The French Lieutenant’s Woman (Masterplots, Revised Second Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: John Fowles
- First Published: 1969
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Symbolic realism
- Time of Work: 1867
- Setting: Lyme Regis, Dorset, England
- Principal Characters: Sarah Woodruff, Charles Smithson, Ernestina Freeman, Aunt Tranter, Mary, Sam, Mrs. Poulteney, Dr. Grogan, The Narrator
- 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
The Story:
Charles Smithson, a London gentleman on vacation in the South of England, went for a walk with his fiancée Ernestina Freeman on the sea ramparts in Lyme Regis on the Dorset coast. They saw a woman in a black coat and bonnet staring seaward from the very end of the quay, who, when warned of the danger, turned and gave Charles such a look of sadness that he never forgot it. He was further fascinated when Ernestina told him the story of the woman, Sarah Woodruff, who, it was rumored, had been seduced and abandoned by a shipwrecked naval officer she had nursed back to...
[The entire page is 1971 words long]
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