The French Lieutenant’s Woman (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: John Fowles
- First Published: 1969
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Symbolic realism
- Time of Work: 1867-1869
- Setting: Lyme Regis, Dorset, England
- Genres: Long fiction, Antistory, Metafiction, Frame story
- Subjects: Freedom, Voyages, Tradition, Love or romance, Sex or sexuality, Nineteenth century, Art or artists, England or English people, Women’s issues, Imagination, Mysteries, Victorian era or Victorianism, Biology or biologists
- Locales: London, England, Lyme Regis, Dorset, England
Characters Discussed
Charles Smithson, the protagonist, thirty-two years old in 1867, an amateur paleontologist and a gentleman of leisure. He lives somewhat passively and complacently in the expectation of inheriting a baronetcy from his uncle and marrying the daughter of a rich middle-class businessman. He unexpectedly falls in love with the mysterious Sarah and has an affair with her that jars him out of his conventionalized view of the world. He breaks off with Ernestina, who sues him for breach of promise and ruins his reputation, only to find that Sarah has disappeared by...
[The entire page is 821 words long]
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