The author in the story

For this month’s book club we are reading ‘The French Lieutenant’s Woman’ by John Fowles. I have read it before but a very long time ago, possibly not many years after it was published which was in 1969; it was his third novel, but the second one which I read. I read ‘The Collector’  and I can’t remember now whether it was before or after the film starring Terence Stamp and Samantha Eggar. That was a real horror story, and possibly more horrific as it in a way foreshadowed true stories of men holding young girls and women captive in cellars in more recent times. I also read ‘The Magus’ by Fowles which I thought was a truly amazing book… and would have said it was my favourite of his novels…

I would have said it before I started rereading the story of the French lieutenant Varguennes and his woman… It is taking me a while to read, not because it is long or dense or difficult, but because it is so interesting that I am really reading it very carefully and not skipping anything (as I confess I sometimes do) My memory of reading the book for the first time was my then annoyance that Fowles inserted himself as a character into the story – the novel is set in the mid-nineteenth century in the lovely town of Lyme Regis. and of course, Fowles was writing a hundred years later. This seemed such an intrusion to me that it spoiled the story….

That was then, now rereading it, and reading it as an older person and as a writer. Quite often in novels writers mention things which happen after the time in which the action is taking place – for example mentioning inventions or buildings or battles which happened at a later period. reading Fowles story now, having him comment on future events seems to enhance the story-line and to put aspects into a context which maybe a reader wouldn’t otherwise know.

I’m also interested in the fact that Fowles comments on his story as he’s writing – in the most recent example of this he talks about his characters and whether he controls them as their creator and writer or whether somehow they have a life of their own and the narrative is taken in an unexpected direction – unexpected for the writer and the reader! I was so interested to read this because I feel as if this happens with y characters, that they sometimes seem independent of me.

I am not obviously comparing myself to such a great writer, but it’s interesting now that I do write full-time, that I am seeing his book so differently, and enjoying it so much.

Here is a link to my books:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_5_6?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=lois+elsden&sprefix=lois+e%2Caps%2C225&crid=1P4RGZ0YP7RMZ

My featured image is from the Cobb in Lyme Regis where the French Lieutenant’s woman stood, but she looked out to sea not back to the town