The French Lieutenant's Woman is John Fowles' novel of love and betrayal in 1867 England. The author writes for Victorian mores of the time while, interjecting modern inventions and ideologies to act as anachronisms throughout. Fowles also uses the interesting technique of positioning himself both as narrator and as occasional character in the story.
The story begins in March 1867, as Charles Smithson and his fiancye, Ernestina Freeman, walk along an embankment called The Cobb arching into Lyme Bay in southwestern England. The narrator notes that Charles and Ernestina are dressed fashionably for the time in contrast to the dark figure of a woman leaning against a cannon staring out to sea.
As Charles and Ernestina walk back toward the village of Lyme Regis, Ernestina informs Charles that the solitary woman had.....
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