THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN
First edition of Fowles's postmodern evocation of the Victorian novel.
Very good plus in very good plus jacket.
Price: $400.00
THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN
"I have pretended to slip back into 1867; but of course that year is in reality a century past. It is futile to show optimism or pessimism, or anything else about it, because we know what has happened since."
Fowles's third published novel and one of his most influential, THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN is both an attempted replica of and a splintered postmodern experiment upon Victorian fiction and its narrative conventions. With the freedom of the far future to shift registers and let implications rest where they may ("Mr. Fowles clearly knows his Victorian pornographers," wrote one contemporary reviewer, approvingly) and the skill to mimic the absent but all-knowing 19th-century narration no longer in fashion, Fowles ultimately declines to manufacture a strict period piece: bringing in his own person as metafictional commentator, he refuses to settle the "fixed fight" of fiction in the traditional definitive manner, instead offering two endings whose order of presentation is (or so he says) determined by the flip of a coin.
The 1981 film of the novel was adapted by Harold Pinter, who added another layer of cinematic self-reference to the plot, and starred Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep in what might have been a career-making role had her career not already been made. In any case, she won an Academy Award for her troubles, in spite of Pauline Kael's grumbles about the film's glacial detachment. If this is a flaw, it is a deliberate one, and one shared by Fowles's novel, for which distance is a recurring concern: emotional, temporal, geographical distance; the distance between a novel and a novelist, the distances between people unbridged by mutual understanding.
Read more: Christopher Lehman-Haupt, "On the Third Try, Fowles Connects", The New York Times.
The Object
First printing. London: Jonathan Cape, (1969). 7.75'' x 5.5''. Original textured brown paper boards. Burgundy topstain. Pictorial endpapers by Tom Adams. In original unclipped (35s) gilt-lettered burgundy jacket. 445, [1] pages. Moderate scuffing to jacket edges and folds, minor spotting to fore-edge. Topstain dark.
The Fine Print
We work hard to meet our ethical responsibility to describe our material accurately. All items are guaranteed as described and may be returned for any reason within 30 days. Please notify us before mailing a return.
We guarantee the authenticity of our items. All materials are original (meaning not facsimiles or reproductions) unless otherwise noted. First editions (meaning first edition, first printing) are explicitly stated. TPM is a member of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America and upholds their Code of Ethics.
All photographs are of the actual item for sale. We're happy to provide additional images on request.
All domestic orders ship gratis. For orders under $250, free USPS media mail shipping is included; orders $250 and over ship USPS Ground Advantage. International orders over $1000 also ship gratis. Expedited, overnight, as well as other carriers (UPS, Fed-Ex, etc.), may carry additional costs beyond quoted rates. All orders receive tracking information and a direct contact in case of any questions.
International buyers are responsible for any customs, taxes, and related import fees. Please note that we are unable to accomodate requests to misrepresent, misdeclare, or otherwise falsify customs documents when shipping internationally. We appreciate your understanding.
We accept all major credit cards, Paypal, Venmo, check, money order, and bank wire. We are happy to bill institutional buyers' needs. Sales tax will be added to applicable purchases. Items subject to prior sale.
If for any reason you are dissatisfied with your purchase, please contact us. We prioritize our long-term relationships far above any individual purchase, and we want you to love your item as much as we loved cataloguing it.





