. The author narrates his story in an unusual way; it's funny because he goes out of his way to make you remember that it's not just a story, but a story he made up and that he is telling, complete with...more

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Oct 23, 2010 Kemper rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 100, classic-lit, over-there

With a title like The French Lieutenant’s Woman, it’s gotta be a romance novel with a cover featuring some Fabio-like male model in a 19th century French army uniform that’s ripped to pieces to expose his abs as some buxom wench showing a lot of thigh clings to him, and he waves a sword in the air? No?

Oh, so it was the basis for some award winning movie with Meryl Streep back in the ‘80s? Then it’s got to be some boring-ass lame period piece with all kinds of proper English folk walking around w...more With a title like The French Lieutenant’s Woman, it’s gotta be a romance novel with a cover featuring some Fabio-like male model in a 19th century French army uniform that’s ripped to pieces to expose his abs as some buxom wench showing a lot of thigh clings to him, and he waves a sword in the air? No?

Oh, so it was the basis for some award winning movie with Meryl Streep back in the ‘80s? Then it’s got to be some boring-ass lame period piece with all kinds of proper English folk walking around with sticks up their asses as they talk about their proper English ways and how they musn't remove the sticks. Not really? Well, then what the hell is this book?

It’s not what I was expecting, that’s for sure.

Sarah Woodruff is a governess who has scandalized the English community of Lyme Regis by falling for a French naval officer who had been washed ashore and then left her behind after she ‘ruined‘ herself for him. I guess back in those days, a woman couldn’t just eat a bunch of ice cream, get drunk with her girlfriends and then forget about some jerk who did her wrong. Hooking up with a loser was grounds for a lifetime of people shaking their fingers at you. Sarah doesn’t even have the decency to hide her shame. She insists on going out walking by the ocean, clearly pining for Frenchie, in spite of strict orders from her pious bitch employer not to walk around where decent folk can tell what she’s thinking.

Charles Smithson is a Victorian-era gentleman engaged to Ernestina and visiting her aunt in the area. After he accidentally comes across Sarah, he gets interested in her story and tries to convince her to stop making her situation worse by being so openly miserable and letting him help arrange for better employment in London where her scandal won’t be so well known. But Sarah plays a dangerous game of asking Charles for clandestine meetings for advice while acting like she has no urge to change her life. Naturally, Charles finds himself falling for her despite warnings from a local doctor that Sarah is ‘addicted to melancholia’ and may only be interested in spreading her misery around.

At first, this seems like it’s going to be a pretty standard Victorian-era tragic romance. But John Fowles took some serious detours in this book. First, he openly writes it as a god-like narrator from the future who knows how silly and hypocritical a lot of English society was then. It gets even stranger when he starts writing about the writing of the story itself. He complains that characters aren’t behaving the way he thought they should. Then he begins presenting alternate versions of the plot based on decisions by the characters that vastly change how the book would end as he explains that the only fair way to end the story is to present all the ways that it possibly could end.

It’s also not entirely clear about who you should be sympathizing with here. Is Sarah a woman ahead of her time, unfairly treated by a bunch of hypocrites? Or is she a slightly unbalanced woman taking a hatred of men out on Charles by gaining his pity and love at the possible cost of his reputation? Is Charles a good man living in an age that traps him with outdated ideas of duty and honor? Is he just a selfish snob who gets cold feet about his own upcoming marriage and deliberately acts stupidly to try and stop it? It could be that all of these factors are true. Or that none of them are.

While I liked the writing and the way that Fowles played with the structure of a traditional novel, the problem for me is that I was so unsure about Sarah and Charles that I couldn’t ever really get engaged with them emotionally. At times I felt bad for one or both of them, and at other times, I didn’t like them at all. I ended up admiring the book more than I enjoyed it.(less)

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Oct 04, 2012 Lucrezia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

E di come ci si può dare all' enigmistica leggendo ....

Avete presente quando magari leggendo una rivista di enigmistica appunto , oppure da piccoli quando vi davano qualcuna di quelle schede operative , vi imbattete in quei giochini o attività (se avete parole diverse definite pure come vi pare) in cui bisogna colorare gli spazzi bianchi contrassegnati da puntini e scoprire quale figura ne verrà fuori , o magari collegare una successione di numeri , per ottenere sempre lo stesso risultato ... Be...more E di come ci si può dare all' enigmistica leggendo ....

Avete presente quando magari leggendo una rivista di enigmistica appunto , oppure da piccoli quando vi davano qualcuna di quelle schede operative , vi imbattete in quei giochini o attività (se avete parole diverse definite pure come vi pare) in cui bisogna colorare gli spazzi bianchi contrassegnati da puntini e scoprire quale figura ne verrà fuori , o magari collegare una successione di numeri , per ottenere sempre lo stesso risultato ... Bene, Fowles mi ha fatto la stessa impressione, con effetto sorpresa nel finale però.Tanto che ancora non ho capito che figura ne sia venuta fuori ... O forse sì?

