The French Lieutenant's Woman
The French Lieutenant's Woman is a 1969 novel by John Fowles. The plot, so much as the reader can follow it, concerns the love affair between a Victorian gentleman and a woman who has been jilted by a French officer, scandalizing the "polite society" of Lyme Regis.
Fowles makes his plot entertwine on itself, laying it out linearly at first, only to have it curl back on itself later with a "that was what might have happened, or maybe this is what really happened." Along the way, he discourses on Victorian customs, the theories of Charles Darwin, and the poetry of Matthew Arnold.
Film
In 1981, Hollywood undertook to make this convoluted story into a movie. Instead of trying to deal with the plot construction that Fowles had laid down, Harold Pinter, who adapted the work for the screen, decided to make his own sort of confusion. He did this by revealing a story within a story -- showing us the lives of the actors who portray Fowles's characters. The viewer frequently does not know if what he or she is seeing is the story, or the actors' lives being unfolded before us.
The movie stars Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons. It was directed by Karel Reisz. It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Meryl Streep), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.
ISBN
- ISBN 0316291161 (paperback)
Referenced By
1969 in literature | 1970 in literature | Academy Award: Best Costume Design | Academy Award for Best Actress | Academy Award for Best Costume Design | Academy Award for Costume Design | Academy Award for Film Editing | Academy Awards/Best Actress | Academy Awards/Costume Design | Harold Pinter | Jeremy Irons | John Fowles | John Robert Fowles | List of Golden Globe Awards: Film, Best Actress, Drama | List of books by title: F | Lyme Regis
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