I acutally enjoyed her aloofness and the mystery about her. I can relate to the idea of choosing to isolate oneself. I rather enjoyed the walks she took through the woods and along the seaide. I thought she was quite headstrong in her own way, but I could not completely forgive her for seducing a man she knew was engaged.

Silver wrote: "But one of the things Fowles was pointing out within the novel was that as a woman living in the Victorian age, she truly did not have a lot of choice. While I do not find some of the things she di..."

Just because you understand someone's motivations doesn't always mean you can empathize with them.
I found Sarah to be wantonly mysterious and aloof which seemed to exacerbate her situation and attraction the least desirable kind of attention.

As I said I read it as a teenager filled with many conflicting emotions maybe as a calmer, more forgiving adult I would like Sarah more.

But one of the things Fowles was pointing out within the novel was that as a woman living in the Victorian age, she truly did not have a lot of choice. While I do not find some of the things she did to be admirable, and had mixed feelings about her. If women at that time wanted to be assertive at that time, they had to do it under the guise of passivity.

Particular considering the position she already was in within the society, she was in the very real danger of possibly being committed into an insane asylum as often happened to women at that period of time, if she was not careful, because she was different and lived outside of society.

Silver wrote: "I did not find Sarah to be truly "passive" I think if anything her seeming passivity was really just an act. She manipulated the siutation to acheive what she wanted. "

Making her passive aggressive - one of those personality types that I truly despise :0)

I did not find Sarah to be truly "passive" I think if anything her seeming passivity was really just an act. She manipulated the siutation to acheive what she wanted.

I read this book as a teenager and was annoyed by Sarah's passivity.

I wanted to reread it as an adult so see if I have a different perspective.

It was an interesting book. I had mixed feelings about Sarah, a part of me wanted to like her, but I thought what she did seducing a man who was enganged was wrong even if the couple was mismatched.

At first I found the strong voice of the author within the work to be distracting but after a while I began to get use to it and got more into the story. I do like the way in which it was written as sort of a 20th century study of the Victorian Era.

Throughout most the story I really despised Charles, though I feel that he did ultimately the right thing in the end by breaking it off with Erestina instead of marrying her and proceeding to have an affiar behind her back. Though she was perhaps the "typical" victorian woman and not likeable in a since, I always was drawn to feel sorry for her in how she was treated for it was rather unfairly.

Let's discuss please! It is a favorite, but it is dizzying in that I cannot quite wrap my brain around Sarah's character. She is a true enigma, which may be the point-- in so many ways, she represents the era of which she was a by-product.

Thoughts? Favorite quotes? I want it all!