The French Lieutenant's Woman

The French Lieutenant's Woman
by John Fowles
Featured on Time Magazine's Top 100

        I had a professor in graduate school who was constantly talking about this book as a phenomenal example of post modernism. He would then give away the ending. This was not the only book he did this with, but it was the only one I remember being consistently on the draw with the old hands-to-the-ears-hum-loudly to keep the ending from being revealed. So, when I started the book I really did not know what all to expect.

         The novel is about a Victorian Era love affair that takes place at the same seaside town that Jane Austen wrote about in Persuasion, but it is written from the point of view of a narrator in the mid 20^th century. He maintains the voice of a Victorian narrator, but he is also aware of what will happen in the future, and the significance (or lack of significance) the events of the novel will have. The story examines issues of class, gender, and societal rules in much the same way a good book of that era would, but with a conscious self-awareness that can be funny, as well as achingly poignant. The main character, Charles Smithson, is a man who is about to inherit a large sum of money. Like most rich Englishmen in literature, he is idle, introspective, and in the middle of a doomed relationship. He is about to marry someone who is exceedingly safe, and who will not make him happy. I am reminded of Leland Archer’s engagement in the novel The Age of Innocence. Charles meets a woman named Sarah Woodruff, a woman in the town who is whispered about because of a vague incident from her past. There are many reasons why a pursuit of Sarah would be disastrous for Charles, but he does it anyway--innocently at first, and then with a dogged determination.

           There is an interesting strain that runs through the novel that deals with the then innovative ideas of Charles Darwin. Charles Smithson is an avid naturalist, and throughout he is interested in collecting fossils. What I found interesting to consider was the idea that novels are sort of fossils, with their essence frozen as an image or idea of what the cultural value system was when it was written. Indeed, throughout the novel the narrator would quote poems by Tennyson, prose from Thomas Hardy, and excerpts from period books of etiquette. We see the value system then. We know it has evolved, but we see the connections.

        I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  Like The Age of Innocence, it was a book I was wary of when I picked it up, but was glad when I read it. I was also very glad that I had been quick in that grad school class to hide the ending from myself. I don’t know how much I would have enjoyed it had a known the ending ahead of time.

         There is a film version, with Jeremy Irons playing Charles Smithson, and Meryl Streep playing Sarah Woodruff. I have not seen it, but have heard good things. Honestly, if I can’t get my wife to sit down and watch a simple black and white four hour samurai epic in Japanese with subtitles, how realistic would it be to expect to see the French Lieutenant’s Woman?

Coming soon…Brideshead Revisited