The French Lieutenant's Woman

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**Title** **The French Lieutenant's Woman**
1996 Vintage paperback
Author	John Fowles
Cover artist	Fletcher Sibthorpe (1996 above)
Country	Great Britain
Language	English
Genre(s)	Romance novel, historical fiction
Publisher	Jonathan Cape Ltd
Released	1969
Pages	445 pp
ISBN	ISBN 0-224-61654-4

The French Lieutenant's Woman is a 1969 novel by John Fowles. The book was inspired by the 1823 novel Ourika by Claire de Duras, which Fowles translated to English in 1977 (and revised in 1994). In 1981, the novel was adapted as a feature film. Fowles was a great fan of Thomas Hardy and in particular likened his own work to that of Tess Durbeyfield in Hardy's popular novel, Tess of the d'Urbervilles.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The novel's central character is Sarah Woodruff, the Woman of the book's title, also known by the nickname "Tragedy" and by the unfortunate nickname "The French Lieutenant's Whore." She lives in the town of Lyme Regis as a disgraced woman, supposedly ill-used by a French sailor who returned to France and married another woman. Throughout the story Sarah is portrayed in a negative light, and the question is raised: is she a genuine ill-used woman, the product of the French Lieutenant's lust? Or is she a sly, manipulative character who tries to get Charles to succumb to her, using her own self pity?

Sarah spends her limited time off from her domestic work on the Cobb [sea wall] at Lyme Regis, staring at the sea. One day, she is seen there by the gentleman Charles Smithson and his fiancée, Ernestina Freeman, the shallow daughter of a wealthy tradesman. Ernestina tells Charles something of Sarah's story, and he develops a strong curiosity about her. They end up having several clandestine meetings during which Sarah tells Charles her history and asks for his support, mostly emotional. Although Charles tries to remain distant, he ends up sending Sarah to Exeter, where he cannot resist stopping to see her during a journey. At the same time, Charles learns his projected inheritance from an older uncle is in jeopardy, as the uncle is now engaged to a woman young enough to bear him an heir.

From there, Fowles - who appears briefly as a character in the book - offers three different endings.

In one, Charles marries Ernestina. Their marriage is not a happy one, and Sarah's fate is unknown. Charles tells Ernestina about an encounter with whom he implies is the "French Lieutenant's Whore", but apparently eliminating the worst details, and the matter is closed.
In another, Charles has sex with Sarah and breaks his engagement to Ernestina, which brings unpleasant consequences of its own. He becomes disgraced, and his uncle marries and gets an heir. Sarah flees to London without telling Charles, who, very much in love with her, looks for her for several years before finding her again--she is living with several artists, likely the Rossettis, and enjoys an artistic, creative life. He then sees that he has a child. Their future as a family is left open, but there is an implication that they might reunite.
In the third, Fowles appears as a minor character on the train, who "turns back the clock to see how events could have or should have been. Events are the same as in the second ending, but when Charles finds Sarah again in London, their reunion is a sour one. He realizes he has been used, but sees some benefit in the journey towards self-knowledge. Sarah does not tell him about the child, and expresses no interest in furthering their relationship. This raises the question: is Sarah a manipulating, lying woman with few morals, exploiting Charles' obvious love for her to get what she wants?

Along the way, Fowles discourses on the difficulties of controlling the characters one has created, and offers tangents on Victorian customs and class differences, the theories of Charles Darwin, and the poetry of Matthew Arnold and Lord Tennyson. He also calls upon the literature of Thomas Hardy to raise questions about Victorian conventions, attitudes and society. He questions the role of the author, such as the time he speaks of how Charles "disobeys" his orders, implying that the characters have a life of their own within the novel.