The French Lieutenant's Woman

VERY GOOD condition — DUST JACKET: Minor wear to top and bottom edges of spine, panels, folds and flaps. Minor chipping to laminate face at top and bottom corners of spine and all outside corners, both panels. Very light scratches across face of front panel. Small stain to upper back panel. BOARDS: Very good condition. Foot of spine soft. BOOK: Very good condition. Minor scratches to topstain. Minor stains to reverse of FFEP and LFEP. Slight lean to spine. Please inspect photos closely for condition details.

Here on offer is a very nice copy of John Fowle's 3rd novel, The French Lieutenant's Woman, a postmodern historical fiction work and the basis for the 1981 film of the same name starring Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons. This copy is a 1st UK trade edition, 1st printing published by Jonathan Cape in 1969. The dust jacket is protected from further wear by a Mylar sleeve.

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"While in Lyme Regis to visit his fiancee, Ernestina Freeman, Charles Smithson, a 32-year-old paleontologist, becomes fascinated by the mysterious Sarah Woodruff. A fallen woman said to have been jilted by a French officer, Sarah is a pariah to the well-bred society that Charles and Ernestina are a part of. While searching for fossils in a wooded coastal area, Charles encounters Sarah alone, and his curiosity and pity for her soon evolve into other emotions. It is not clear who seduces whom, but when another opportunity presents itself, Charles embraces Sarah passionately. Shortly thereafter, Sarah disappears, having been dismissed from domestic employment by the tyrannical do-gooder Mrs. Poultenay. Charles finds her in a room in Exeter, where he declares and demonstrates his love. Inspired by his image of Sarah as a valiant rebel against Victorian conventions, Charles rejects the constricting, respectable life Ernestina represents for him. He breaks off their engagement and is harassed with legal action for breach of contract. Meanwhile, Sarah vanishes again, and Charles spends 20 months scouring the world for her, finally tracing her to the lodgings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti in London."

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John Robert Fowles (31 March 1926 – 5 November 2005) was an English novelist of international renown, critically positioned between modernism and postmodernism. His work was influenced by Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, among others.

After leaving Oxford University, Fowles taught English at a school on the Greek island of Spetses, a sojourn that inspired The Magus (1965), an instant best-seller that was directly in tune with 1960s "hippy" anarchism and experimental philosophy. This was followed by The French Lieutenant's Woman (1969), a Victorian-era romance with a postmodern twist that was set in Lyme Regis, Dorset, where Fowles lived for much of his life. Later fictional works include The Ebony Tower (1974), Daniel Martin (1977), Mantissa (1982), and A Maggot (1985).

Fowles's books have been translated into many languages, and several have been adapted as films.

. . . The French Lieutenant's Woman (1969) was released to critical and popular success. It was translated into more than ten languages, and established Fowles' international reputation. It was adapted as a feature film in 1981 with a screenplay by the noted British playwright (and later Nobel laureate) Harold Pinter, and starring Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons.

The above text was taken from, respectively, Penguin Group publishing (via Google Books) and Wikipedia.