The French Lieutenant's Woman (Further Reading)

Further Reading

• Brantlinger, Patrick, Ian Adams, and Sheldon Rothblatt, "The French Lieutenant's Woman: A Discussion," in Victorian Studies, Vol. 15, March 1972, pp. 339 – 56.

  In their discussion of the novel, the authors conclude that all the endings suggest Charles is "left between Victorian repression and modern freedom, having lost Ernestina but not clearly having gained Sarah."

• Olshen, Barry N., John Fowles, Frederick Ungar, 1978.

  In his section on the narrative structure of the novel, Olshen rejects the first ending as "traditional, romantic wish fulfillment."

• Palmer, William, The Fiction of John Fowles: Tradition, Art, and the Loneliness of Selfhood, University of Missouri Press, 1974.

  In an examination of the novel's endings, Palmer suggests that the introduction of the child is "an anti-existentialist resolution that runs against the grain of Fowles's intentions as expressed in his own voice within this very novel."

• Rankin, Elizabeth D., "Cryptic Coloration in The French Lieutenant's Woman," in Journal of Narrative Technique, Vol. 3, September 1974, pp. 193 – 207.

  Rankin argues that the first ending should be seen as an "imperfect stage in the evolution of an existentialist," and so the second ending should be considered the novel's true conclusion.