The French Lieutenant's Woman

John Fowles

Vintage, 2005 - Great Britain - 460 pages

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.

What people are saying

THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN

User Review  - Kirkus

Mr. Fowles has written a Victorian novel. An eminently Victorian novel filled with the hindsights of many of its more recent commentators (Marcus, et al) as well as his own amplifying asides as he ...

The French Lieutenant's Woman

User Review  - iheartbooks - Borders

This book was a pleasant surprise--I'd never read a John Fowles novel before, and was immediately drawn to the magic of the plot and the humor in his tone. The plot of a Victorian-era man obsessed ...

About the author

John Fowles was born in England in 1926 and educated at Bedford School and Oxford University. He won international recognition with his first published title. The Collector (1963), being immediately acclaimed as an outstandingly innovative writer of exceptional imaginative power. This reputation was confirmed with the appearance of his subsequent works, including The Magus (1966) and The French Lieutenant's Woman (1969). John Fowles died in 2005.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The French Lieutenant's Woman; Future Classics; Vintage future classics; Vintage international
• Author: John Fowles
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Vintage, 2005
• ISBN: 0099497077, 9780099497073
• Length: 460 pages