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.
