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The French Lieutenant's Woman (Vintage Classics)
 
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The French Lieutenant's Woman (Vintage Classics) (Paperback)

by John Fowles (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 480 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; New Ed edition (4 Nov 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0099478331
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099478331
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 10,357 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #2 in  Books > Fiction > 20th Century Classics > Fowles, John

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Product Description

Review

A brilliant success... It is a passionate piece of writing as well as an immaculate example of storytelling Financial Times Compulsively readable Irish Times A splendid, lucid, profoundly satisfying work of art, a book which I want almost immediately to read again New Statesman Brilliant...an artist of great imaginative power Sunday Times


Product Description

Of all John Fowles' novels The French Lieutenant's Woman received the most universal acclaim and today holds a very special place in the canon of post-war English literature. From the god-like stance of the nineteenth-century novelist that he both assumes and gently mocks, to the last detail of dress, idiom and manners, his book is an immaculate recreation of Victorian England. Not only is it the epic love story of two people of insight and imagination seeking escape from the cant and tyranny of their age, The French Lieutenant's Woman is also a brilliantly sustained allegory of the decline of the twentieth-century passion for freedom.
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Customer Reviews

12 Reviews
5 star:
 (8)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Twentieth Century Masterpiece - Fowles at his very best!, 24 May 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: The French Lieutenant's Woman (Paperback)
It is all too easy to be transported into the world so vividly created for us by John Fowles, as he details the love affair between Charles Smithson and Sarah Woodruff, whilst simultaneously exposing the hypocracies of Victorian England.

Haunted night and day by the face of 'The French Lieutenant's Woman' (Sarah Woodruff) Charles Smithson struggles to forget her and concede to a life with the entirely more conventional Ernestina Freeman. Theirs is the expected and typical Victorian pairing, but as the action progresses, Charles finds his initial curiosity towards the enigmatic Sarah developing into attraction and eventual desire. In his novel, Fowles powerfully depicts Charles's inner conflict between head and heart, painfully illustrating the consequences of allowing the heart to overrule in such a repressed, hypocritical society.

'The French Lieutenant's Woman', with its convoluted yet innovative narrative structure, use of multiple endings, enigmatic characters and reflexivity does not make for simple reading, but perservere and you will be rewarded. Fowles's gripping tale of illicit love, simmering passions, repressed sexuality and (ultimately) painful rejection is a haunting masterpiece. The characters and their situations will live on in your memory long after you have closed the book. A beautifully evocative, engaging and intruiging novel - this is a modern work of art and must not be missed.

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Still fresh and intriguing, 18 Dec 2007
By Wynne Kelly "Kellydoll" (Coventry, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)      
As fresh and intriguing as on my first reading of this book many years ago. The Victorian age is brilliantly portrayed from the genteel pretensions of Lyme to the rough and tumble of the seedier parts of London. The main characters are strongly portrayed. Would-be paleontologist Charles is from a comfortable upper class background but condescends happily to become engaged to Ernestina who is a pleasant but shallow daughter of a prosperous middle class draper. But into their lives comes Sarah, the enigmatic woman who is rumoured to have been "ruined" by a liaison with French seaman.

Fowles is particularly good on the class war and social mores of the time: The attitude of society to Sarah is shocking as is the off-hand way in which servants are treated. When Ernestina's father suggests that Charles join the drapery business he is truly aghast at the idea even though he has no career in mind.

Sarah remains ambiguous - we are left uncertain as to whether she is manipulative and self-absorbed or badly treated and depressed. Throughout the book she both irritates and evokes our sympathy.

The other central character is the writer himself. He playfully drops in and out of the writing, discussing the motives of the characters and suggesting three different endings. This works superbly. The French Lieutenant's Woman is a twentieth century classic.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Get out of the way John, I'm trying to read, 26 Jan 2009
I don't usually comment on endings, but here the author himself doesn't seem to have attached narrative importance to it (and I don't give it away in any case)...

It does all go so well until the ending, previously having toyed intelligently with the reader Fowles declares he cannot make up his mind and uses literary pretensions as a cop-out - turning the motives implausible to air his own political points. It came over more as moral cowardice to me, given his preferred ending is obvious, but spoils the story (and I'm not referring to happy or sad endings).

If you don't mind politics and sociology lectures (bearing in mind the incarnation of both have a limited shelf-life and this was published 1969) hijacking your novel reading then it may feel a refreshing change for you. If you do mind being invited to a sumptuous dinner to be bored by the host afterwards then you may be put out.

Either way I'd urge you to read this book. It contains the best modern depiction of the Victorian age from an author who truly understood it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars a difficult book to become absorbed with
I couldn't establish if the author was actually the narrator. There is a point where the narrator describes himself and it matches the picture of the author hence my confusion... Read more
Published 14 months ago by SJSmith

3.0 out of 5 stars a difficult book to become absorbed with
I couldn't establish if the author was actually the narrator. There is a point where the narrator describes himself and it matches the picture of the author hence my confusion... Read more
Published 14 months ago by SJSmith

5.0 out of 5 stars A classical masterpiece
I was late coming to this novel. I have heard of the film but never seen it and foolishly thought the book would be some OTT Mills and Boon-type love story. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Hayles

5.0 out of 5 stars A finely tuned twentieth century classic
This is by far the most finely crafted novel by John Fowles i have read. He generally enjoys long - but no less than erudite - passages of analysis and description, but this is... Read more
Published on 3 May 2007 by M. Walker

5.0 out of 5 stars More than just a historical novel
Let me begin by admitting that it is some time since I read this book. I have seen the film, which contains a great deal of additional content - enjoyable though. Read more
Published on 24 May 2006 by Reptile

5.0 out of 5 stars Moving and hard-hitting
Hindsight is often a very useful thing. With that in mind, Victorian society is exposed for the shallow and hypocritical farce that it is, through Mrs Poulteney. Read more
Published on 16 Sep 2003

4.0 out of 5 stars Get the carpet pulled from under your feet
What really made me enjoy this novel and not dismiss it as a smart but unmoving Victorian pastiche, was the way Fowles kept suddenly and dramatically whirling the reader around -... Read more
Published on 28 Jan 2003 by Irreverent Wench

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, superb reader, bears repeated listening
The book itself is an enjoyable read, both for the story and for the digressions on life in Victorian England, Thomas Hardy, aristocracy as fossil, etc. Read more
Published on 12 Jun 2000

5.0 out of 5 stars THE DARK SIDES OF HUMAN CHARACTER
THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT IS THE FIRST WORD THAT COMES TO MIND WHEN ONE FOLLOWS THROUGH THROUGH WITH THE STORY OF THE HELPLESSLY BESOTTED CHARLES . Read more
Published on 23 Sep 1999

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