Bando alla ciance, cerchiamo di entrare un po più nel particolare per farlo i appoggerò al gentile ausilio della quarta di copertina: "Sola , all' estremità di un molo battuto dalle tempeste, Sarah Woodruff fissa muta il mare sul quale è scomparso il tenente francese , che tutti dicono essere stato il suo amante." Congediamo gentilmente la quarta di copertina(non trovate "accennati" richiami Brontiani in tutto ciò?)Ma passiamo appunto alla protagonista, nonché colei che da il titolo al romanzo, Tragedia , Miss Woodruff, Sarah, la puttana del tenente francese...Sarah la chiamerò così , perché ormai è entrata un po anche lei a vivo diritto e di prepotenza nel circolo dei miei idoli letterari, quasi tutte donne manco a farlo apposta.Sarah, è una figura magnetica al punto che le altre figure del romanzo scompaiono o sono totalmente a lei sottoposte , è quando compare lei sulla scena tutto quello che le sta intorno le diventa improvvisamente opaco, cattura inesorabilmente l' attenzione come un raggio di sole in mezzo a scure nubi di tempesta... Eppure Sarah non è un raggio di sole è la tempesta stessa , quel ribollire del mare che poi si infrange sugli scogli , quel vento furioso che scuote tutti e tutti vorrebbe divergere , eppure è allo stesso tempo , scoglio solitario su cui il mare si schianta e fragile entità che resiste al vento furioso ...Sarah è ambigua , è non vi è altro aggettivo per definirla , è "La Fille Damnee" di Lyme , fiera di portare la propria A scarlatta ben visibile . Come avrete ormai compreso non è una donna ordinaria e lo comprende subito Charles , altro personaggio cardine del libro (scialbo se lo confrontiamo ,ma ugualmente essenziale).
Charles è in qualche modo quella pianta che viene sradicata dall' uragano Sarah , e che non ritornerà mai più al suo posto , ne potrà mai più mettere radici, perché si renderà conto che il terreno in cui le aveva radicate in realtà era sterile ....
E così seguiamo il filo di una storia i cui eventi sembrano trascinare tutti in un vortice sempre più forte , ma in realtà , c' è qualcuno che in qualche modo ha intuito come gestirlo. Ad un certo punto sarà Sarah a tenere in mano le redini della situazione , ma le ha forse mai lasciate?

In un mondo in cui le regole e le apparenze sono capitali, c' è qualcuno che ha la faccia tosta di sfidarle apertamente, e in maniera del tutto originale , compiendo il più atroce delitto condannato dalla morale comune... In che modo finirà la faccenda ? Beh questo spetta a voi deciderlo ...

P.S Meravigliosa l' idea dell' autore di inserire capitoli saggio in determinati punti della narrazione. Chiarifica ancora di più il punto di vista e la maniera di vivere dei personaggi , mettendoli a confronto con la propria epoca. In più è sempre bello imparare qualcosa di nuovo sui Vittoriani...
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Mar 05, 2011 S. rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1001-list, 5-stars, read-in-2011, favoritos

I tried resisting this. It has its occasional heavy-handedness and there are some stretches (the Rossettis, for example, please!), but the prose is so wonderful, the story(ies) is rich like cake and the intrusive author with his Victorian reflections so companionable that all I could do when I finished was lift the book in both hands and say WOW.

There are such landscapes here:

“From the air it is not very striking; one notes merely that whereas elsehwere on the coast the fields run to the cliff e...more

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Oct 28, 2007 MacK rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary, brit-lit

I'm considering having t-shirts made.

They will either be a hodgepodge of John Fowles quotes that I find tremendously thought provoking and profound, a tour date of the freaky head-trips his books have put me on, or quite simply I (Heart) John Fowles.

I don't like this book nearly as much as the other two I've already read this year The Magus or The Collector, and I still think it's better than most everything else out there.

Part of this stems from the fact that I, like Fowles, am a Literary nerd...more

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Jun 04, 2012 Patrizia O rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporanei, autori-autrici-gran-bretagna, storie-di-donne, romanzi-storici, recensioni

Il romanziere resta sempre un dio, dal momento che crea (neanche il più aleatorio dei moderni romanzi d’avanguardia è riuscito a sopprimere completamente il suo autore); ciò che è cambiato è che non siamo più gli déi dell’immagine vittoriana, onniscienti e sentenziosi; ma déi secondo una nuova immagine teologica, e il nostro principio fondamentale è la libertà, non l’autorità.

Il titolo “La donna del tenente francese” ha sempre avuto su di me un forte potere evocativo legato al ricordo infanti...more
Il romanziere resta sempre un dio, dal momento che crea (neanche il più aleatorio dei moderni romanzi d’avanguardia è riuscito a sopprimere completamente il suo autore); ciò che è cambiato è che non siamo più gli déi dell’immagine vittoriana, onniscienti e sentenziosi; ma déi secondo una nuova immagine teologica, e il nostro principio fondamentale è la libertà, non l’autorità.

