Please post your thoughts and questions on The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles here.
Book Club Procedures
Please post your thoughts and questions on The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles here.
Book Club Procedures
~
"It is not that I am mad; it is only that my head is different from yours.”
~
I've started it. My first impression is that it is a better version of Reurn of the Native.
Do, or do not. There is no try. - Yoda
Sheesh, I need my dictionary for this book. Good Gravy!!
Do, or do not. There is no try. - Yoda
o_o
I have to read this for university next semester... is it going to be bad?
"Hear and you forget; see and you remember; do and you understand."
So far I quite like it. Still trying to figure out Sarah and Charles and if they're about to end up together or I'm just seeing things... it's kind of strange to have the author interrupt the story to tell you a thing or two, for example chapter 13... but I quite like him expmaining things with the footnotes.
I have a plan: attack!
I read it a year ago and love it, not my fave book by Fowles but a very good book indeed.
I hope death is joyful, and I hope I'll never return -Frida Khalo
If I seem insensitive to what you are going through, understand it's the way I am- Mr. Spock
Personally, I think that the unique and supreme delight lies in the certainty of doing 'evil'–and men and women know from birth that all pleasure lies in evil. - Baudelaire
how longg have we got to read this??
My mission in life is to make YOU smile
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The time has come," the Walrus said,"To talk of many things:
Forum Rules- You know you want to read 'em
|Litnet Challange status = 5/260
|currently reading
No, it's pretty good so far. It's pretty funny that all of chapter 13 is just the author talking about his characters..Originally Posted by Kiwi Shelf
Do, or do not. There is no try. - Yoda
I like this, have lots of discussion, I have to do a presentation for that class on one thing we have read. I am thinking I want to do this one... I will have a lot of people to aid me
"Hear and you forget; see and you remember; do and you understand."
I am onto Chapter 14 and got really hooked on this book. I love the sarcastic approach to the Victorian society and literati. Any thoughts on the following passage (end of Chapter 10):Also, any thoughts on the Chapter 13, when the narrator suggests that the role of novelists has changed since the Victorian Era:Charles did not know it, but in those brief poised seconds above the waiting sea, in that luminous evening silence broken only by the waves' quiet wash, the whole Victorian Age was lost. And I do not mean he had taken the wrong path.Do the writers have the freedom to shape their characters or they have to follow their lead?The novelist is still a god, since he creates (and not even the most aleatory avant-garde modern novel has managed to extirpate its author completely); what has changed is that we are no longer the gods of Victorian image, omniscient and decreeing; but in the new theological image, with freedom our first principle, not authority.
~
"It is not that I am mad; it is only that my head is different from yours.”
~
Ive just started it and I have rto say I LOVE it so far
My mission in life is to make YOU smile
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The time has come," the Walrus said,"To talk of many things:
Forum Rules- You know you want to read 'em
|Litnet Challange status = 5/260
|currently reading
Finished it. Liked it a lot! The live chat is sure going to be interesting.
I have a plan: attack!
The style of this book is the thing that always grabs me - it is written like a Victorian novel - reads almost like Hardy, or one of the Brontes at times - and is full of intricate, period detail - but then the author floors you by mentioning far more recent events - for instance, commenting that one of the characters would live until the day that Hitler invaded Poland. Genius! I love this book! - "Liked it very much. Would strongly recommend it." does not go nearly far enough - My life would be infinitely poorer in a world without it.
I've only just joined the forum, so missed the mass-reading, but in tribute to John Fowles I am re-reading it at this moment anyway - and savouring each gloriously crafted line.
Last edited by Xamonas Chegwe; 12-21-2005 at 09:24 PM.
This has been one of the best reads of the Book Club. Fowles experts builds up the story, develops the characters, always leaving the reader asking for more! XC, I agree with you that the inserts are very interesting and entertaining. I especially liked the sections he discusses the role and abilities of a writer.
And what an ending!
~
"It is not that I am mad; it is only that my head is different from yours.”
~
Someone asked for a comparison of the book and film on another thread. My humble attempt follows.
The film is probably about as good an adaptation as could have been made but falls short - as most films do - by being about 8 hours too short to do the book justice!
The book uses footnotes, anachronisms and blatant references to remind the reader that they are reading a book and that the events taking place are not real. This gives a surreal edge to what is basically a fairly straightforward, (albeit, beautifully crafted) tragic, love story.
The film can't employ any of these methods (not without a more or less constant voiceover - which would have been too annoying) and so a completely different approach to the same end is employed. The story within a story gives the same sense of detatchment as the book quite cleverly. It's impossible to forget that Charles & Sarah aren't real people (and, through extension, that the "actors", Mike & Anna, aren't real either) even though everything you expect of a film cries out for suspension of disbelief.
It was very bold of John Fowles to write his book in this way and equally bold of the films director & writer to find their own route to the same place. I would love to know whether the idea for the films style came from Pinter or Karel Reisz, the director.
Please read the book. It is a true modern classic - a very overworked term but justified in this case.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote