Historical fiction book · Curated
The French Lieutenant's Woman
John Fowles · historical fiction
In 1867 Lyme Regis, gentleman-paleontologist Charles Smithson is engaged to a proper heiress when he becomes entangled with Sarah Woodruff, the outcast the town calls the French lieutenant’s woman. John Fowles’s novel is Victorian historical fiction that both inhabits a mid-century love story and lets a modern narrator question how such stories end.
Why read it: A widely searched modern classic of Victorian historical fiction—the 1969 novel (and 1981 film) readers look up by title, and a Lyme Regis counterpart to Essex marshes and Dickensian London already on the shelf.
About this historical novel
The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles is historical fiction set around 1867 in the Victorian / Gilded Age period with key settings including Lyme Regis, Dorset, London, England. In 1867 Lyme Regis, gentleman-paleontologist Charles Smithson is engaged to a proper heiress when he becomes entangled with Sarah Woodruff, the outcast the town calls the French lieutenant’s woman. John Fowles’s novel is Victorian historical fiction that both inhabits a mid-century love story and lets a modern narrator question how such stories end.
On HisFic we tag it under 1. Literary historical fiction and 2. Historical romance so you can pair it with similar story types. Recurring themes include desire, freedom, scandal, class, and storytelling. A widely searched modern classic of Victorian historical fiction—the 1969 novel (and 1981 film) readers look up by title, and a Lyme Regis counterpart to Essex marshes and Dickensian London already on the shelf.
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Plot summary
In 1867 Lyme Regis, gentleman-paleontologist Charles Smithson is engaged to a proper heiress when he becomes entangled with Sarah Woodruff, the outcast the town calls the French lieutenant’s woman. John Fowles’s novel is Victorian historical fiction that both inhabits a mid-century love story and lets a modern narrator question how such stories end. A widely searched modern classic of Victorian historical fiction—the 1969 novel (and 1981 film) readers look up by title, and a Lyme Regis counterpart to Essex marshes and Dickensian London already on the shelf.
Subgenres
Eras
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- The Age of Innocence · Edith Wharton
In 1870s Gilded Age New York, lawyer Newland Archer is days from marrying flawless May Welland when her cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska, returns from a ruined European marriage and makes the tribe’s rules visible. Wharton’s Pulitzer novel is historical fiction of old New York: opera boxes, Newport summers, and a love affair society will not permit.
- Tipping the Velvet · Sarah Waters
In the 1890s, Nancy Astley leaves the oyster parlour in Whitstable after she falls in love with the male impersonator Kitty Butler and follows her onto the London music halls. Sarah Waters’s 1998 novel is Victorian romance historical fiction of the life Nan builds when that affair breaks—under a man’s name on the streets, in a rich woman’s house in St John’s Wood, and in an East End household that asks something else of her.
- Tess of the d'Urbervilles · Thomas Hardy
When the Durbeyfields learn they may be fallen d’Urbervilles, young Tess is sent to claim kin at Trantridge—and Alec d’Urberville’s assault sends her from a Wessex dairy and a marriage to Angel Clare toward the gallows at Wintoncester. Thomas Hardy’s 1891 novel is Victorian literary historical fiction of class, purity myths, and a woman England would not forgive.
- Fingersmith · Sarah Waters
In 1862 London, pickpocket Sue Trinder is planted as a maid in a lonely Thames-side mansion to help a gentleman swindle an heiress—then the con turns inside out. Sarah Waters’s Booker-shortlisted Victorian novel is literary historical fiction of thieves, asylums, and desire, with crime-plot machinery that still startles.
- Far from the Madding Crowd · Thomas Hardy
Bathsheba Everdene inherits a Weatherbury farm and hires the shepherd Gabriel Oak, whose flock she has already seen ruined; a valentine she meant as a joke binds Farmer Boldwood to her, and Sergeant Troy marries her before the storm, Fanny Robin, and a Christmas shooting sort the three suitors. Thomas Hardy’s 1874 novel is Victorian romance historical fiction of a woman who will run her own land, and of Wessex patience against a red coat.
- Madame Bovary · Gustave Flaubert
In 1840s Normandy, Emma Rouault marries the kind country doctor Charles Bovary, then finds Yonville, motherhood, and provincial dinners too small—and spends herself on Rodolphe, on Léon in Rouen, and on silks she cannot pay for, until arsenic in the armoire ends the romance she had read about. Gustave Flaubert’s 1857 novel is Victorian literary historical fiction of a woman who wanted a different century, and of the French provincial world that would not give it to her.
Regions & places
Britain & Ireland
Lyme Regis · Dorset · London · England
Themes
- desire
- freedom
- scandal
- class
- storytelling
Tags
literary · bestseller · classic