Il titolo “La donna del tenente francese” ha sempre avuto su di me un forte potere evocativo legato al ricordo infantile del trailer del film ispirato al romanzo (uscito sugli schermi nel 1981). Sulla base di queste poche informazioni avevo costruito una serie di aspettative, anzi direi di “certezze”: con quel titolo la trama non poteva che raccontare di forti passioni, di un amore contrastato tra un ricco gentiluomo e una giovane donna di bassa estrazione sociale e con un passato torbido, il tutto magistralmente incorniciato in epoca vittoriana.
Quando se ne è presentata l’occasione, ho iniziato a leggere questo romanzo come se si trattasse di una vecchia conoscenza, di una rilettura. E invece ero lontana anni luce dalla realtà del libro (e anche del film).
Sarebbe interessante (per me solo presumo) fare una digressione su come le informazioni tratte dal contesto vengono travisate sulla base delle conoscenze già acquisiste e poi utilizzate per costruire sistemi di credenze poco coerenti con la realtà. Insomma, mi era bastato un titolo per attribuire al libro delle caratteristiche basandomi sulle mie precedenti letture di Dickens e Austen. Forse è per questo che il libro di Fowles non è molto letto? Si dà un’occhiata al titolo e si fanno delle inferenze che conducono a conclusioni quasi del tutto erronee. “La donna del tenente francese” è un libro sulla libertà individuale e sulle strade, spesso tortuose, che bisogna percorrere per potersi sentire liberi; è un viaggio dentro la mentalità vittoriana e i grandi temi che l’hanno caratterizzata: il dovere, il progresso, la religiosità.
I due personaggi principali, Charles e Sarah, rappresentano l’uno l’epoca vittoriana con tutte le sue contraddizioni e ipocrisie e l’altra il superamento di quell’epoca.
Charles è il tipico esponente della piccola nobiltà, è un gentiluomo e uno scienziato ma che non riesce a liberarsi dalle pastoie che gli impediscono di essere autentico.

Questo – il fatto che ogni vittoriano avesse due facce – è l’attrezzo che dobbiamo portarci appresso durante i nostri viaggi nell’Ottocento. […] ed è per questo, credo, che la miglior guida dell’epoca è molto probabilmente Il dottor Jeckyll e Mister H. Dietro una tardiva impalcatura di romanzo gotico, si nasconde infatti una verità molto profonda e rivelatrice.
Sarah è invece una donna “moderna” nel senso che ha un progetto chiaro e si assume la responsabilità di realizzarlo, anche se per farlo è costretta a mettersi al margine della società, che le affibbia un’etichetta infamente senza cercare di conoscere le ragioni del suo comportamento.

Pochissimi vittoriani erano disposti a mettere in dubbio i meriti del mimetismo, ma era proprio questo che si leggeva negli occhi di Sarah. Il suo sguardo timido, e tuttavia diretto, conteneva un messaggio molto moderno: “Parla chiaro, Charles, parla chiaro”. E bastava a prendere in contropiede l’interlocutore.

Guida d’eccezione in questo tour è John Fowles, nel senso che spesso lo stesso autore si intromette e spiega perché un certo personaggio non può che avere quei sentimenti oppure ci illustra quali potrebbero essere delle scelte alternative ma sempre abbastanza coerenti con la mentalità vittoriana. In alcune occasioni Fowles diventa uno dei personaggi (marginali) del suo libro: ha la necessità di vedere da vicino le sue creature per capire quali sono le loro intenzioni.

Ho scandalosamente distrutto l’illusione? No. I miei personaggi continuano a esistere, è in una realtà che non è meno, o più reale, di quella che ho appena distrutto. L’invenzione come disse un greco circa duemilacinquecento anni fa, è intrecciata in tutte le cose. Io ritengo che questa nuova realtà (o irrealtà) sia più valida, e vorrei che voi pure condivideste la mia convinzione di non poter controllare del tutto queste creature della mia mente, come voi non controllate – […] – i figli, i colleghi, gli amici o addirittura noi stessi.
Dite che questo è assurdo? Che un personaggio o è “reale” o “Immaginario”? Se tu la pensi così, “hypochite lecteur”, posso soltanto ridere. Tu non consideri del tutto reale neanche il tuo passato; lo agghindi, lo indori, lo diffami, lo censuri, lo rattoppi… in una parola lo romanzi e lo metti su uno scaffale, è il tuo libro, la tua autobiografia romanzata. Tutti noi non facciamo che sfuggire alla realtà reale. È questa una definizione fondamentale dell’homo sapiens.
Se quindi pensate che questa sciagurata digressione (ma sia davvero al tredicesimo capitolo) non abbia niente a che fare con il vostro Tempo, il vostro Progresso, la vostra Società, la vostra Evoluzione tutti gli altri fantasmi della notte a lettere maiuscole che fanno risonare le loro catene dietro le quinte di questo libro… io non discuto. Ma diffido di voi.

