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If you have read any novel by John Fowles, then you must know that you are not about to have an ordinary reading experience when you pick up one of his books. The Magus will prepare you for the author's style and the manner in his which he develops his characters and plot. This novel shouldn't be compared to the great Victorian novels. This book is a Victorian novel about a Victorian novel. The French Lieutenant's Woman explores nineteenth-century customs and at times compares them to our own. It is set in the late nineteenth century, but is narrated by Fowles in the present century. The author's novels have been called many things: strange, confusing, and even cruel, but one thing they are not is boring.The French Lieutenant's Woman is no exception to the author's style. If you've read The French Lieutenant's Woman and didn't care for it, then you probably won't enjoy The Magus, which is considered the author's masterpiece.The French Lieutenant's Woman's has all the ingredients of a typial Victorian novel: a mysterious woman, an invalid (a Victorian novel is not a Victorian novel without at least one invalid), and a marriage between an aristocratic groom and a titleless heiress where only one of the parties bears love for the other.John Fowles is a contemporary writer.
As in The Magus, Fowles toys with his characters and the readers while he decides what future awaits the protagonists. He offers more than one possible ending and even places himself in the novel as he contemplates how the novel will end.If you have never read any novel by John Fowles, I recommend that you read The Collector and The Magus first in that order. I don't think the author meant to be compared to any nineteen-century writers. I still haven't read every Fowles novel, but I'm excited to see there are still quite a few for me to discover.
He took a Victorian novel, filled it with authorial intrusions (chapter 13 anybody)., anachronisms, mockery, and it is full of irony. Well, for one, I found the basic story to be extremely boring. If you like Victorian literature, you will likely find this an entertaining read. Actually, it was written in response to a critic who said the field of literary fiction was dead and that nothing new would come from it. This story was not in my tastes at all. As if Fowles just wants to show you how much better his skills are than yours.
Ultimately, Fowles set out to do something completely original in the field of literature and fiction. It often becomes very wordy, with a lot of fluff and entire chapters of more fluff. But that is a personal choice. Why. I am all for using your writing skills to the best of your ability, but this books comes across as nothing more than show-boating at times.
Well, that is for you to decide. Fowles destroyed the boundaries of fiction writing with this book. It was written with lit majors, critics, and English professors in mind. But here is the thing, on a literary level, this is easily a 4 star, probably even 5 star book. I found it to be frustrating at best. And he accomplished it.So then, what is the problem. Fowles is writing a modern novel in a Victorian style (an odd combination for sure). This guy can throw together sentences that are just staggering.
This is not a bad book by any means. I skipped several simply because it had little to do with anything else going on. Just read the first and last paragraph and I was good to go.I suppose that the main point is that this is not a book for everybody. Fowles proved him wrong obviously. And his vocabulary is uncanny. If Victorian works are not your style, then be warned. Hey, he even places himself, as the author writing the book in the late 1960's, into the story taking place 100 years earlier. This book spent a lot of time in the NY times best seller list, which says a lot, but wow.it is a harder read than one would generally expect from a NYT best seller.Oh, and don't bother with the movie, it does not even compare to the book.
Another part was Fowles syntax and diction. If you often lookup words you are unfamiliar with, I would keep a dictionary duct taped to this book--you will need it. But you have to read it with a tongue-in-cheek style. This is a book that people should read or be generally familiar with, but I for one found it to be an average read as far as entertainment goes.
I suspect i was lulled into an unsuspecting state by trying to focus on the plot of the story, and I honestly still haven't sorted the ending out. .but go ahead and let the book blindside you for the full effect.People would ask me what I was reading, and I respond with a typical "oh, it's about a young gentleman who begins to reconsider his approaching marriage when he notices a forlorn young woman who wanders the beach, pining for her lost lover." And person who had posed the question would say "how nice." NO. This book has nothing to do the gentle, romantic, Victorian plot, setting, and mood that the author so carefully crafts before.well.you'll just have to read it to get the full effect, as I said. If there's an answer to the mystery of the French Lieutenant's woman, I completely missed it. A mind-blowing, if frustrating reading experience.
This is not a novel that everyone will enjoy. It was such a personal pleasure of mine to read this book- that I can't describe it. However for those who do, it simply pulls you in and you wish that Fowles' words would go on forever. I now think that Fowles was probably one of the smartest observers that ever lived. Let me say that I too, like Sarah, became an outcast with choice in order to go against the way things are. Read this.
This is a good book for anyone who likes self-referential fiction. It's written like a Victorian novel, but with a fantastic modern narrator who plays around with the story in places and laments how difficult it is to write novels. I recommend it particularly to anyone who has read or studied Victorian fiction.
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