"The French
Lieutenant's
Woman" is a
novel by John Fowles. The novel is a widely praised Victorian fiction and made into a movie starring Meryl Streep, in the title role, with Jeremy Irons.
Charles Smithson, a young Victorian paleontologist, is struck by a solitary female figure standing at the far end of the Cobb staring out to sea. The place is at Lyme Regis Cobb on the Dorset coast. The woman turns to be Sarah Woodruff, an enigmatic governess ostracized by the community for her reported liaison with a French sailor, a lieutenant, who has deserted her.
Charles is engaged to Ernestina Freeman but becomes attracted to Sarah. Eventually he becomes infatuated and the affair with her began. On the single occasion when their
relationship is consummated, he finds out Sarah is still a virgin. Charles and Ernestina's engagement is broken off.
The plot ends with a blend of both happiness and sadness for Charles in terms of his relationship with Sarah - with her physically, and psychologically, she remains to be the French Lieutenant's woman.
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