Fowles quindi si intromette a piene mani nella vita dei suoi personaggi (come è ovvio che sia) e ci svela l’inganno,ma la finzione del romanzo ne esce rafforzata: i personaggi così ben delineati nella mente dellp scrittore, sfuggono alla sua volontà e vanno verso direzioni impreviste. Fowles non sceglie per loro ma ci illustra tutte le possibili alternative, li accompagna passo passo e poi lascia al lettore la responsabilità di scegliere quale è la decisione presa dai personaggi.

La sola maniera per non prendere partito in una lotta è di mostrarne due versioni. A questo punto non ho che un problema: non posso fornire le due versioni contemporaneamente, e tuttavia la seconda, tanto è forte la tirannide dell’ultimo capitolo, sembrerà, qualunque essa sia, quella “reale” e definitiva.

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Mar 09, 2013 Xavier Guillaume rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Literature nerds like me

Recommended to Xavier by: James Sarver

Shelves: classic-literature

Sarah is one of the most remarkable female characters of modern literature. She's a mixture of Jane Eyre, Hester Prynne, and Ophelia, a woman who has experienced much hardship, yet is strong and steadfast, like a sad statue, and slightly mad. Although, I'm torn, is it inaccurate to call Sarah mad? I suppose one could write a whole academic paper on that topic alone. She's not crazy to the Ophelian point where she belongs in a mental institution; perhaps, today we would just label her as having d...more Sarah is one of the most remarkable female characters of modern literature. She's a mixture of Jane Eyre, Hester Prynne, and Ophelia, a woman who has experienced much hardship, yet is strong and steadfast, like a sad statue, and slightly mad. Although, I'm torn, is it inaccurate to call Sarah mad? I suppose one could write a whole academic paper on that topic alone. She's not crazy to the Ophelian point where she belongs in a mental institution; perhaps, today we would just label her as having depression, which causes one to act a little illogically from time to time when our emotions are out of balance. Yet, I digress because the most important aspect of the novel (to me) is not whether or not Sarah is crazy, it is its ability to transport myself to another world, 1860s Southwest England on the coastal line, dotted with rocks and cliffs, deep woods, farms, a barren area, and a small town of provincial folk. You must read it. John Fowles has a knack for describing the scenic and has a loquacious ability to describe history in an enrapturing and oftentimes humorous way.

What's remarkable about this book is how keen Fowles is in describing people. I would be greatly surprised if in his life he didn't spend hours of the day simply watching people and observing their mannerisms. (There is one part of the book where Charles is sleeping on a train, and a stranger watches him in a much perversely violating way, which gives me the gut feeling Fowles may admit to have done the same.)

Unforgettably, in just the second chapter there is a notable scene where we see Sarah for the first time. This is one of my most favorite parts of the book, and I'm willing to share you this one because it happens so early on.

"She turned to look at him—or as it seemed to Charles, through him. It was not so much what was positively in that face which remained with him after that first meeting, but all that was not as he had expected; for theirs was an age when the favored feminine look was the demure, the obedient, the shy. Charles felt immediately as if he had trespassed; as if the Cobb belonged to that face, and not to the Ancient Borough of Lyme. It was not a pretty face, like Ernestina's. It was certainly not a beautiful face, by any period's standard or taste. But it was an unforgettable face, and a tragic face. Its sorrow welled out of it as purely, naturally and unstoppably as water out of a woodland spring. There was no artifice there, no hypocrisy, no hysteria, no mask; and above all, no sign of madness. The madness was in the empty sea, the empty horizon, the lack of reason for such sorrow; as if the spring was natural in itself, but unnatural in welling from a desert."

Great Scott! That passage remarkably describes a simple look, but it does so so poetically that it becomes unforgettable. It is the moment we see Sarah for the first time, and without the narrator describing specific physical features, he allows the reader to envision her spirit with utter clarity, with just the ghost of her face staring back at us, just hovering there, and of course there is the natural sadness of it all. Also, I love that there is a lack of madness in her face; it forces me to believe that she is not mad; she is simply situated so close to the cliffs and the sea, the environments that really are mad, so much so that others mistakenly perceive that she is so too. It's really all quite incredible.

I strongly recommend reading this book. I easily rank it in my top ten books of all time if not top five. The book is oftentimes hilarious too because it describes extremely silly, conservative people, who cause me to roll my eyes back because their societal mores are illogical to the 9th degree. Heaven forbid if men and women congregate together in a building that is not a Church.

What else is remarkable is there are two endings to this novel. There I said it, and perhaps this spoiled it for you, but it's incredibly interesting in my mind. Perhaps there are even three endings in this novel, but I'm not sure if one would count the third. Sure, why not? The third seems equally important, so there are three endings and if that in itself does not capture your attention, I am not sure what would.

Fowles speaks not only to my literary heart, but to my spiritual heart. It does not seem hard for me to imagine that time is an illusion and the future is elusive. It is constantly changing with every action of our daily lives, and it stands to reason that there can be infinite endings of our own lives, and each of these paths play out on separate dimensions, which only God or an author can see play out. I mention an author because is not an author like God? An author creates a world on paper, and he or she creates the people in it, and has control over their actions and lives, but does God have control? Is there not free will?

The narrator of the story describes this bit fluently midway through the novel. He, the narrator, or Fowles alter-ego, describes how the characters themselves have gained control in the novel by coming to life. He can no longer tell them what to do, but they are telling him how they are to act. This side-note in the story is rather remarkable, and is all part of Fowles genius. To break the fourth wall by addressing us with his thought-process in the writing of his novel, and with such ease, and with such profound importance, this is a skill not to be taken likely. It makes the literary nerd inside of me giggle in delight, and I hope, if you have an appreciation for literature, that it does the same for you.

Read it! Please do!(less)

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Apr 23, 2013 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone--Well, those who can stand some ambiguity

Recommended to Lisa (Harmonybites) by: Suzanne Dobbins

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, literary-fiction, romance, novels

On Goodreads five stars is for amazing, and this novel earns it, even if some aspects maddened me. I knew two things about this novel going in. One, it was pointed to me as one of the most masterful examples of the omniscient point of view written in the 20th century, which made me eager to read it, and second, that it had alternate endings, which put me off. (A device I hate, hate, hate--it seems such a cheat.) Actually, having before this read Fowles' The Magus, I could add I knew he had a mas...more On Goodreads five stars is for amazing, and this novel earns it, even if some aspects maddened me. I knew two things about this novel going in. One, it was pointed to me as one of the most masterful examples of the omniscient point of view written in the 20th century, which made me eager to read it, and second, that it had alternate endings, which put me off. (A device I hate, hate, hate--it seems such a cheat.) Actually, having before this read Fowles' The Magus, I could add I knew he had a masterful, enviable prose style, and that he loved messing with the reader--and that's on display here.

Fowles does pull out all the stops in that omniscient point of view--it fits his Victorian setting, and his Victorian theme. The novel seems both homage to the era's novel and a critique of the age. Each chapter is headed with quotes about the Victorian age and by Victorian authors such as Darwin, Marx, Tennyson, Hardy, Arnold. There is plenty of commentary by the narrator about not just the characters and plots, but has the author breaking the fourth wall with statements in first person as author and on the process of writing. It's a technique that is labeled by many post-modern in its self-consciousness, but harkens back to Fielding and Thackeray; it's not just a 20th century thing--read Tom Jones and Vanity Fair some time. And Fowles knew his Victorians and his setting of Lyme Regis in Dorset, England. He wrote two books on Lyme where he spent decades and one on "Thomas Hardy's England." Fowles would interrupt the narrative to tell you one character lived to nearly a hundred and that another would be the ancestor of a noted contemporary actress. There are even footnotes! All in all that playfulness makes up for a lot--I even forgive Fowles his alternate endings. Plus, his style is just so beautiful, so readable. The man is a master storyteller that makes you want to quickly turn the pages to find out what happens and yet linger over the shapely sentences.

With the Magus it was the mysterious Godlike figure and his God Game that had me pulling my hair. What left me feeling almost exhausted trying to figure things out in this novel is its title heroine, Sarah Woodruff. Fowles at one point refers to her as his "protagonist" but it's really Charles Smithson who feels as if he's at the center of the novel. He, at least, I felt I had a handle on. But Sarah? All I can say is she's the most frustrating, inexplicable, maddening heroine I've read since Dominique Francon in The Fountainhead. For the life of me I can't figure her out. Although a friend who read and loved the book told me that's rather the point. I found the women in The Magus rather unreal too, and am not sure if Fowles just is making at root a feminist point about the unreality of the women men construct in their mind, or just doesn't get women. (Although Ernestine Freeman and other minor female characters did feel more real.) At the very least, Sarah does leave a reader with something to chew on.(less)

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Apr 15, 2012 Ruthiella rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

This book was both admirable and frustrating. It never seemed to end (and that is only in part because it actually has three endings). Part Victorian melodrama, part sociological study; I felt like the author was looking at the characters from under a microscope. Occasionally he takes time to lecture on the specimens all the while reminding the reader that it just fiction and deliberates if it is he or the reader who is the post-modern deity who determines the story. The story has three main cha...more

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Jun 16, 2010 Kp rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this book so many years ago that I figured that reading it now would be just like reading a new book -- and it was. I remembered only the sad girl staring off into the ocean and that it has two endings. Wow , the rest was a surprise. I really liked the structure of the book, the way the narrator would analyze the characters and the society of which they were a part. It was a novel of contrasts and comparisons... mainly of Victorian mores which were beginning to clash with a more modern fr...more I read this book so many years ago that I figured that reading it now would be just like reading a new book -- and it was. I remembered only the sad girl staring off into the ocean and that it has two endings. Wow , the rest was a surprise. I really liked the structure of the book, the way the narrator would analyze the characters and the society of which they were a part. It was a novel of contrasts and comparisons... mainly of Victorian mores which were beginning to clash with a more modern free society. So the characters played out this clash, and the author/narrator made comments and analyzed the clash. Both the plot and the narrator's analysis were really good! I guess that the two endings coincide with the author's discussion of freedom in that now the reader gets the freedom to choose how he/she thinks it should end. I'm trying to determine why I don't give it 5 stars, and I guess the only reason is that I find that having Sarah remain such an enigma and act in such unexplainable ways sort of annoyed me or seemed unrealistic. I think she's supposed to represent the new freedom and some type of existentialist viewpoint... like Ayn Rand. Well, I guess I thought she was over the top in her detachment, and I don't understand why she lied to Charles in the beginning. That detracted from the book, I thought, so I had to take it down one notch, since she's so central to the book.

