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The French Lieutenant's Woman

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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

A remarkable performance... As gripping as The Collector and The Magus' Observer

Charles Smithson, a respectable engaged man, meets Sarah Woodruff as she stands on the Cobb at Lyme Regis, staring out to sea. Charles falls in love, but Sarah is a disgraced woman, and their romance will defy all the stifling conventions of the Victorian age.

Widely acclaimed since publication, The French Lieutenant's Woman is the best-loved of John Fowles's novels.

© John Fowles 1969 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

 Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Romance

Critic reviews

A brilliant success... It is a passionate piece of writing as well as an immaculate example of storytelling
Compulsively readable
A splendid, lucid, profoundly satisfying work of art, a book which I want almost immediately to read again
Brilliant...an artist of great imaginative power
Marvellous 1969 novel... You can read this book again and again, always finding something new and always falling in love with the hapless Charles. (Val Hennessy)
The French Lieutenant’s Woman is immensely interesting, attractive and human
It has a cracking story, a real emotional heart and a good sense of humour
All stars
Most relevant
A superb reading of an incredible book. The narrator is fantastic, and will be trying other audiobooks where he has been involved. Probably my favourite combination of novel and narrator I have purchased and will revisit many times. I will be trying The Magus next.

Brilliant

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A very strange story with many references to Victorian writers and attitudes of the time.

unusual tale

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A good deep book on the human relationship of a rather unsatisfactory kind. To me it's about the contrast between the generosity of spirit of one character (Charles) and barrenness of that of the other (Sarah), of the futility of love for someone who can only need but not love and who is "afraid of knowing herself" as Sarah speaks of herself. I very much doubt that this is how the author intended the novel to be understood; and it is definitely a book that encourages one to listen to various analysis of it.
Great narration too.

Excellent book

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A postmodern take on the Victorian novel written in 1969 but set a hundred years earlier exploring the values and attitudes of the time through its characters and their internal thoughts. The mysterious and enigmatic Sarah Woodruff, (the French Lieutenant’s woman), and the gentleman Charles Smithson lead us through a moral and philosophical examination of life, the role and nature of the genders, science and religion, the known and the unknown. Really well read by the narrator and a thought provoking book.

Great book, we’ll read.

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The book itself is a classic and thoroughly deserves to be rediscovered. The reading of it could not be bettered in my opinion. What a combination!

stunning reading of a clever tale

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