The French Lieutenant's Woman

Paper Summary:

This essay takes a look at John Fowle's 1969 novel, "The French Lieutenant's Woman". This is a novel set in Victorian times that features many Victorian values and mores. Yet by dissecting the novel's two main characters, this paper makes the argument that Fowle's bridges the gap between the past and modern times by infusing said characters with modern worth and values.

From the Paper:

"The old saying "Hindsight is 20/20" is applicable to no better theme than literature. As readers of literature, we are settled firmly in the present, whenever that present time might be. Yet the object with which we interact, on which we ponder and ruminate, the text, the physical book that we read, is firmly planted in its own time, whether it was written centuries ago or merely yesterday. The reader has no choice but to apply and compare his or her present circumstances, attitudes, and social mores to those present in the text, making judgments on both periods as to right or wrong, advanced or dated. Be it the bawdy and rambunctious behavior of Chaucer's travelers or the tragic and un-emancipated treatment of Twain's Jim, present values cannot help but be taken into account when understanding what was written, and what was. In his novel "The French Lieutenant's Woman"..."

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