Update, 4/2012: I just went to an exhibit at the S.F. Legion of Honor called “The Cult of Beauty: The Victorian Avant Garde, 1860-1900.” This jogged my mind back to my reading of The French Lieutenant’s Woman because it contained paintings by Rosetti ! Rosetti is the painter at the end of the French L. Woman!! This helped me connect the story to this whole movement again in my mind, and I liked being able to connect the feelings and stories from the book to these real life artists and a description of their time in history. It really made both the exhibit AND the book more meaningful. (less)

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Aug 13, 2012 Melody rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Melody by: Brian Johnson

You can simply read this book as a novel – but it will possibly frustrate you and have you wondering what the heck Sarah’s motives were and how in tarnation the book ends; because this is a novel about the craft of writing and it’s not necessarily a tale for your enjoyment. It is a Victorian novel written in the 60s. Sarah, or the “French Lieutenant’s Woman”, however, is a 20th century woman. The things she does and the decisions she makes are those of a 20th century character existing in a Vict...more

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Feb 17, 2009 Jason rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

first impressions:
i'm not sure what to do with this book quite yet...
at present it seems like a bit of a jane austen exercise...there are a few interesting authorial interpolations which could make for an intriguing analysis from the perspective of meta-fiction...
i don't know...i'm enjoying it, but i still haven't gotten to a point where i wouldn't simply recommend a jane austen novel in place of this...

second impressions:
fowles is a good writer, his command of the language is a pleasure to read...more

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Dec 17, 2008 Keith rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008, by-and-about-the-19th-century, fiction, 5-star-reading

This book is one of those bestsellers that I was vaguely aware of but too young and too distracted to pay attention to when it was a subject of conversation. I saw the movie when it first came out and was not impressed. Having read the novel I now understand why the film took the tack it did although I also see that the two are very different. Looking at other reviews I see people are divided on the authorial intrusions and the way it ends. Despite my general distaste for postmodern approaches I...more

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Mar 03, 2008 Lars Egler rated it 3 of 5 stars

I know this book is supposed to be all quirky post-modern/Victorian and that lots of people think it's amazing. Me... not so much. I just got the impression that the author was just a little too pleased with himself and his interjections into the story itself. While I recognize the merit/intelligence of said exposition, I guess I just really wanted a good, straight-forward fiction and not a lesson on the dichotomies of the Victorian psyche or the sly referneces to god, destiny, the power of the...more

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Mar 20, 2013 Mathieu rated it 5 of 5 stars

Fowles is the kind of author who always tries to amaze his readers. He presents a possible way of telling this story but he also tells his readers that there could be other ways of telling it. He thus makes a difference between HIS character Charles Smithson (as Fowles describes him) and the other Charles Smithson (trying to walk his own way). The book thus becomes visionary, allowing the reader to imagine thousands of other stories, if the one told by Fowles doesn't suit them.

Furthermore, the b...more

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Jul 14, 2010 C. rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to C. by: Glenda

Shelves: own-or-access, 2010, conceptual, historical-fiction, history-politics-economics

I loved the post-modern aspects of this, which I thought were very well done. I was less enthusiastic about the story, which appeared to be told by an arrogant twat who thought he knew what women were about and who spent a lot of time criticising Victorian sensibilities while simultaneously (but more subtly) regaling us with his own, more pernicious brand of 1960's sexism. However, I haven't read enough Victorian literature to know how much of it was Victorian and how much of it was Fowles', so...more

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Jan 21, 2012 Rowena rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, contemporary, english-lit

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! The story wasn't what I expected it to be at all. I expected the story to be similar to Madame Bovary and the writing style of the author to be more Victorian, seeing as the story was set in that era, but it's actually quite modern. This book made me an instant fan of John Fowles. He writes very intelligently and although he plays the role of narrator in the 19th Century, his perception is that of a 20th Century writer, which makes the book even more interesting....more

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Aug 02, 2011 JChipol added it · review of another edition

I had no preconceptions of this novel; it had been recommended highly to me and I knew it was a classic, however, I had no idea what it was about, nor had I ever seen the much acclaimed film. I found the novel to be intriguing and very different to anything I had read before it.

The author narrates his story in an unusual way; he goes out of his way to remind you that it's not just a story, but a story he has made up and is in full control of, complete with historical anecdotes and sidebars. The...more I had no preconceptions of this novel; it had been recommended highly to me and I knew it was a classic, however, I had no idea what it was about, nor had I ever seen the much acclaimed film. I found the novel to be intriguing and very different to anything I had read before it.

The author narrates his story in an unusual way; he goes out of his way to remind you that it's not just a story, but a story he has made up and is in full control of, complete with historical anecdotes and sidebars. The novel is littered with asides and explanations of Victorian thinking and ideology, as well as excerpts from poetry and literature of the time.

I think the greatest strength of this book is the utter uniqueness of it. I don't think I've ever read a book like it. It is set in the Victorian year of 1867, and yet, the sensibility of the book is thoroughly grounded in the 1960s (when it was written).

The plot revolves around Charles Smithson, a nineteenth-century gentleman with glimmerings of twentieth-century ideology, who is engaged to be married to a respectable, though Nouveau Riche and quite dull Ernestina who utterly loves him, but whom he feels is slightly beneath him. Charles tragically falls in love with the enigmatic Sarah Woodruff, who has, seemingly, been jilted by a French lover, and whom society has shunned.

Sarah Woodruff is an example of a woman ahead of her time; a woman who challenges the norms of her society. Her confidence and her quiet scorn for the Puritanism of the times in which she lives raise her to a level above the so-called moral leaders who condemn her.

Charles, an amateur scientist and a very strong Darwinist, seems, at first at least, to be a man in full control of his emotions; as only a Victorian man with repressed emotions can be. But even a Darwinist with a scientific, clinical mind gets involved with love – which is his ultimate undoing. His story is one of class issues, capitalist society, poetry and of course, the overarching focus of the book: sexuality and its repression.

Sarah is a character who I know I should have come to associate with; me being a complicated woman and one who questions female suppression in society, however, I was left with an overwhelming feeling that sadly she was a little stereotypical of the ‘complicated woman’ who is ultimately the undoing of man. My heart went out to the foolish Charles, who knew that loving a woman such as this would be his undoing, yet was a slave to an overpowering emotion of love. The heart never being one to listen to reason.

There are 3 endings in this book; the author playing with the reader as a God-like figure may play with his pawns, and each one a tragedy in its own right. The final, and chosen one, being the most realistic and also the most pitifully heart wrenching.

This book, though it may take a little while to get used to the Victorian phraseology, is one worth reading. I can see why it is a classic book and thoroughly deserves to be so; beautifully crafted, original, tragic and funny.(less)

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Apr 29, 2013 Scott Middleton rated it 4 of 5 stars

Although I will always think of "The French Lieutenant's Woman" as the book that I read when my leg was broken, I expect to remember it for more than just a relief from the tedium and routine of my shut-in life.

"TFLW" is a novel written for novel-readers. It has three alternate endings without coming across as campy (as in the movie version of "Clue"), inconclusive (as in meta second-person novels), or pointless (as in dozens of Goosebumps "Choose-your-own-adventure" novels). Fowles as narrator...more

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Feb 25, 2013 Evalangui rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 20, 2013 Gary Daly rated it 5 of 5 stars

A truly great read. I couldn't put it down. The story is simple, however the magical way in which he writes it gives it that special flavour. The narrative history, Fowles' whimsical info-literary journey through social history provides a second stage in which to play out his concept. He invites you into his story and manages to at the very least give the reader a palpable taste of life in 19th century England. He builds his world through a collage of quotes, poetry and psychological insight int...more

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Jan 04, 2013 Smcleish rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned

Originally published on my blog here in October 2001.

The nineteenth century novel is an important part of the legacy of English literature, and the Victorian age is one which has continued to fascinate throughout the last hundred years (particularly in this year, the centenary of Victoria's death). The French Lieutenant's Woman is a homage to the novels of writers like Dickens, Thackeray and Trolloppe (with nods towards Hardy and James), together with a commentary on the period to which much of...more Originally published on my blog here in October 2001.

The nineteenth century novel is an important part of the legacy of English literature, and the Victorian age is one which has continued to fascinate throughout the last hundred years (particularly in this year, the centenary of Victoria's death). The French Lieutenant's Woman is a homage to the novels of writers like Dickens, Thackeray and Trolloppe (with nods towards Hardy and James), together with a commentary on the period to which much of the last century's culture has been a reaction.

The type of story told here is, with certain modifications such as overt sexuality, one which could have been the plot of a nineteenth century novel. Set in Lyme Regis (location of important parts of persuasion and, as a fossil hunter's paradise, essential to developments in Victorian scientific ideas), The French Lieutenant's Woman is about Charles Smithson, heir to a baronetcy, and the woman to whom he is engaged, Ernestina Freeman,rich heiress of a merchant. She is spending the summer with her aunt, a resident of the town. The woman of the title is a former governess who haunts the quay after having been abandoned by her lover, a French sailor; respectable people assume that she is no better than a prostitute. Charles becomes fascinated with this outcast from the comfortable society in which he has lived all his life despite his advanced Darwinian views.

