John Fowles, The French Lieutenant's Woman

William Stephenson (University of Chester)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Kerry Myler (Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1969

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Metafiction
Novel

Resources

The composition of The French Lieutenant's Woman began suddenly in 1967 when John Fowles, then already the author of two best-sellers, The Collector (1963) and The Magus (1966), was working on another novel. Fowles found that his imagination was haunted by the recurring image of a mysterious woman standing on the end of a quay and looking out to sea. The image was so powerful that Fowles abandoned the novel he was working on. He evolved the woman into Sarah Woodruff, a penniless Victorian ex-governess. She begins the novel standing on the harbour breakwater at Lyme Regis, Dorset, looking out to sea in 1867, exactly a century before the novel was composed. The locals say that Sarah is pining for her lover. Known as �…

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2251 words

Citation: Stephenson, William. "The French Lieutenant's Woman". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 October 2002 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=796, accessed 26 November 2024.]

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