Tuesday, August 20, 2013

What most he should dislike seems pleasant to him;

My assumption was that The French Lieutenant's Woman would be a rather somber, perhaps even depressing novel. I figured it would be a tale of two lovers (a French Lieutenant and a woman were my guesses as to who the characters would be), who for whatever reasons would be kept apart, perhaps by war, perhaps by cultural norms of the day.

I base all of this on the title of course. And the fact the title uses a flowery font, the type one would expect to find sharing a cover with Fabio. At around 450 pages, I headed into this book with a tinge of fear, and a lot of apprehensions.

As I've read 66 books from this list and have been pleasantly surprised by more than a few, I shouldn't be going into books with any kind of expectation anymore. But I fear it is in my nature to do so, in human nature even. Happily, The French Lieutenant's Woman is turning out to be another surprise through the first 120 pages.


While it may actually turn out to be about what I had predicted, lovers kept apart for one reason or another, it is turning out to be quite upbeat, even funny at times. Long story short, it is quite a pleasant read so far.

One interesting thing about the book, is Fowles' use of an omnipotent first person narrator, writing in the 1960's (the book was written in 1969), about events in 1867. Not only is the narrator telling the story, but at times begins a conversation with the reader, explaining certain story elements or character traits by comparing them to contemporary (1960's) people or events.

But the breaking of the fourth wall is even taken a step further, as seen in Chapter 13, where the narrator talks of how an author is usually next to God, having total control of his characters. This narrator fears he as lost control of his protagonist though, explaining how in the previous chapter he had given instructions to return home, but instead there was a visit to a local park, in search of a woman. He fears his character may have become self aware. If he has, I hope it is with less dire consequences than when SkyNet did the same.


6 comments:

  1. Hmmm...interesting. Breaking the fourth wall is risky, I could see it blowing up in the author's face and it becoming cheesy. I will be interested in seeing what you have to say when you finish it. What you have written so far has definitely piqued my interest, I judged the book similarly based on the title and never had a desire to read it.

    -M

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  2. Just realized I read "The Magus" by John Fowles earlier this year. That book was okay, but I got frustrated with it at the end. "The Magus" is on the Modern Library 100 best of the 20th Century list (#93 on the editor's list and #71 on the reader's list).

    -M

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  3. The more I read of this one, the more it reminds me of "The Sot-Weed Factor." Which I mean, it's tone and feel; it isn't nearly as funny as Sot-Weed.

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  4. I have a paperback copy of The Sot Weed Factor that I have had for about a year now- it just looks so intimidating for some reason. I wish it was in ebook format, but all they have is the original book (by Ebenezer Cooke) that it was based on. I have an easier time reading ebooks, I guess because of the convenience (I have a kindle at home and at work). It took me much too long to read The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore.

    -M

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  5. The Sot-Weed Factor is definitely an intimidating one; not only for its sheer size, but also it's language and even its font! (I found the font made me think it looked boring, don't ask me why.)

    It also took a long time for me to get into it, like 200 pages. But once I had, it was a thoroughly enjoyable read.

    There is an ebook version here, but I think it might have to be read while on-line. Check it out.

    http://archive.org/details/sotweedfactor006326mbp

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  6. It looks like they might have a kindle version- I will have to see if I can get it to work. Thanks!

    -M

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