The principal way that it is clear that Fowles is a twentieth century writer is in the way that the story is told. The narrator takes a large part in proceedings himself, and is more a guide to explain the psychology and culture of the characters than a traditional storyteller. The reader is constantly kept at a distance from the story, always being made aware of how it illustrates the Victorian age. It is done in a moderately academic way, making The French Lieutenant's Woman quite an intellectual novel, but it is always fascinating. A good example of the sort of thing that Fowles does is the treatment of Charles' Cockney servant Sam; we are given quite a lengthy digression just after the introduction of the character about the similarities to and the differences from the most famous fictional Victorian servant, The Pickwick Papers' Sam Weller.

In fact, The French Lieutenant's Woman is almost as much about the twentieth century attitude to the Victorian age as it is about its setting. Fowles makes much of contradictions (such as the popularity of pornography in a supposedly straitlaced culture), implicitly drawing attention to similar contradictions a hundred years later. (The novel is set almost exactly a century before it was written.) In science fiction, it is commonto use the future to criticise the present, but it is much more unusual for a historical novel to attempt to use the past for the same purpose.(less)

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Dec 14, 2012 Hrishi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, legacy-for-your-kids

first impression +20 yrs back:

This was one of my father's favorite novels( i even found a paperback an year back which i had picked up for him 20 yrs back )... when i had picked this up while reading through the Ludlums,Wallaces & my hot fav at that time - Wilbur Smith...i could hardly relate and for me to find some entertainment here was impossible ...i am amused at my own slight of the author in those teens by leaving it without going deep or understanding the kind of relationship which on...more
first impression +20 yrs back:

This was one of my father's favorite novels( i even found a paperback an year back which i had picked up for him 20 yrs back )... when i had picked this up while reading through the Ludlums,Wallaces & my hot fav at that time - Wilbur Smith...i could hardly relate and for me to find some entertainment here was impossible ...i am amused at my own slight of the author in those teens by leaving it without going deep or understanding the kind of relationship which only a mature adult can comprehend... hahaha i am humbled!! and i had almost left it halfway at that!!

second impression

" Every emanicipation is a restoration of the human world and of human relationshipsto man himself " an extract at the start of this masterpiece.

i managed to lay on the 1970 print of Cape books( looking like a old hardcover) and O my , i said, author looks handsome ...he could commanded billions in this era ..

Coming back...Victorian novels always tend to keep the anecdotes about social norms as well as typical characters - leading to you always feeling the " Victorian Patronage" on the sidebar. somehow this great novelist has overcome that by his narratives and compelling dialogue - which gives one immense pleasure...

It has lovely extracts which are preface to each of the chapters which lead to each of the chapters where the author has wrung the obsession...

For people who love literature, history and feel that the Hardys,Cronins as well as Austens are too " literary" pick this one up - this is a work of Art...but then honestly you need to actually have gone through a serious relationship to seriously comprehend the "obsessions" ( unlike me in my first innings hahaha )

You know sometimes you need to peruse a work of Art again - be it be music, books, paintings or even nature - to truly comprehend it...holistically...thats the sole reason i recommend dont just read or borrow; buy this book..

And if you ever lay your hands on a Cape edition with its cover and inside cover( which shows the solemn "Woman" looking in anticipation towards the horizon for her Lover's promised return across the seas) you would know what i am talking about..!!

(less)

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Jul 21, 2012 Billierosie Billierosie rated it 5 of 5 stars

The year is 1867. Charles Darwin published “On the Origin of Species” in 1859. Karl Marx was writing about “the alienation of labour”, in “The Communist Manifesto” in 1848. Minds were bending and changing. Opening up to new ideas. The Industrial Revolution in England, was at its height; productivity was booming. The old aristocracy was slowly dying. They didn’t know it yet, but they were. A new class was emerging, born out of “trade”; the upper middle class. Religious concepts were being radical...more

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May 28, 2012 Janet rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was published in 1969. I received it for Christmas 1970 when I was about to turn 18. I read the book during that Christmas vacation, finishing it on Sunday January 3rd, the day before returning to school. Perhaps you wonder how I can remember those details? Not long after starting the book this time (the same copy I received in 1970), I found a diary I started in 1971. My entry for January 3, 1971 starts "Have just finished 'The French Lieutenant's Woman' (John Fowles) - I think that I...more

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May 09, 2012 Stephen Platt rated it 4 of 5 stars

Survival. Political ideology. Religious dogma. Social status. Morality. Gender. You can set this book in any era, spin a sad romance around these themes and you will have the French Lieutenant's Woman. In our modern time perhaps these things may seem far changed than in the novel's Victorian setting where Freudism, Darwinism, Marxism were mere faint ideological stirrings in a repressive cauldron. We may feel today, in contrast, that the modern world has evolved and expanded into a more socially...more

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Feb 08, 2012 whatsthatcrap rated it 3 of 5 stars

I am not too eager about books where the author painstakingly reminds me on every other page it's a work of fiction I am reading. John Fowles seems to believe his readers have the grasp of reality of toddlers, as he deems necessary to tell them constantly the characters of are not real, he's creating them and please, don't ever forget you're reading a book.

Also I am not overly eager on alternative endings. For me, it's just seems lazy and uninspired. Maybe the first time such artistic device wa...more

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