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Content snapshot
Flag an inaccuracy →What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.
Violence
Barely any
Minimal violence
Language
Barely any
Adult language
Sexual Content
Some
Adult romantic and sexual content; an extramarital encounter depicted
Substance Use
Barely any
Some period drinking
Emotional Intensity
A lot
The postmodern frame that implicates the reader; Sarah's mysterious interior; the novel's refusal of resolution; the weight of Victorian sexual hypocrisy
What this book is about
Charles Smithson, a gentleman fossil-hunter in 1867 Lyme Regis, is engaged to the respectable Ernestina Freeman. When he encounters Sarah Woodruff—called the French Lieutenant's Woman for her alleged affair with a French sailor—he becomes obsessed. Fowles's postmodern masterpiece plays constantly with its Victorian conventions: the narrator intrudes, multiple endings are offered, and the reader is implicated in Charles's choices. A landmark of postmodern fiction that functions simultaneously as a genuine Victorian novel and a sophisticated critique of one.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
The postmodern structure deliberately unsettles the reader's expectations
Adult sexual content in the context of Victorian mores
Reader Verification
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