the french lieutenant is woman

Widely acclaimed since publication, John Fowles’ most beloved novel is the ultimate epic historical romance.

Charles Smithson, a respectable engaged man, meets Sarah Woodruff as she stands on the Cobb at Lyme Regis, staring out to sea. Charles falls in love, but Sarah is a disgraced woman, and their romance will defy all the stifling conventions of the Victorian age.

Review

A brilliant success… It is a passionate piece of writing as well as an immaculate example of storytelling ― Financial Times

Compulsively readable ― Irish Times

A splendid, lucid, profoundly satisfying work of art, a book which I want almost immediately to read again ― New Statesman

Brilliant…an artist of great imaginative power ― Sunday Times

Marvellous 1969 novel… You can read this book again and again, always finding something new and always falling in love with the hapless Charles. — Val Hennessy ― Daily Mail

About the Author

John Fowles was born in 1926. He won international recognition with The Collector, his first published title, in 1963. He was immediately acclaimed as an outstandingly innovative writer of exceptional imaginative power, and this reputation was confirmed with the appearance of his subsequent works: The Aristos, The Magus, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, The Ebony Tower, Daniel Martin, Mantissa, and A Maggot. John Fowles died in Lyme Regis in 2005. Two volumes of his Journals have recently been published; the first in 2003, the second in 2006.